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.

• Your proposal presentation should: clearly define the tool or kit you are designing, identify the audience for the tool, and present your plan for development.
• Your final presentation should focus on a demonstration of the tool or kit and a discussion of your design and implementation process.
• The paper should include a short literature review that places your contribution in the context of similar tools, a reflection on the audience your tool is designed for, an articulation of the purpose of the tool, and a description of its design.

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

• Your proposal presentation should: define what you hope to learn from your investigation and explain why this is important, identify the community you are investigating, and present your study methodology.
• Your final presentation should focus on a discussion of what you learned from your investigation and how you learned it.
• Your paper should include a short literature review that details similar efforts, a description of your study methodology, and a discussion of your findings.

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.

• Your proposal presentation should: clearly define what you will be teaching, identify the community you will be working with, and present your plan for the workshop.
• Your final presentation should focus on a discussion of the workshop and what you and your students learned from it.
• Your paper should include a short literature review that details similar efforts, a description of your workshop, and a discussion of what you and your students learned in the course of the experience.
]]> http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/11/05/final-project-assignment/feed/ 2 http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/11/01/tuesday-nov-2-hardware-kits-and-tools/ http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/11/01/tuesday-nov-2-hardware-kits-and-tools/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:24:35 +0000 buffy http://dfe10.media.mit.edu/?p=278 Reading discussion led by Ed.]]> Reading discussion led by Ed.
]]> http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/11/01/tuesday-nov-2-hardware-kits-and-tools/feed/ 1 http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/10/18/tuesday-oct-19-software-communities/ http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/10/18/tuesday-oct-19-software-communities/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:26:04 +0000 buffy http://dfe10.media.mit.edu/?p=270 Reading discussion led by Theodora and Tarek.]]> Reading discussion led by Theodora and Tarek.
]]> http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/10/18/tuesday-oct-19-software-communities/feed/ 1 http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/10/08/tuesday-oct-12-whats-special-about-computers/ http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/10/08/tuesday-oct-12-whats-special-about-computers/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:23:04 +0000 buffy http://dfe10.media.mit.edu/?p=263 Reading discussion led by Sayamindu and Jiye.]]> Reading discussion led by Sayamindu and Jiye.
]]> http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/10/08/tuesday-oct-12-whats-special-about-computers/feed/ 1 http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/09/30/tuesday-october-5-empowering-who-cont/ http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/09/30/tuesday-october-5-empowering-who-cont/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:32:27 +0000 buffy http://dfe10.media.mit.edu/?p=231 Reading discussion led by Ricarose and Mike.]]> Reading discussion led by Ricarose and Mike.
]]> http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/09/30/tuesday-october-5-empowering-who-cont/feed/ 4 http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/09/30/literature-review-assignment/ http://dfe.media.mit.edu/2010/09/30/literature-review-assignment/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 07:15:57 +0000 buffy http://dfe10.media.mit.edu/?p=246 Due Dates Topic Due: Tuesday, October 19th at 4:00pm Paper Due: Friday, October 29th at 5:00pm 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 [...]]]> Due Dates
Topic Due: Tuesday, October 19th at 4:00pm
Paper Due: Friday, October 29th at 5:00pm

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:

• Researching and Writing Literature Reviews (University of Arizona)
• Review of Literature (Writing Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
• MIT’s writing center

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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