Description
For the final project, you should explore a specific tool or community in depth. The project will consist of a project proposal presentation, a final project presentation, and a final paper. Both presentations should be between 5 and 8 minutes in length. Papers should be approximately 4 pages in the ACM format. Templates are available at http://www.chi2010.org/authors/format.html, under HCI Archive Format.
You are very welcome (in fact encouraged) to work in groups. Your project should take one of three following forms:
1. Tool or kit design
You should design a tool or toolkit that enables others to build things. The primary contribution of this project will be the design and construction of a prototype tool or kit which you will present on December 7.
2. Community investigation
Investigate a creative community to illuminate some aspect of the relationship between tools and communities. You could use publicly available data (ie: contributions to forums or galleries on the scratch, ravelry or instructables websites) and/or you could conduct your own data collection (ie: surveying a group of students from a local high school). The primary contribution of this project will be written documentation of your investigation and discoveries. NOTE: you may need COUHES approval to undertake this project if you plan to use it in your research. More information on COUHES here: http://web.mit.edu/committees/couhes/index.shtml
3. Community engagement
Design and teach a workshop that helps an underserved community (ie: not MIT or Harvard students) learn a new technological skill. Document your experience with photos, written reflections, and/or video. The primary contribution of this project will be written documentation of your workshop. NOTE: you will need COUHES approval to undertake this project if you plan to use it in your research. More information on COUHES here: http://web.mit.edu/committees/couhes/index.shtml.
Description
Write a literature review on a topic that relates to the theme of the class. The purpose of a literature review is to summarize and synthesize the body of existing knowledge in a specific area, not to introduce new ideas or theories. Here are some helpful links:
Your literature review should reference scholarly articles, books, and other resources that reflect a range of perspectives on your topic. You should take care to select a topic of appropriate scope. Here are a few topics that would be impossible to cover reasonably in this assignment: technology for the developing world, gender and technology, educational technology. Your topic should be quite narrow. For example, you might survey: strategies for engaging young women in robotics; user-friendly hardware platforms for environmental sensing; or research on the discrepancies in broadband internet access in the US across different economic groups.
You should email me your choice of topic by Tuesday October 19th at 4:00pm (before class) so that we can discuss its scope and focus. You should email me your final paper by Friday October 29th at 5:00pm.
Papers should be at least four pages long and written in the ACM format. Templates are available at http://www.chi2010.org/authors/format.html, under HCI Archive Format.
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