IS4425: Course Schedule

This syllabus will change as the semester unfolds. Print at your own peril!

Tuesday, September 5 Bring a laptop if you have one! If you don’t have one, check one out using your student ID at the Lamson Library circulation desk.

    • Getting to know each other!
    • Intro & Expectations: A Learner-Driven, Connected Curriculum
    • Make sure you:
      • have an ePort. It needs to have an About page with a photo of some sort, a blog page for posting work, and a license (I recommend a Creative Commons license). It should have social media sharing buttons on the blog section of the site. Here’s some more info about Creative Commons licenses if you are new to them:

Wanna Work Together? from Creative Commons on Vimeo.

  • have a Twitter account at https://twitter.com and add a bio and profile photo.  Send a test tweet and use the course hashtag, #IDSsem. Follow our program account: @PlymouthIDS.  My Twitter handle is @actualham. The program hashtag is #PlymouthIDS. If you prefer an alternate PLN plan besides Twitter, please propose it! If you do not create an alternate PLN plan, then add a Twitter widget to your ePort. On Twitter, you should focus on:
    • Following 1-10 new academic and professional–acaprof–accounts per day
    • A minimum of 1 simple acaprof retweet a day
    • A minimum of 1 quoted retweet a day
    • A minimum of 1 reply a day
    • A minimum of 1 acaprof tweet of your own per day
    • 1-10 favorites per day
    • Active use of the #IDSsem hashtag
    • Active use of acaprof hashtags
    • Use of helpful apps (Twitter for mobile; Tweetdeck; etc)
    • 5 days a week (minimum) of this tweeting. 10 minutes a day or so.
  • Alternative plans could include:
    • Trying to grow an open-source community on a noncommercial platform like Mastodon.social. (Why? Because you don’t trust the for-profit motivations at Twitter to help you steward an acaprof network; because you enjoy developing new technologies and building new public tech architectures for the future.)
    • Regularly reading and blogging about print journals and sharing those blog posts with the authors, orgs, and readers of those journals where possible. (Why? Because you have one or two acaprof journals that you think are really helpful and you are willing to subscribe to them or access them daily to read and take notes, and you like more in-depth reaction rather than the brevity of Twitter.)
    • Subscribing to 10-15 acaprof blogs and posting comments on them, and blogging about what you learn and sharing those posts back to the comments (Why? Because you enjoy collating websites and prefer to receive your news as targeted posts from a small cohort rather than as a constant stream, and because you enjoy commenting more than simple retweets or annotated retweets; because you enjoy having more control over the algorithms that deliver your news to your feed.)
    • Attending at least 3 webinars a month and 1 or more acaprof conferences a year and blogging about them and sharing those blogs with the participants (Why? Because you enjoy more in-depth and face-to-face interactions with people; because you would rather learn from “live” colleagues instead of from browsing through text or links.)
    • Using some other process to slowly and deliberately build an acaprof community from which you can learn on a near-daily basis and TO WHICH YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE every week. Anything is fine, but come confer with me!
  • have a Hypothes.is account. You can use an alias if you prefer more anonymity.
  • JOIN our Facebook page now for announcements, fun links, job offers, etc. You are encouraged to do this ONLY if you already have a Facebook account.
  • have logged your Twitter handle, Hypothes.is username, and ePort URL to our spreadsheet. If you are doing an alternate PLN, please just put N/A (or add other relevant links).
  • If you need help with any of this, attend our special IDS Open Hours on Mondays (5-9pm) in Lamson 003.  You can also get help at the IDS office in Lamson 003 anytime they are open:
    • M-F 8:30am-5pm
    • The office phone number is (603) 535-2510

*****THERE IS A SPECIAL SESSION FOR IS4425 STUDENTS TO GET ePORT HELP: THURSDAY, 3-4pm IN LAMSON 003.*****

Tuesday, September 12  Laptops Required At All Classes

  • Check the list of work for 9/5 above and make sure you have it all complete by 5pm today.
  • POST TO ePORT: Make sure your IDS Application Essay is posted on your ePort (you can dress it up with hyperlinks and properly-cited images if you want). Log it on our spreadsheet, and tweet the link to it to our hashtag (#IDSsem).
  • PLN: You are a week into your PLN development. Please note that you will not be reminded of this again! We will talk about the PLN development tonight in class so that you are clear, so don’t worry too much if you wobbled this first week.
  • In class, we will talk about the research article (RA), the applied project (AP), the summary synthesis, and your final presentation.

Tuesday, September 19

  • Read
    • The Big Terms
    • FRUIT
    • Concepts for DOING Interdisciplinarity
    • Content, Methods, Epistemologies
    • These are all in the “Terms and Concepts” section of our textbook; annotate each with Hypothes.is. If you need help using Hypothes.is, swing by our IDS office!
  • Comment on the IDS Essays of one or two of your classmates. Explore what you find most inspiring and/or compelling about their program. Using our course hashtag (#IDSsem), tweet out any programs that you think are really exciting or interesting, with a (very, very) brief, tweetable explanation about why the post is worth reading.
  • Post on your ePort, in a single post:
    • Brainstorm five ideas for your research article, and explain why each one is interesting to you and worthwhile for your field or your community. Explore what you think would be the major challenges of each idea. List the key disciplines that contribute research to each idea (make sure each idea has at LEAST two distinct disciplines).  Make sure your five ideas are all at least loosely related to your major.
    • In the same post, brainstorm five ideas for your applied project, and explain why each one is interesting to you and worthwhile for your field or your community. Explore what you think would be the major challenges of each idea. Make sure your five ideas are all at least loosely related to your major.
    • Make sure you log the link to your post on our spreadsheet. Make sure your link is not to your ePort, but to THIS POST in particular, and make sure it does not have “wp-admin” in the URL, since that is your editing screen, not the actual post. If you need help creating a post, swing by our IDS office!
    • Tweet your post to our hashtag when you’re done.  If you need help with Twitter, swing by our IDS office! When you tweet, try not to do this:Screen Shot 2017-01-15 at 5.10.05 PMInstead, try something like this:Screen Shot 2017-01-15 at 5.11.41 PM

Tuesday, September 26

  • Comment on the article/project posts of at least two of your classmates.  Offer feedback on which ideas seem most exciting, which ones seem most do-able and/or challenging, etc.  Offer helpful resources or problem-solving tips if you have them. Using our course hashtags, tweet out any posts you read that you think are really exciting or interesting.
  • Select a research article topic and applied project and come ready to discuss them both in class.
  • In class: testing our knowledge and understanding on the big terms and concepts from last week.
  • In class: writing the prospectuses and getting started with your work.

Tuesday, October 3

Tuesday, October 10 NO IN-CLASS MEETING

  • Comment on at least two of the Prospectus posts by your classmates.  Make sure your comments are robust and engaged. Get the links from our spreadsheet.
  • RA: Begin Literature Search.  This is the research that will be the backbone of your research article. You need to create a chart that includes the citation info for each source, the main discipline from which the source draws, the focus of the insight from the source (ie- what is the main useful concept or info that the source contributes), and  your evaluation of the insight (ie- how helpful will the source be to you and where/how you might use it in your paper).  You can make this chart digitally or on paper in a notebook, whichever you prefer.  You may add other columns to the chart if you wish (for example, useful quotes from the source).  This chart is what you will be graded on for the Lit Search part of your RA.
    • Your texts will ultimately need to draw from a minimum of 3 disciplines, but no maximum!
    • Read 2 articles, take notes, and fill in chart.
    •  Make sure you have ordered at least one book from Interlibrary Loan.  Find it on Amazon, and then check the Lamson online catalog to make sure we don’t own it before you order it!
  • Read “Why Openness in Education?” in our textbook, and annotate with Hypothes.is.
  • Start your projects if you haven’t already! Progress according to your own timeline.

Tuesday, October 17

  • Continue with Lit Search (as always!). Progress on RA according to your own timeline.
  • PLN Post Due: A PLN post has two parts:
    • 1) write about something that contributes something worthwhile to your Personal Learning Network (a new idea, a summary of an article or news report, a set of questions about new research, a note about something new you learned in a class, a review of a relevant film, or literally an infinite number of other ideas– just stay focused on your acaprof community, cite your sources, be detailed and specific, write clearly and with personality, and use openly-licensed or original images in your post);
    • 2) share your post with your PLN and solicit their feedback and collaboration.
    • Make sure you post your link on our spreadsheet, and make sure you post includes an image (required) and relevant hotlinks (where helpful) and/or citations.

Tuesday, October 24 

  • Review resources in Career Corner on Moodle
  • Draft your resume and bring it to class (print-out or on laptop ok)
  • Career Services Visit. Topics to be covered:
    • Job Search Strategies
    • Organization Research
    • Professional Documentation
    • Interview Preparation
    • Networking Strategies
  • PLN Post Due
  • Reminder: you should be very far along into your Lit Search by now, with many sources added to your chart. You should also have a solid outline for your RA. You should be well into your AP. You should be tweeting every day and working on your PLN. You won’t be reminded of these things regularly!
  • In class: concept mapping

Tuesday, October 31 NO IN-CLASS MEETING

  • PLN Post Due by 7:30pm
  • Outline for RA due. Use your concept map, lit search, and prospectus to inform your work on this. Add detail such as notes, quotes, topic sentences, sources, etc. as desired.

Tuesday, November 7

  • PLN Post Due
  • Make use of Open Hours for focused study time on your RA and AP. Note that draft deadlines start in JUST TWO WEEKS.
  • Class time tonight is required, and will be 2.5 hours of silent work on your RA. Please bring your outline, notes and whatever else you need to work. Feel free to bring headphones for music, snacks, coffee, etc if that helps you focus. We will take a 5 minute break in the middle of class. The RA rubric is here.

Tuesday, November 14 NO IN-CLASS MEETING

  • Make use of Open Hours for focused study time on your RA and AP. Note that draft deadlines start in JUST ONE WEEK.

Tuesday, November 21

  • RA workshop: post draft to ePort before class. The RA rubric is here.
  • Bring your Lit Search materials to class to show me or send them to me via email before class.
  • In class: we will use this Workshop Worksheet.

Tuesday, November 28

  • In-class activity: curation for textbook.
  • AP workshop: post complete draft to ePort before class. The AP rubric is here. Here is the document you will need during class for this workshop: Applied Project WORKSHOP
  • If you don’t have a greenlight for your Lit Search yet, please make sure to show it to me in class to get that taken care of!

Tuesday, December 5 NO IN-CLASS MEETING

  • PLN Post Due by 7:30pm

Monday, December 11 at 9pm ALL OUTSTANDING GREENLIGHT ASSIGNMENTS DUE

Tuesday, December 12

    • Your AP is due by 5pm (EXTENDED TO 7:30PM FOR SNOW DAY) to your ePort. The AP rubric is here.
    • Your RA is due by 5pm (EXTENDED TO 7:30PM FOR SNOW DAY) to your ePort. Don’t forget to visit the Writing Center in Lamson! The RA rubric is here.
    • The spreadsheet is here.

Sunday, December 17

    • Your Summary Synthesis is due by 9pm to your ePort. It should do the following:
      • Explain your IDS major’s general focus.
      • Explain your AP, including why you decided to do it and how it contributed to your education.
      • Explain your RA, including why you decided to choose that topic and how it contributed to your education.
      • A conclusion explaining how the AP and RA, together with your program courses and experiences as an IDS major, impacted or will impact your education, your life, and/or your future.
      • Reminders for Synthesis: It must include hotlinks to your IDS Essay, your RA, and your AP, among others. It must include images. Post your link to our spreadsheet.
    • Your PLN Portfolio is due by 9pm to your ePort. It should be posted on your ePort and include a brief definition of a PLN as you see it, a description of how you built yours, and a link to your Storify (or alternative portfolio). UPDATE: Crap! Looks like they just stopped allowing new accounts at Storify! Guess you will just have to talk about your PLN and screenshot or embed a few tweets as examples if you haven’t done this already. BOO! Maybe try a Tweetdeck Collection. Or my friend, Alan, suggests a simple idea: WordPress autoembed; check it out here and click on WordPress Autoembed for simple instructions. Basically, just write a post and explain the whats and whys of your PLN and try to give examples. ARGH!

Final Exam is Tuesday, 12/19, 6:30-9pm in Frost Academic Commons.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *