Assignments

Key Assessment Dates

It is essential that you submit your work in a timely fashion in this unit of study, so that you are able to maximise the advantages provided to you of feedback and advice, especially for Assignment One, and so that you can proceed successfully through the preparation for, participation in, and reflection on the online conference that is the single central feature of your learning experience. Submission deadlines are strictly enforced unless you apply in time to receive an extension and have appropriate reasons for that request. Remember: you are participating in a real Internet event which has a specific time-frame. This event determines the timing of, and strict requirement for, assignment completion.

Monday 2 April: Online Conference Paper (Assignment 1) is due
Monday 16 April: Online Conference Paper (Assignment 1) returned with feedback for improvement
Monday 23 April: Online Conference Paper (Assignment 1) finalised and uploaded for conference commencement

Friday 18 May: Conference Participation Assessment (Assignment 2) is due
Friday 25 May: Conference Participation Assessment (Assignment 2) returned

Monday 28 May: Review of learning (Assignment 3) is due
Monday 11 June: Review of learning (Assignment 3) is returned

Week 14

--

--

--

Review of learning (A.3) Monday

Week 13

Stage 6: Review what you have learned. Look at the readings and think about how they explain what you are studying. Revisit the Wikipedia entry for virtual communities and use that as a focus to see how much you have learned


Discussion of getting the final review completed: how to; what; and does Wikipedia get it right?


Does Wikipedia get it right? Focusing on your learning review and reflections on the unit.


Participation returned Friday

Week 12

Conclusion and review of learning (weeks 12/13)
In this final stage, you start to turn away from collective work, collaborating, sharing and discussing, and think about what you, individually, have learned. Using some selected reading material on broader themes and ideas relating to communities and networks, you will work specifically on your own Review of learning which is due on Monday of Week 14. (20 hours)


Stage 6: Review what you have learned. Look at the readings and think about how they explain what you are studying. Revisit the Wikipedia entry for virtual communities and use that as a focus to see how much you have learned (also week 13)


Move to looking at the readings for the final stage - read and comment as they relate to your learning review.


Questions to assist your learning review, based on the readings.


Participation Assessment (A.2) Friday

Week 11

Stage 5: Select papers from other students to read that interest you; learn from them Comment constructively on others' papers and add what you can to everyone's knowledge. Reply to comments about your own papers. Complete a self assessment of participation

Make contributions to the conference, not in online discussion forums

No Class - do it online!

Preparation for the final assignment due on Monday Week 14


Reading:

Wellman, Barry (2001).Physical Place & Cyberplace: The Rise of Personalized Networking

I have read a lot over the past two months, but nothing attracted me more than this reading. What fascinates me most about it is that it leaves me with a feeling of loneliness and isolation.

Wellman wrote this essay in 2001. Now, 11 years later things have dramatically changed. But Wellman has predicted a lot of developments rightly.

It never dawned on me that the biggest transition between the landline phone and the mobile phone was not so much that you din't have to connect it to a socket in the wall. Even more important, the mobile phone was geographically disconnected. A landline phone connected communities (households), being located in a geographically identifiable spot. Calling a landline phone you could never be sure who picked it up. A mobile phone is personalised. If someone calls, it is not to connect with a community, it is always about the individual - me. Basically the same thing happens online. Rather than having someone call us, we connect with our online-ID and its many personifications, spread across many Social Networking Services to find out who connected with us. Obviously our hunger for attention is insaturable. We can't get enough of it and the Web is a perfect place to celebrate ourselves.

But until today this never troubled me, until I read the following in the first paragraph of the chapter, "The Rise of Networked Individualism":

Moving around with a mobile phone made me almost completely independent of place. It was I-alone that was reachable where I was: at a house, hotel, office, freeway or mall. Place did not matter, the person did. The person has become the portal.

The situation resembles the experience that can be made online. It doesn't matter where I am or what time it is, I can connect when I want to by means of my online IDs with my tight relations.

But both mobile phone and the Web cannot make up for the physical attention we need as much as intellectual attention.

More and more people spend more time of their life online or with their mobile phone than with real people. Will we sacrifice bodily sensations for the sake of audio-visual personal attention? Is it of higher value to experience a large virtual audience than experiencing taste, smell and tactile sensations in a world we can emerge ourselves in?

Will real life matter anymore when we replace emotional human interaction with artificial replacements? I fear that becoming the portal will result in becoming a device.
---

Week 10

Stage 5: Select papers from other students to read that interest you; learn from them Comment constructively on others' papers and add what you can to everyone's knowledge.  Reply to comments about your own papers. Complete a self assessment of participation (also week 11)


Make contributions to the conference, not in online discussion forums


No Class - do it online!


---

Week 9

 Participating in the conference (weeks 9-11)

These three weeks are the highlight of the study period where you and all your colleagues will participate in the online conference. You will select papers to read which interest you; you will think about how they differ from your own, or make similar points; you will comment on others' papers constructively and add what you can to everyone's knowledge. You will, towards the end, also reply to comments about your own papers. In the last couple of days, you will complete an assessment of your own participation and submit it by Friday of Week 12. (30 hours)

Stage 5: Select papers from other students to read that interest you; learn from them Comment constructively on others' papers and add what you can to everyone's knowledge.  Reply to comments about your own papers. Complete a self assessment of participation (also week 10/11)


Make contributions to the conference, not in online discussion forums


No Class - do it online!


Conference Paper (A.1) Monday

Week 8

Stage 4: First of all, work out how to participate (commenting, linking, networking) Then move quickly to revise paper based on feedback and get it uploaded to conference site


Focus on rivising your paper and getting it ready for final submission and uploading to the conference site


How to revise and improve your paper based on feedback


Conference Paper returned Monday

Week 7

Stage 4: First of all, work out how to participate (commenting, linking, networking) Then move quickly to revise paper based on feedback and get it uploaded to conference site (also week 8)


Discuss participation in the conference : individual and collective goals; Ask questions and get help with revisions of paper


Tuition Free Week


---

Week 6

Preparing for the conference (weeks 6-8)

While we are gathering our feedback on your paper in the two weeks here, you and fellow students need to discuss in detail how, practically, you are going to make this a successful conference, focusing on both the best ways you can participate, and how you can attract appropriate interested participants from elsewhere. Your second task, in the final week, is to revise and finalise your paper ready for the conference. Your final conference paper must submitted through Blackboard and loaded onto the conference website by Monday of Week 9 

(20 hours)

Stage 4: First of all, work out how to participate (commenting, linking, networking) Then move quickly to revise paper based on feedback and get it uploaded to conference site (also week 7/8)


Work together online as a group, both using blackboard and other online forums as appropriate to start discussing how to promote the conference to the wider community. 


Come to the seminar ready to discuss how to promote the conference and attendance and participation. Also how to participate in the conference effectively; how to network the conference


Conference Paper (A.1) Monday

Week 5

Writing your conference paper (week 5)

In this week concentrate everything on writing your paper. Discussion should be at a minimum. Get your paper written and submitted. You must complete it by the Monday of Week 6 (15 hours)

Stage 3: Write, revise and get ready to submit your paper. Link back to your reading in previous weeks!


Focus on writing, no discussion necessary


Come to this seminar ready to discuss both your own conference paper and to give feedback on other people's papers


---

Week 3

Stage 2: Read extensivelyfrom the materials provided, especially focusing on the one issue on which you will be writing.; Share ideas, plan your paper; consider how to argue for a particular point in your paper. Don't forget to use readings as you need - not just the ones on one issue.


Discuss readings in online forum; focus should be on what area/topic you have chosen and why. From this week all three groups taking, part in the Conference, from Curtin University, Open Universities Australia and The Charles Telfair Institute should start to network through the Internet


You should come to this seminar ready to discuss the readings and topics related to Communities and Web 2.0 and Social Networks

Week 4

---

Share ideas about writing; what exactly are you writing about


You should come to this seminar ready to discuss the readings and topics related to Identity in Communities and Networks and Community and Online Gaming


---

Week 2

Reading and Thinking (weeks 2-4)

In these three weeks, you need to read in detail from the material provided, both across the range of issues, and more deeply into the issue you are going to write about. Discuss what you read, try out your ideas and arguments with fellow students to help plan your paper. Search where you think it is needed for additional information to assist your writing. Begin to plan your paper now, in preparation for stage 3. (35 hours)

What to do:

Online:

Students discuss readings in online forum; breadth across the 4 streams

Class:

This week starts with a brief lecture (that will also be available through Blackboard) looking at some of the key concepts and topics in this course, followed by a class discssion looking at some of the initial readings for Stage 

Due:

Week 1 - Introduction: How does the media engage you? How do you engage with the media?

1: Getting Started on the unit / conference
In this first week you need to become familiar with the unit and how it works; plan your studies; start discussions with fellow students, whether in class or online or both; read the general material provided to get a sense of why communities and networks need to be explored and analysed so you can work effectively in stage 2. (10 hours)

What to do:

Online:

Class:

Due: