Monthly Archives: September 2014

Week 5

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Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift
  • Weekly Wandering
  • Reflection
  • To Review
  • Notes
  • Classmate Feedback

Team Inky State of Your Field Presentations

Present the information you’ve gathered about the State of the Field you’ve chosen for your Thesis project.

Review this Week’s Reading

Assignments for Week 5
Reading

  • “Customers as Innovators” from The Innovator’s Cookbook
  • “The Slow Hunch” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift – Google Drive doc, 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity (share link with me only)
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts, Google Drive doc (share link on Google Community).
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words in a Google doc trying to organize it into a cohesive whole (share link on Google Community).
  • To Review – a list of links in a Google Drive spreadsheet; videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later (share link on Google Community)
  • Notes – notes in a Google Drive doc on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week (share link on Google Community)
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

State of the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Everyone should post your written State of The Field assignments to the Google Community before our next meeting on 10/6.

Leaders in the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Identify three of the leading practitioners in your chosen field. Research their background… what personal, academic and professional path led to their success? Research their approach to work… where do they get inspiration? What is their daily routine? Finally, research how they present their work… in what venues or through what channels? Are they members of particular professional organizations? What sort of awards or recognition have they received?

If your chosen practitioners are on Twitter and/or Google+, follow them. If they have a blog, subscribe to it. If they have some other kind of web site, bookmark it. Tell the class how you keep up with these people and their work.

Members of Team Blinky will present their research on October 6. Use web sites, videos, images or any other media to help describe the people and their work. Refer to these additional guidelines for an effective presentation.

Everyone must write up his or her research as a Google Doc, posted to the “Leaders in the Field” category on the Google Community, before class on October 20. This text will inform your upcoming formal project proposal. You’ll be graded not only on the thoroughness of your research, but on how effectively you present your ideas in writing. Use headings or other formatting to lend clarity and organization to your document, and keep these guidelines in mind. Your Google Doc should be at least 700 words.

Week 4

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Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift
  • Weekly Wandering
  • Reflection
  • To Review
  • Notes
  • Classmate Feedback

Team Blinky History of Your Field Presentations

Present the information you’ve gathered about the History of the Field you’ve chosen for your Thesis project.

Review this Week’s Reading

  • “Liquid Networks” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Assignments for Week 4
Reading

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift – Google Drive doc, 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity (share link with me only)
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts, Google Drive doc (share link on Google Community).
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words in a Google doc trying to organize it into a cohesive whole (share link on Google Community).
  • To Review – a list of links in a Google Drive spreadsheet; videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later (share link on Google Community)
  • Notes – notes in a Google Drive doc on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week (share link on Google Community)
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

State of the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up
Research three important projects that have recently been developed in the field in which you plan to work. Get a firm grasp on the who, what, when, where, why and how of each project. Illustrate this information as well as any technical, personal, historical or conceptual relationships between the projects in the form of a concept map.

Members of Team Inky will present their research — including their concept map — to the class on September 29, using web sites, videos, images or any other media that will help describe the work. Also describe how each project has influenced your own ideas about what to do (or not to do) for your own project this year. Has this initial research given you an idea of what hasn’t already been done in this area? Might that be a direction you want to pursue? Refer to these additional guidelines for an effective presentation.

Everyone in the class — regardless of team — must write up his or her research more formally, incorporating or responding to any feedback from classmates, if appropriate. Post your writing to as Google Doc to the Google Community before class on October 6. Attach your concept map to the post, and assign your post to the “State of the Field” category. This text will inform your upcoming formal project proposal. You’ll be graded not only on the thoroughness of your research, but on how effectively you present your ideas in writing. Use headings or other formatting to lend clarity and organization to your Google Doc, and keep these additional guidelines in mind. Your post should be at least 700 words.

Week 3

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Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift
  • Weekly Wandering
  • Reflection
  • To Review
  • Notes
  • Classmate Feedback

Elon Musk on Innovating by First Principles vs. Analogous Thinking

Review this Week’s Reading

  • “The Rules of Innovation” by Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s Cookbook
    • take root in disruption – do something smaller, more convenient or cheaper, addressing a marginal market the leaders will ignore
    • necessary scope to succeed – better product than the existing? Or simpler, faster, more convenient
    • leverage the right capabilities – use the right tools (tools you know best and that will get the job done)
    • disrupt competitors, not customers – try to help customers do things they already do, but do them better, faster or more easily
    • 37Signals & Basecamp
  • “The Adjacent Possible” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Review this Week’s One Time Assignments

  • Personal Manifestos
  • Portfolio Maps

Assignments for Week 3
Reading

  • “Liquid Networks” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift – Google Drive doc, 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity (share link with me only)
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts, Google Drive doc (share link on Google Community).
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words in a Google doc trying to organize it into a cohesive whole (share link on Google Community).
  • To Review – a list of links in a Google Drive spreadsheet; videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later (share link on Google Community)
  • Notes – notes in a Google Drive doc on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week (share link on Google Community)
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

History of the Field – 3 points for presentation; 3 for write-up

Research the history of the area in which you’d like to develop a project. How did we get to where we are today, to the state-of-the-art? What previous technologies and what advances in other fields fed into the development of your field? What sort of predictions were made about your field, from people within or without? Did those predictions pan out? (Vannevar Bush described something very similar to the World Wide Web in 1948, for example. And Star Trek TNG had touchscreen tablets that look and function almost identically to an iPad.) Who were some of the pioneers in your field? Illustrate this history in the form of a spatial “concept map” along the lines of your portfolio map from last week. Use the map to show—at a glance—the relationships between ideas/tools/people. It may make sense to use more than one version of the map to demonstrate the evolution of ideas in the field over time.

Members of Team Blinky will present their research—including their concept map—to the class on September 22. Use web sites, videos, images or any other media that will help describe your discoveries. Refer to these additional guidelines for an effective presentation.

Everyone in the class—regardless of team—must write up his or her research as a single Google Doc, posted to the “History of the Field” category in the Google Community before class on September 29. If you presented your research and ideas to the class, be sure to incorporate and/or respond to any feedback you received from your classmates during your presentation. Attach your concept map image to the written blog post. You’ll later refer to this text as you develop your formal project proposal, and revise it based on your proofs-of-concept and feedback from your classmates and me. You’ll be graded not only on the thoroughness of your research, but on how effectively you present your ideas in writing. Use headings or other formatting to lend clarity and organization to your Google Doc, and keep these guidelines in mind. Your Google Doc should be at least 700 words.

Week 2

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How’d It Go!

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift
  • Weekly Wandering
  • Reflection
  • To Review
  • Notes
  • Classmate Feedback

One Time Assignments

  • Future Bio
  • LinkedIn Profile

Reading

  • “The Discipline of Innovation” by Peter Drucker in The Innovator’s Cookbook
    • Sources of Innovation
      • Internal
        • Unexpected Occurances
        • Incongruities
        • Process Needs
        • Industry & Market Changes
      • External
        • Demographic Changes
        • Changes in Perception
        • New Knowledge
  • “The Poetics of the Manifesto: Nowness and Newness” from Manifesto: A Century of Isms by Mary Ann Caw

Let’s Watch a Movie!

ILM Industrial Light and Magic: Creating the Improssible

Assignments for Week 2
Reading

  • “The Rules of Innovation” by Clayton Christensen in The Innovator’s Cookbook
    “The Adjacent Possible” from Where Good Ideas Come From

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift – Google Drive doc, 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity (share link with me only)
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts, Google Drive doc (share link on Google Community).
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words in a Google doc trying to organize it into a cohesive whole (share link on Google Community).
  • To Review – a list of links in a Google Drive spreadsheet; videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later (share link on Google Community)
  • Notes – notes in a Google Drive doc on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week (share link on Google Community)
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

Personal Manifesto

Drawing on our class discussion, and taking inspiration from previous works including but not limited to those listed below, create your own manifesto that embodies your personal beliefs, philosophies and ideologies. Review Mary Ann Caw’s thoughts on the manifesto as listed in the required reading. As Caw points out, this document is “crafted to convince and convert” and also to “write something into existence.” There are no rules — just be bold, and have fun with it. Create your manifesto in Google Drive (in whatever form it takes), share it and post a link to the class Google Community before we meet for class on September 15. Assign your post to the “Personal Manifestos” category.

Portfolio Map
Create a map of all the IMM-related work you’ve created over the past several years. Start broad — include projects for class, projects outside of class, projects before TCNJ. Keep your future bio in mind — if you consider yourself a writer then include your writing, not just media projects. Arrange the projects on your map to indicate their relationship to each other — maybe some of them were part of a larger project and should be grouped together, maybe several projects are in the same medium, or showcase similar skills — whatever arrangement makes sense to you. In addition to grouping projects spatially, use other visual cues to indicate further relationships — all your Processing projects might be inside a diamond shape, for instance, or all your projects that deal with a particular theme might be blue. Save this inclusive version of your map — save a copy if you’re working on a computer, or take a photo or make a scan or a photocopy if you’re working by hand — then start to narrow things down. Remember that in a personal portfolio you only want to show your strongest work — quality over quantity. If a project is sloppy or amateurish, delete it from your map. Are there incomplete or rough projects that could be effective if you can finish them or clean them up? Leave them, but clearly identify them on your map. Keep your future bio and your manifesto in mind… to become that person, what particular skill or skills should you showcase in your portfolio? Make sure your remaining projects show off those skills. Finally, reflect on what’s missing from your portfolio. Are there open questions or unexplored hunches? Is there a particular skill or medium you’d like to highlight, but aren’t able to with your existing projects? This may suggest an area for you to investigate in your capstone project. Post links to both your inclusive and more focused maps as a single post on the Class Google Community before class on September 15. Assign your post to the “Portfolio Map” category.

Presentation Guidelines

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Your presentation grades will depend on the following:

  • Content — Does your presentation have a logical flow? Do you demonstrate thorough knowledge of your topic, answer questions effectively, make appropriate use of supporting media?
  • Non-verbal skills — Do you make eye contact, avoid reading notes, appear comfortable and confident?
  • Verbal skills — Do you speak clearly with an engaging pace, show enthusiasm for your topic?

First Day of Class

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Introductions
Let go around the room and introduce ourselves. What has your focus been at IMM? What was your favorite class or project? With respect to IMM, what do you feel has been your biggest strength? Weakness?

Review Syllabus
Let’s take a few minutes to review the syllabus.

Assignments for Week 1
Reading

Weekly Assignments

  • Daily Drift – 300 words daily, stream of consciousness to kick start your creativity
  • Weekly Wandering – take a walk, go running, whatever, capture your thoughts in words, pictures, sketches, music, video – whatever helps you express your thoughts.
  • Reflection – at the end of the week, reflect on everything you’ve gathered & pondered. Write 300 or more words trying to organize it into a cohesive whole.
  • To Review – a list of links, videos, books, films, etc, you’d like to review later
  • Notes – notes on your ‘To Review’ materials for the week
  • Classmate Feedback – comment on 2 or more classmates’ posts to our class Google Community

One-Time Assignments

  • Future Bio – Your bio for 3 years from now, three paragraphs or so
  • LinkedIn Profile – create it or update existing, link in to your professors and join “Interactive Multimedia at The College of New Jersey” group

Writing Guidelines

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Don’t allow careless writing mechanics to obscure your good ideas and frustrate your reader. Work through multiple drafts, allowing others to read your paper, or even reading it out loud to yourself in order to discover mistakes or questionable choices you may have overlooked when reading silently.

Your grade will depend on the following:

  • Grammar, including subject/verb agreement, correct pronoun usage and punctuation
  • Spelling
  • Clarity — Do you illustrate your arguments with clear, concise language? Do you avoid hyperbole, jargon and otherwise flowery language?
  • Organization — Does your overall argument flow from one point to the next? Does the organization of your sentences and paragraphs help maintain your writing’s forward momentum?
  • Tone of voice — Is your language and word choice appropriate for your audience? (In this case a hypothetical investor or client, so your tone should be businesslike, but clear and not overly technical.)
  • Presentation — is your document easy to navigate, with consistent formatting, clear headings, etc?
  • Proper attribution of sources — If an idea, a statistic or other information didn’t originate with you, you must make that clear. (And frankly it makes your own case more convincing since it demonstrates that you’ve sought out a range of authoritative sources.)

Most of your writing will take place on the class blog in order to facilitate discussion and serve as a reference for your classmates and future students. And while the medium prevents you from adhering strictly to style guidelines such as page headers, margins, etc., you should cite your sources using MLA style as a guide, including parenthetical references within your main text and a list of works cited at the end.

Because you’ll be writing about new media and technology, many of your sources may be electronic. Refer to these guidelines for properly citing electronic resources, as well as these guidelines for evaluating print versus online sources.