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Consolidation Unit Studio / Guidance for the Final Reflective Letter

Work to have done: Post a preview (at least one new commit) toward your consolidation unit project, based on your task list from last time.

Plan for the day:

  1. Reminder about portfolio contents; guiding questions for final reflection
  2. Studio (45-60 min)
  3. HW: Carry On!

Reminder and Guiding Questions

As we have for each individual unit, for the final portfolio I’m asking you to write reflectively about the course and your work in it, crystalizing what you’ve learned – and how you will go on learning – about composing digital media.

Click to expand a reminder of the portfolio contents
The final portfolio itself will consist of a single post on the issue queue (thread now live!), containing:
  • a prose reflection of at least 800-1200 words (1200-1800 recommended), reflecting on the course and framing the portfolio’s contents in terms of your learning and goals;
  • representative thumbnails, hyperlinked to final rendered versions of your four unit projects, i.e. Soundscape Narrative (.mp3), Visual Argument (.png or .jpg), Website (live url or index.html), and Consolidation (ymmv);
  • links to your repositories for each of those pieces; and
  • a thumbnail image of at least one specific prior draft, allowing you to talk about your revision skills. I feel like it might help to link this thumbnail to a specific commit in the revision history, but it's probably not essential.
As with previous reflections, I encourage you to include these screenshots and thumbnails wherever they make the most sense, rather than feeling like they need to be segregated from the rest of your thoughts.

About that final reflection…

This can be written informally, like the others. The goal is less a restatement of what you’ve already written than an opportunity to think synthetically, across units and into the future. The reflection will have two parts, or aspects, though you can mix them or move back and forth:

  1. The first is an articulation of your learning in the class, focused more on transferable skills than individual tools.

  2. The second part is a brief introduction to the specific projects in your portfolio, calling attention to features of these multimodal texts that you hope will illustrate, clarify, or provide evidence for your claims in the first part.

The two parts should work together, binding the abstract to the concrete and vice versa.

The questions below are meant to help you develop your thoughts toward that first aspect, in part through consideration of the second. While you need not answer these questions separately, or in strict order, I do hope you will endeavor to answer them all.

Guiding questions for the end-of-term reflection

  1. What advice or ideas have been most helpful to your thinking about composing, about digital environments or tools, about mediation? In other words, what do you most want to remember for future digital composition?

    These may come from comments on your own projects, discussions of your classmates' work, office hour or class-time conversations, or assigned readings.

  2. When you look back at the unit goals and overall course outcomes, where do you feel you’ve been most successful? The most challenged? If something’s held you back, how might you get around that barrier? (Or would you change the goal for yourself?)

    Note that this is another way of asking a common end-of-term question: what do you see as the strengths of the work you've done for this course, and what are the areas in which you feel you’ve most improved?

    Make specific references to projects or revisions.

  3. What, if anything, surprised you during the course? Now that you’ve seen how it all pans out, are there any suggestions you’d make for a revision in the course structure or assignments? (I update my syllabi every time, so your feedback is truly welcome!)

  4. Moving forward, what are your plans for continuing to develop your digital media skills? Will you continue working on any of these projects, in other classes or outside class?

NB: If at any point you’re tempted to say "all of it" (or “none,” though I hope that’s not true), that’s a fine start, but then prioritize: name something specific and concrete, even if it's just one example, so it's written somewhere you’ll be able to find it later.

Should you want it, I have a handout summing up the above information, including the guiding questions for reflection and a checklist for submitting the final portfolio.
Have questions about all that? You're probably not alone! If you can't ask during synchronous class time, why not create a new post on the issue queue? Then I can respond where everyone can see it.

Studio

This is where I expect we’ll spend the bulk of today’s synchronous time. As usual, please…

  1. Write your goals in the google doc
  2. Save five minutes at the end to leave an exit note to report on progress and re-set goals for moving forward.

To accommodate the Zoom format, I’ve created some free-access breakout rooms for finding each other, which you should be able to move freely among. I’ll hang out in the main room unless people need one-on-one time (when we can go to an extra room set aside for that purpose).

For next time

  • Set yourself some deadlines: what are you trying to finish by Tuesday? By Thursday (our last class)?
    • Will you continue beyond that for Sunday, knowing the final portfolio is due soon thereafter (on Thursday, 4/28 at 2pm)?
    • NB: I have portfolios due for another class on Friday, and grades due the following Wednesday, so if you’re feeling up to turning in early, that’s cool by me.
  • Document your progress as you go! Screenshot, save, commit (or otherwise log changes), push.
  • If you haven’t yet done so, please do the Ford reading and commit history activity from last week
  • Have you also considered reading back through the lesson plans for scaffolding exercises and revision advice?