The home stretch, and more

There are two videos that I have embedded here.  If they do not come across, then head to the notes blog for the posting with the title "The home stretch, and more"
The first video is my YouTube clip.  I had to edit out the first minute-plus because .... after recording, I found while reviewing that there was no sound .... aaaah!  I was talking about Thanksgiving, towards the end of which apparently the bluetooth device started working.  Oh well .... Most of the video clip is about the final task, and a recap of what we have accomplished thus far.

The second video is from Ted.com, and is a talk by Majora Carter, about urban renewal in the Bronx.  I have this video for multiple reasons: it might provide you with some more perspectives on the topics we will look at for the rest of the term, and, of course, the final task I have for you.  If we were in a regular class, I might show this video and then invite comments and rejoinders.  So, please watch it and, of course, let us know if you have any comments ....

My plan includes doing another video clip in the next couple of days to discuss some of the specific ideas/concepts in the readings--I am hoping that by then you would have scanned through them and, therefore, will be able to follow along.  So, until then ....

FYI .... on "virtual classrooms"

This is not about urban geography per se--though there are implications one might infer!
But, this might be of interest to you because, well, here we are in a "virtual" classroom, and we can certainly expect more, and not less, online teaching and learning in the future.
As this NY Times report observes:

Champions of digital learning want to turn teaching into yet another form of content. Allow anyone anywhere to take whatever course they want, whenever, over any medium, they say. Make universities compete on quality, price and convenience. Let students combine credits from various courses into a degree by taking an exit exam. Let them live in Paris, take classes from M.I.T. and transfer them to a German university for a diploma.

If only it can happen easily :-)  A typical reason why this is not happening, given the level of technology we already have:

Education, re-imagined as a consumer product, will become about giving the young what they want now, not what they need or might later want, critics say. They worry that universities will cede their role in civilizing us and passing down the heritage of the past, and will become glorified vocational schools.
Education’s goal, the novelist Mark Slouka wrote in Harper’s Magazine, should be “to teach people, not tasks; to participate in the complex and infinitely worthwhile labor of forming citizens, men and women capable of furthering what’s best about us and forestalling what’s worst. It is only secondarily — one might say incidentally — about producing workers.”

I have always believed that my online classes are strictly about education in that grander sense of it being something way above and beyond "producing workers."  So are my "regular" classes.  If anybody took a look at, say, the syllabus for this course, the work that I ask you to do in order to demonstrate your understanding of the ideas, the kind of feedback I give you, I cannot imagine them even remotely thinking that this undermines the grand idea of what education is all about. 

Now, I don't want to give any impression that my work is under criticism--far from that.  It is just that I always prefer using my personal examples; this way I do not then unintentionally insult/hurt others. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts on this.  I have been logging a whole bunch of ideas related to online teaching and learning, and am always looking to fine-tune my understanding.  (Of course, I do not want you to take you away from completing Essay 2, your work for other classes, and the final exam stuff I emailed you earlier!)

BTW, watch out for an email requesting you to complete an online evaluation of this course and the instructor.  While the university conducts such evaluations only during one term (Winter, I think), I almost always ask for evaluations every term: students deserve that opportunity, and I always want to know if there are patterns in student responses to the evaluation questions so that I can continue to improve the course and enhance student learning.  And, I will not get the results of the evaluation until early next term--so, there need not be any worry that evaluations might influence your grade for the course.

The final paper

In presenting the question for Essay2, I remarked about the peculiarities of the fall term calendar that circumscribe the pedagogical options.  More so when the course is online.

So, as we head into Week 8, you are probably wondering what we are going to be doing now.  Well, mystery solved :-)

The final paper will be in the context of the reading materials that I have listed for the next three weeks. 

But, there are a few steps that I want you to systematically follow in order to put together that 2,500-word essay.

Step 1:

• Read the materials that I have listed for the next three weeks.  Jot down what comes across as important ideas in each of those.
  
• Re-read the materials that I have listed for the next three weeks.  When you do, I bet you will find a few ideas that you missed the first time around.
• By now, you have in your notes a whole bunch of interesting notes that you want to discuss.  Which is where Step 2 comes in. 
• Note: DO NOT skip out on any of the readings--these are all related.  By skipping some, you might unnecessarily put yourself at a disadvantage when it comes to the final paper.
  

Step 2:

• As you reflect on the materials you have read, and the notes you made, identify the theme that you want to explore in detail through a final paper
• Write out that thesis statement in about 75 to 125 words.
  
• Locate at least four authoritative references that will be of help to you in arguing your thesis
• These ought to be references not listed in the course syllabus
  
• Before noon on November 24th, email the instructor the following as a word-proccessed document:
• The proposed title for the paper
• The thesis statement
• The list of references

Step 3:

• Enjoy Thanksgiving
• Be thankful that Sriram will not bug you for too long after!
• Discuss your thesis statement (the paper idea) with family and friends after the meal.  
• I am not kidding here
• The topic will be of interest to them, and you might gain clarity through such conversations.
• Before noon on November 29th, email the instructor an outline of your paper as a word-processed document

Step 4:

• Pay attention to the instructor's feedback
  
• Develop the first draft of the paper by December 2nd
• Set that aside for a day and work on the papers and exams for your other classes
• Now, edit/re-write the final paper
• Email the final paper to the instructor some time after noon on December 4th and before 8:00 am on December 7th

Step 5:

• Enjoy the winter break, and come back re-energized for the winter term.

As simple as this :-)