The purpose of the Teacher for a Day exercise it to allow graduate students to explore a topic related to Web Studies in more detail, to prepare a mini lesson for other students in the class, and to provide feedback. “Teachers” will select media on a topic, develop a commentary, and provide feedback to other students for this exercise.
A maximum of three students will create lessons each week, and all other students (including the other teachers for a day) are required to complete that lesson, by studying the commentary, media, and posting to the class discussion board.
Students must prepare the lesson one week before the lesson due date. A table below lists the relevant dates for each of the teacher for a day weeks.
For this class, we can think of Web Studies as: “The study of the World Wide Web as it relates to behavior, culture, and/or society.” Topics that fit in this broad area, and don’t completely replicate a topic presented in the earlier lessons, are appropriate for this class.
It is intended that these topics will be more specific/focused than the general topics covered at the beginning of the semester.
Some ideas for finding topics:
The lesson should consist of media, a commentary, and a question. To determine the correct length/amount of information for these components of your lesson, keep in mind that students will be doing three lessons each week, so it's important that your lesson should take approximately one hour for the student to review your commentary and media, and answer the question on the class discussion board.
The media you select should consist of video, audio, or text, and should relate to your topic. The media should be engaging and interesting. Although rich media like video is generally more engaging, and can provide more context than audio or text; it's most important that your media is relevant to your topic. There should generally be just one media item (e.g., a video, audio clip, or text article), unless the items are particularly brief. (Keep in mind the 1 hour rule).
The commentary can be in text, audio, or video. In this commentary you should summarize the important aspects of your topic. The commentary should be in your own words and should include references to sources you used, if appropriate. For video or audio you can place the files on the web somewhere for students to view, or you can send the file to me and I will place it on blackboard (so only students in class will have access). If you do a text commentary, just include it on your lesson wiki page (more on that below). Again, as for commentary length, keep in mind the one hour rule.
You should create one question for your lesson that students will address via the class discussion board. This question can consist of multiple parts, but remember the one hour rule and the character limits on answers to questions. The question should be broad and open ended enough to generate some thoughtful discussion. One strategy would be to have the student carry out some activity on the web related to your topic and to describe their experience.
Once you've created your commentary and question, and selected your media, you should put this information on your Teacher for a Day wiki page that I created. You can find those here.
Edit the page by clicking the edit tab. It should be set up so that only you can edit the page (if you've logged in with your email address).
You can format the page however you want so long as it includes: 1) A link to the media; 2) Your commentary or a link to your commentary; and 3) Your question.
On the assignment posting date I will create a link to your wiki page on blackboard, and will set up a discussion thread for students to answer your question.
One week after your lesson is posted, students' responses on the discussion board are due.
You should review students answers and provide feedback; again in the form of a video, audio, or text response. In this feedback you should include some reference to student responses, and your own comments on student responses. If it is in the form of video or audio it should be no longer than 10 minutes, and if it is text it should be no more than two or three typed pages.
Submit your feedback to me via the blackboard assignment tool by one week after the assignment is due (see table below for specific dates). (I will post the feedback for all students to see inside blackboard.)
Grading will be based on the following:
|
Week
|
Teachers | Wiki Page Due | Feedback Due |
|
1
|
Laukik Bhandari |
Oct 25
|
Nov 8
|
| William McKellips | |||
| Aneela Jakka | |||
|
2
|
Tejas Sarangdhar |
Nov 1
|
Nov 15
|
| Juned Kazi | |||
| Damadar Baddipadiga | |||
|
3
|
Anusha Uppalanchi |
Nov 8
|
Nov 22
|
| Amol Navare | |||
| Shiv Nadikuda | |||
|
4
|
Wesley Livesay |
Nov 15
|
Nov 29
|
| Vikram Annambhotla | |||
| Ryan Haney | |||
|
5
|
Tara Dudney |
Nov 22
|
Dec 6
|
| Bret Grinde | |||
| Tory Cheatham | |||
|
6
|
Sarah Richmond |
Nov 29
|
Dec 13
|
| Chen Su | |||
|
7
|
Michael Colburne |
Dec 6
|
Dec 16
|
| Ashley Moore | |||
| Raja Modugu | |||
| Ameya Karekar |