Research Collective Project

Our first major assignment will be an ongoing research project. You will begin by working with a small group of researchers in the class who are interested in researching the same general topic as you. Your group will share and discuss the research you gather and then decide how best to use that research to your advantage as educators. You will then have the option of developing your research into a single group project or developing that research into individual projects.

After your group has gathered and discussed the relevant research, you may choose to write a collaborative article, wiki, video or podcast, website, professional development event, workshop, proposal, or conference panel about your issue and present your work (in progress) to the class in an online forum (or during the Festival of Writers). Or your group may choose to work individually to develop individual articles, wikis, videos or podcasts, websites, professional development events, workshops, proposals, or conference papers about your issue and present your work (in progress) to the class in an online forum at the end of the semester (or during the Festival of Writers).

We will not have an official peer review of these research projects until Week Fourteen, but I will conference with your group before then, and you will provide the class with regular updates on your research (dates will be announced). Note that you can get research assistance from a university librarian who will work with you one-on-one to gather resources. You can also find help with technology-related issues (for digital storytelling, video-editing, wiki, and podcast projects) in the Student Technology Center (STC) in the basement of the OC. The STC will also loan video cameras, digital cameras, and flip cameras. If you need to borrow a microphone or audio-recording device, the Writing and Rhetoric Department will let me loan these to undergraduates for a few hours at a time (first-year writing instructors may check them out at any time).

We will also have two face-to-face technology workshops during this time when I will introduce you to some of the software your group (or you alone) might choose to use should you develop a multimodal research project.

Possible topics to research:

• access
• collaboration
• policing
• assessment
• working with students with disabilities online
• plagiarism
• privacy
• Fair Use
• training
• visual literacies
• technical literacies

Goals of this project:

• Work collaboratively online to share and discuss research related to your individual interests as a teacher or future teacher of writing with new media.
  
• Explore, use, and evaluate the collaborative software, research databases, and research support technologies that will help you to become a more effective online researcher.
• Explore, learn, and evaluate various tools for new media composition and use one (or more of those tools) to develop your research project.
• Use class time to conduct an extended research project that either expands on issues raised in the class or that explores issues not examined in our class.
• Use class time to develop a meaningful project, tool, conference paper, website, grant proposal, etc. that will continue to serve your work as a teacher or future teacher of writing with new media when you leave this class.

The process:

1. We will begin by brainstorming some possible topics using a VoiceThread.
2. You will be grouped according to your expressed interest in a general topic and you will work with that group throughout most of the semester to research and discuss your group's topic.
3. You will decide whether to pursue a single group project or a series of individual projects using the research your group has gathered and discussed.
4. You will develop and peer review your projects with the class.
5. You will present your project to the class and/or at the Festival of Writers.

Expectations of this assignment:

• You will be expected to contribute relevant research to your group and to contribute to discussions about the research your group members provide.
• You will be expected to explore various types of software that will facilitate your research and project development.
• You will be expected to determine the best means of using/sharing/developing your research into a meaningful (to you, to students, and/or to colleagues) project.
• You will be expected to submit a "nearly finished" project draft at the end of the semester. The length, style, forum, and medium of the project will be determined by you, but your project should illustrate both your significant engagement with the research topic and your attempt to make an important contribution to your own teaching, to student learning, or to professional conversations/development. In other words, a research paper would probably not be sufficient for this assignment, but a conference proposal, grant proposal, instructive wiki, or website would be.