More about the Class Assignments
For this assignment, I want to introduce you to the kinds of things you will be doing in class, and then I’d like you to write up a blog post with your thoughts: what kinds of things are new to you (or not), what kinds of things you are most excited about, any questions you have in mind going forward, etc.
As you may have already figured out, the grading in this class is very much “mix-and-match,” so it’s really up to you to decide which assignments you want to complete each week, based on what you will enjoy most, how you will learn the most, and so on. If you see some extra credit assignments that you are really excited about, then make those part of your regular weekly work for the class; that will allow you to skip some other assignments and/or finish up early.
CORE ASSIGNMENTS
Each of these assignments takes around an hour, some may be more time (project), some may be less time (blog comments). A total of 6 hours per week is a good guess overall.
1. Reading.
Each week, there will be a reading unit, this material is your lecture content – you will be reading and then writing about it in an academic style.
Unity3D.
These will be practical based tutorials to allow you to practice the fundamentals of Unity3D
3. Blog Comments.
Each week, you will be reading blog posts by other students and leaving comments. I hope you will have fun getting to know each other by visiting each other’s blogs!
4. Project.
Each person in the class will have a semester-long project and you will work on your own project for every week, starting with some brainstorming assignments in Weeks 3 and 4. Let’s DISCUSS GROUP PROJECTS
5. Project Feedback.
Just like with the commenting on the blogs, you’ll also be giving each other feedback about your projects. This will be more in-depth feedback to help people as they revise their project week by week starting in Week 5. For Weeks 3, 4, and 5, I’ll be sharing some feedback resources and strategies so you’ll feel confident about doing this type of substantive, detailed feedback starting in Week 6.
EXTRA CREDIT
All these extra credit assignments serve multiple purposes:
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- these assignments can help you to explore and learn things that go beyond the core assignments,
- you can use extra credit to make up missing work, and
- you can use extra credit points in order to get ahead and finish early.
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These extra credit options will be available every week starting in Week 3. As you will see, most of these are shorter assignments, around 15-30 minutes. You don’t have to wait until the end of the week; you can do extra credit assignment(s) whenever you have a little free time during the week. Here are the extra credit options you can choose from every week:
Tech Tasks. This is a chance for those of you who like learning about different kinds of web-based technology to use some tools that can be really helpful for this class, and also to learn how to do more with your blog, some basic image editing, creating memes, all kinds of stuff.
Wikipedia Trails. This is a really fun research assignment where you start with something that grabs your attention from class: you look it up at Wikipedia, and then follow a link in that article to another, then another, then another, and see where you end up. The trails through Wikipedia are infinite AND educational.
Growth Mindset. If you found the growth mindset introduction to be something of interest, there are Growth Mindset topics you can choose to explore each week. Personally, I think that can be useful for everyone.
HEART. Related to Growth Mindset, I’ve collected some H.E.A.R.T. resources (health and happiness, empathy, attention, reading, time), and if you want to explore those, you can do that for extra credit each week too.
Extra Commenting. This is an option for people who really enjoy socializing with other people in the class. Especially if you get to know some people whose writing you really like or people with whom you share some particular interest, you can use this option to keep in touch every week and/or you can use this option just to keep on meeting new people.
Blog Post
To finish up this assignment, please write up a quick blog post about your first impressions. Here are some questions to ponder: What assignments are you most intrigued by? How is this like/unlike what you have done in other classes? Are there any extra credit options that grab your attention?
You’ll be learning more about these assignments over the next couple of weeks, but if you have any questions right now that you’d like me to answer, definitely let me know.
To finish this assignment, write up a blog post with whatever thoughts come to mind as you get started, and include an image of some kind (plus image information). Make sure you use the word “Assignments” somewhere in the title and use “Week 2” for the label.
When you are done with your blog post, you can complete the Declaration… and then you can move on to the next assignment, which is a quick technology overview.
 DECLARATION: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:I have published a blog post in which I share my thoughts about the class assignments. PROOFREADING. I have spellchecked and proofread the post. IMAGE. My post contains at least one image with Image Information. TITLE: I have included the word “Assignments” in the title of the post. LABEL: I have used “Week 2” as the label for the post. |
