Assignments in Interactive Media

DM2553 Media Production

Shared bookmars for web sites related to media technology

Start with registering at http://del.icio.us (see note about integrity), and install the tools for making it possible to sharing bookmarks directly from your web browser. Del.icio.us is a web site for social bookmarks and can be used to build folksonomies. This means users can create and share bookmarks to web pages they find interesting, and categorize them with keywords of their choice. This makes it possible to quickly and easilly share and find relevant information within an area, or at least information others have categorized in a certain way.

Your task is that each of you, at least once per week, should bookmark (using del.icio.use) something that from some point of view is relevant to "media technology". It can be news about new products, discussions about how new media technology is used and affect the society, technical articles, HOW-TOs or similar. The content should be "serious"; somthing which is relevant from an educational perspective and could be of interest to your fellow students. This is a good way for both students and teacher to be updated on what you believe is interesting and relevant, and thereby can affect the education.

These weekly bookmarks should be tagged "mmmep07", as well as with other relevant keywords you see fit. The bookmarks will be visible for everyone at the address "http://del.icio.us/tag/mmmep07/", and will also be accessible for RSS-subscriptions at http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/mmmep07/.

Logbook

Your should also keep a course diary, or logbook. In this logbook you should make a weekly reflection about what you have learned, how what you have learned could be important, how it can relate to your or other's everyday life and your own future professional career. You should also reflect on your own learning process. This log book will also be the basis for the final "coure reflection" you will make in the course (see "course reflection" below, where also additional suggestions about content in your logbook can be found).

It is possible to write a long text about the value of such excercises, where you reflect on what you learn, but I choose only to qoute a passage from the book "To teach; a multi faceted challenge "(my own translation) by Arne Malt�n (2003):

"Knowledge is made visible and understandable when students are stimulated to reflect upon what they have learned and how they have learned. It is not suficcient with the teacher explaining. The student experiment, investigate and discover knowledge. This brings the learning process into focus."

From a practical point of view, you can do this log book in one of two ways; either by a blog (which is recommended; blogs can be created for free at (for example) http://www.blogger.com/, see note about integrity) through the logbook function in PingPong.

RSS

In this part you will learn how RSS works, and how it can be used to keep track on several different news-flows. Hopefully you will start using RSS on a regular basis. I recommend you use the web-based RSS reader Google Reader (see not on integrity), but there alre also RSS-features in modern web browsers, and stand-alone applications. On the student Macs the application NetNewsWire Lite is a good RSS-reader.

The first part of this task is that you should subscribe to, and read, the RSS-feed for the class' social bookmarks, http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/mmmep07/, and the logbooks for the other students in your group. You have to communicate with each other where you can find your RSS-feeds. You should also find three web sites related to media technology, which also has RSS-feeds, and subscribe to these. Write in your diary which RSS-feeds you have chosen, and why you believe they are interesting from a media technology point of view.

The final part of this task is that you should write at least one comment in one of your fellow student's logbook (one in your group) once per week. The comments should be of reflective character, like "Ah, do you do/belive like that? Personally I do/belive that ..." or something similar.

Reports

In the course you will write at least one report per group. You should write this using a collaborative writing tool, where we suggest Google Docs (see note on integrity), but it is possible to use other tools as well. One of the major advantages of using Google Docs is that is is possible for several users to simultaneously edit and comment in the same document, that all versions are saved and archived, and that it is completely web based and does not require anything except a computer connected to the internet and IE7 or Firefox.

All members of the group should actively participate in writing the report. This means it is not allowed to split the work into several different parts, handled individually and then pasted together to a final report. Using Google Docs it is easy to check this, since all versions and changes are saved. If you choose some other solution you must write about your report writing process in your logbooks.

Course reflection

When the course is finished you should make a "self reflection", or "course reflection" where you reflect upon what you have leared during the course. Apart from being a good idea from a pedagogical point of view, it will also supply us with invaluable input for how to change the course for upcoming year. The course reflection should at least contain the following

Content

• What have you learned during the course (include "softer" aspects, like ability to write and present content, group dynamics, insights you have gained, attitude changes and other aspects you might not usually consider)
• Why do you think you have learned what you have learned?
• How do you think you can use what you have learned?
• Are you satisfied what you have learned? If not, is it something you should have done differently? Is it something we should have done differently?t?

Learning style

• What has your strategy or tactics been to learn the content of the course? When , where and how have you studied (place, time of day, concentrated periods or extended during the entire course, on libraries, at home, together with others or individually).
• Are you satisified with your strategy? Have you learned for life or for the course?
• If you are not satisifed, is there something you think you can change in future courses?

Basic media technology terminology

In this part you will learn basic media technology terminology. Relatively soon you will be given access to a system where you can study the terms using a technology called "spaced repetition" which utilizes a special algorithm developed specifically for learning short definitions like these. You will be given a few weeks to learn the terms after which they will be examined using a computerized test.

What you need to do soon

You should hand in a document in the activity "Web 2.0 assignment" in PingPong, at the latest 2007-11-07. The document should contain the following:

• The address to your del.icio.us-bookmarks. For instance, I have the username "bjornh" and have the address http://del.icio.us/bjornh
• The address to your education diary (or write "PingPong" if you choose to write your diary in PingPong)
• The addresses to the three RSS-feeds related to media technology which you have chosen to subscribe to, and a short motivation why these werechoosen.

Note on technology:

I haven't written in detail exactly how you register vor various services, use different tools, find RSS feeds and the like. This is something you should be able to find out for yourself using various resources and methods.

Note on integrity:

KTH can't require that you register for services not directly provided by KTH. An example of a service provided by KTH is PingPong, one that isn't is Google Docs. However, we can recommend that yuo use different services. The services recommended in these tasks are conceptually very relevant in your future roles as media experts, and it is difficult to fully understand the services, their possibilities and their limitations without actually using them. However, it is important to understand what information about yourself is registered, how it can be found by others and how it can be used for commercial purposes. If you for some reason don't want to register for some of the services above we can arrange some alternative solutions.