Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Seminars: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session

Prerequisites

Permission of the instructor.

Participation

Your participation in the class takes several forms: completing the weekly readings and activities, contributing to the class blog, actively participating in all class sessions, and facilitating discussion and activities during one class session.

Each week two or three students (to be determined in the second class) will serve as facilitators. The facilitators should post their analyses of the readings (as well as questions to provoke other class members) on the class blog by no later than Friday at 5pm. The rest of the class should post responses to these questions by Monday at 5pm, and everyone should provide a comment on a response by Tuesday evening (the night before class).

Additionally, everyone in the class is encouraged to share their experiences and thoughts on the weekly activity. Responses to the activity questions (if applicable) should be posted on the blog by Tuesday evening.

In addition to their online contributions, the facilitators will coordinate group activity and discussion for the first hour of class.

Facilitator Details

In your role as facilitators for the week, you start by posting questions about the readings on the class blog, to provoke discussion on the blog among other class members. Please post your questions no later than Friday at 5pm.

For the class itself on the following Wednesday, you'll coordinate group activity and discussion for the first hour of class. You could invite a provocative speaker, organize a debate, facilitate small group discussions, or introduce a game. What would make a compelling learning experience for class participants? What experiences would you want to have in the course? This is an opportunity to deepen understandings of the readings, while being playful and experimental with the design of a learning environment.

We're happy to support you as much as you prefer in preparation for your role as facilitator. Feel free to write to either of us with your facilitation ideas — or with requests for facilitation ideas. We'd like to get a draft of your plan no later than Tuesday at noon, so that we know that Wednesday's class is ready and can provide you with some feedback.

Final Project

For the final project, your assignment is to design and test new features, new support materials, or new activities for a creative learning technology — and to write a "design brief" discussing the motivations, rationale, and principles underlying your design.

You are welcome (in fact, encouraged) to work in groups. If possible, you should test your tool/materials/activities with sample users.

Grading

Grading will be based one-third on class participation, one-third on contribution to the class blog, and one-third on the final project.

Calendar