So my Writing I class is beginning their semester-long arc on “connectivity” by doing a little brainstorming. The assignment goes as follows:
Short Project 1 gives you the opportunity to present your ideas through Prezi presentation software or something similar. For the presentation, you should use Prezi, Storify, Pinterest, Popplet, PowerPoint, Keynote, or other mind-mapping software like FreeMind to briefly lay out the ideas you’re working on for the long projects. You should prepare at least three ideas (no more than five), using the software. Each idea should link various materials (text, graphics, video, sound) so that the viewers get a better idea of what you’re thinking about and how the material stretches across a host of media.
After you have put together a draft of your presentation, read through it aloud as if you are presenting. Your presentation shouldn’t be more than five minutes, nor less than four.
Keep in mind that your presentation (especially Prezis) will have to be viewed online. This means a link. Once finished, be sure to post the address to the assignment link so it can be easily viewed. If you do a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, convert the file to a PDF. PowerPoints are very large–not that portable. PDFs are small and everyone can open and see them. You can convert to PDF in the program, just like with Word.
Some people have emailed because they are not sure what to do. I hope the following helps. You’ve all done brainstorming before. Think of this as the same thing, only far more useful than the webby graphs you drew on the whiteboard in the past. This will link ideas and sources together too, only this time you can gather up real sources and access them from the “presentation” you create. Another thing to remember is that I’ve built feedback into the assignment. What you produce by tomorrow will get feedback from me and your fellow class members through the Moodle workshop module, so go ahead! give it a try.
For some, coming up with ideas or even knowing where to look to come up with an idea may be the problem. In case you need jumpstarting, here are two ideas I came up with by reading my Google Reader this morning, why Foursquare isn’t that silly after all and Will Richardson’s eureka moment about reading the Kindle and research notes. I have other ideas like this that are worth investigating and I give them in this previous post. I think I will go with Richardson’s eureka moment (my term, not his) because I know I’ve written about this before and find it interesting. I will have to do two others at least, but this will be my start. Next up (later today): I will brainstorm this idea in a model for how this assignment could work and either link or embed it here. I will also tell you my process for doing it and how long it took.
Lanette Cadle 