#bsocialf17 course calendar

About the Course Calendar

Texts are to be read/watched/listened to for day they are listed. For example, Braun, Coates, Hobbes, Lewis, Walls are to be read for Friday 9/1. Homework in addition to texts will be presented in yellow. The schedule is subject to change; it is your responsibility to check it regularly.

Week One: Introductions

M 8/28: Introductions, Syllabus, Schedules, Skills Survey; Examples: Amanda, Nolan, Bridge of Books

Assignment for Wednesday, 8/30
Click through the course web site, getting familiar with the layout and read the Syllabus carefully. Come to class with any questions you might have.

Please complete the Skills Survey that was sent to your SJU email by 5:00pm on Monday 8/28.

If you do not yet have a Twitter account, please sign up for one at http://twitter.com. Twitter works best (especially for our purposes) when the username is professional and you are authentic. For example, my username is: billwolffsju (http://twitter.com/billwolffsju), and I use my full name to show who I am. My account is unlocked. Please sign up with a professional username and keep your account unlocked. We’ll be using Twitter in a professional way so there is no need to keep anything private. Make sure you have your username with you. The shorter the username the better and please avoid underscores (_); they are hard to type on smartphones.

Create an Instagram account, as well, if you don’t yet have one using the same professional criteria as described for Twitter.

W 8/30: Client Reveal; Fellows Panel; Meet with Team
Hand out Social Media Documentary Assignment

Assignment for Friday 9/1
Read selections from Braun, Coates, Hobbs, Lewis, and Walls. Braun, Coates, Lewis, and Walls, are from memoirs; Hobbs is from an autobiography of a man named Robert Peace. While reading, I’d like you to think about the lives of each of these individuals and pay attention to how you respond to each one. What is your initial reaction? What might you have assumed beforehand and how did that change (if it did) while reading? What were the contexts of their childhoods? What opportunities did each of the individuals have? Braun went on to found a global philanthropy; Walls and Coates became successful authors; Lewis became a civil rights icon and Us Representative. Robert Peace went to Yale before dying young. What does this tell us about the relationships between who these people are and their past?

Read through the Social Media Documentary Assignment, start following your classmates on Twitter and Instagram, and begin live-tweeting your work by tweeting 8 passages that were particularly meaningful to you, two from each reading. I’d also like you to use your classmates’ tweeted passages as conversation starters by replying to 4 of those passages in ways that create a conversation. Original authors, continue that conversation. Add #bsocialf17 to the tweets.

We will discuss the readings and your tweets in class on Wednesday.

F 9/1: Braun, Coates, Hobbes, Lewis, Walls

Week Two: Human Beings and their Promise

M 9/4: Labor Day — No Class

Assignment for Wednesday, 9/6
Please watch Simon Sinek’s TED talk, “How great leaders inspire action”:

After watching the video, tweet 3 interpretations or reactions to Sinek’s ideas about how humans are motivated, including some thoughts about your own personal Why? That is, what your core belief or beliefs are that guide how to act and interact in the world. Respond to several of your classmates and have a conversation.

Spend some time reading through the Developing a Team Identity portion of the Project Team Assignment, which we will discuss in class. There is a lot on that page, so try to keep your focus on the Identity portion for now.

W 9/6: Sinek and the Golden Circle; The Promise; Integrity
Hand out Project Team Assignment

Assignment for Friday 9/8
Please read Christensen’s interview with Jensen about integrity and then the Prologue and all of Part One of Nardella’s book. Tweet 5 ways you see Jensen’s ideas on integrity coming through in Nardella’s story, either through her actions, beliefs, or structure of the book.

In class we will discuss both the interview and the book and try to connect these to your Team Identity.

F 9/8: Christensen (2014); Nardella, Prologue and all of Part One
Discuss Blogging for the Beautiful Social Web Site assignment

Week Three: Jena Nardella and the Story of Hope

Assignment for Monday 9/11
Please continue working on the Team Identity portion of the Semester-Long Project Assignment and start looking at Part I  (only Part I) of the Background Research portion of the assignment. Read Nardella, all of Part 2.

M 9/11: Nardella, all of Part Two
Hand out Story of Learning Assignment
W 9/13: Nardella, all of Part Three and Epilogue
F 9/15: Reflection Friday: Preparing for Initial Client Meetings
My Story up to this Moment and first weekly update due by 11:00pm
Team Identity due by 11:00pm via shared GoogleDoc.

Week Four: Initial Client Meetings

M 9/18: Class Canceled for Client Meetings
Background Research Part 1 Due 5 hours before client meeting in shared GoogleDoc
W 9/20: Class Canceled for Client Meetings
F 9/22: Reflection Friday: Reflecting on the meetings

Assignment for Monday, 9/25
Read Lambert on storytelling (see Readings page), watch Mia’s Story, and the profile of Nolan for Fair Food:

While watching the videos, note places where you see examples of Lambert calls the elements digital storytelling. Tweet at least 5 of those places, which element you see, and why.

The Lansdowne blog post draft is due.

Remember, your Story of Learning Week 4 Weekly Update is due Saturday.

Week Five: Interviewing and Storytelling

M 9/25: Lambert, Mya’s Story, Nolan’s Story; notes-for-digital-storytelling.docx
Lansdowne Blog Post Due

Assignment for Wednesday, 9/27
Please read “How to Tell Powerful Narratives on Instagram,” by Neil Shea (see Readings page) and spent some time engaging with the Instagram posts of Jedidiah Jenkins and Ruddy Roye. When reading Shea, make sure to click on the links within the article and explore those sites, too. For Jenkins and Roye, don’t just look at the photos. Read the text, as well. As Shea states, Instagram “asks for a deeper consideration of photographs and the rich, nuanced ways that words and pictures work together.”

Specifically for Roye, I’d like you to spend time looking at the his posts starting June 30, 2016, and ending 

When engaging with the Jenkins’s and Roye’s Instagram posts, I’d like you to think about Lambert’s “Seven Elements of Digital Storytelling.” Which do we see being played out? Which (other than Soundtrack) are downplayed? Thinking about Shea’s article and what you are seeing in the posts, what elements would you add to Lambert’s list?

Tweet at least 3 of your thoughts as a way to start a conversation about the articles and Instagram posts.

W 9/27: Shea on Instagram storytelling; Jedidiah Jenkins’ Instagram posts; Ruddy Roye Instagram posts

Assignment for Friday, 9/29
Please read Vaynerchuck (2013) (there are two Vaynerchuck essays, so be sure you are reading the right one), which can be found on the Readings page. Watch the videos America and Together and the one in this tweet:

Continue live-tweeting the readings as you have throughout the semester, responding to each other, as well. Here, I’d you to make connections between the three videos, Vaynerchuck, Shea, Lambert, and Sinek’s Why. In particular, think about the fact that the first two videos are viral successes and the latter is a 15 second composition designed for Twitter. Be sure to reply to each other and make your tweets conversation starters and continuations.

Please note that the videos assigned are not to promote a particular political point of view. Rather, they are assigned because they are social media successes that advocate for social justice issues. That is, the kinds of videos we could potentially make in B:Social. If you have questions beyond this explanation, please do not hesitate to contact me as soon as possible.

F 9/29: Vaynerchuck & video examples
Background Research Part 2 Due by 11:00pm in shared GoogleDoc

Week Six: Interviewing & Social Media Stories

Assignment for Monday, 10/2
We’re going to give it another try with Vaynerchuck, so if you were not able to complete the work for Friday, please do so.

Otherwise, feel free to take the weekend off in preparation for the busy weeks we are going to have between now and Oct 21 (or 28 for the Farmer’s Market).

But, come to class ready to discuss Vaynerchuck in great detail.

And remember to complete your week Story of Learning Update.

M 10/2: Vaynerchuk & video examples, part 2
Swarthmore Farmer’s Market Blog Post Due

Assignment for Friday, 10/6
Please read Aaker & Smith (2010), “6 Nonprofits On Instagram Who Are Getting It Right,” and the following videos:

Continue live-tweeting the readings as you have throughout the semester, responding to each other, as well. Here, I’d you to make connections between the Instagram accounts, the videos,  Aaker & Smith, and Lambert on digital storytelling. If you see parallels to Vaynerchuck, you can add those, as well.

We’ll discuss these in class, much as we discussed the videos and texts on Monday.

W 10/4: Aaker & Smith, “6 Nonprofits On Instagram Who Are Getting It Right”; reading-summary-terms-new.pdf
Discuss Social Media Analysis Assignment

Assignment for Friday, 10/6
Please read the short reading by Hlinko (2012) on social media multipliers. Go through your client’s last 100 or so tweets or Instagram posts and try to identify their multipliers. Who is forwarding their messages most? Also read the TrackMaven report which analyses social media post content and frequencies. Be sure to scroll through the list of industries until you reach Nonprofit Organization Management. Read through the Social Media Analysis Report assignment, which we will discuss in more detail on Friday. Start doing some analyses of your own social media feeds and tweet a bit about what you find out.

F 10/6: Hlinko; TrackMaven Report & data analysis; stat overlay

Week Seven: Storytelling and Content

M 10/9: Fall Break — No Class.

Assignment for Wednesday, 10/11
The texts for Wednesday are going to be about interviewing and the power of stories. We’re going to be borrowing our interview techniques from the oral history field, which advocates for open-ended interviews.

Please read Portelli (2006) and Turkel (2006), which are available on the readings page. The scans of the readings aren’t great, I’m sorry to say. Please also listen to significant portions of Studs Turkel’s oral history interviews with

Joseph Moore:

and Leola Spann:

Please also watch the raw footage of the first 12 minutes of the interview with Nolan from Stryker Farms. (You can watch the whole thing, but around 12 minutes we pause because there is a noise coming from a water pump. The pause lasts about 6 minutes, but you’ll see that interviews are not just consistent conversations.)

I’d like you to think about what you’ve read, listened to, and watched in relation to Mia’s Story and Nolan’s Story. Tweet about ways you think the kinds of interviews advocated and exhibited here could lead to the kinds of narratives told in the those videos. What is it about the oral history process that results in such meaningful statements? Also live-tweet about other questions, thoughts, and concerns you have with the texts.

W 10/11: Portelli, Turkel, and Examples
F 10/13: More interviewing
Discuss Midterm Story of Learning
Discuss Social Media Takeover Assignment

Week Eight: Workshops

M 10/16: In-Class Workshops; Monday file for workshops
Roots2Rise Blog Post Due
W 10/18: In-Class Workshops; Wednesday file for workshops
F 10/20: In-Class Workshops
Sunday 10/22: Midterm Story of Learning Due by 11:00pm

Week Nine: Second Client Meetings

M 10/23: Class Canceled for Midterm Conferences but you will meet with your teams
W 10/25: Class Canceled for Midterm Conferences but you will meet with your teams
Social Media Analysis Report draft due as Word doc by 11:00pm in shared GoogleDoc
F 10/27: Class Canceled for Midterm Conferences but you will meet with your teams

Week Ten: Storytelling, Emotion, and the Power to Change

Assignment for Monday 10/30
No assignment for Monday.

M 10/30: Catching up
Ubuntu Blog Post Due
PEC Blog Post Due
W 11/1: Reflection Wednesday; mid-semester-reflection.pdf
F 11/3: Workflow
Social Media Analysis Report draft due by 11:00pm as formal PDF

Week Eleven: Team/Fellow/Bill Meetings

M 11/6: Work on projects
W 11/8: Work on projects; Quest Documentary
F 11/10: Work on projects
Social Media Analysis Report Final ROUGH draft due by 11:00pm as formal PDF

Week Twelve: Third Client Meetings & Team/Fellow/Bill Meetings

M 11/13: TBD
Deliverables First Drafts Due
W 11/15: TBD
F 11/17: TBD

Week Thirteen: Work on Projects

M 11/20: TBD
Social Media Analysis Report FINAL due by 11:00pm as formal PDF
W 11/22: Thanksgiving — No Class
F 11/24: Thanksgiving — No Class

Week Fourteen: Project Draft Presentations

M 11/27: TBD
Deliverables Second Drafts Due
W 11/29: Class Photo for B:Social web site
Discuss Client Case Study and Final Documentary Video
F 12/1: TBD

Week Fifteen: Work on Projects

M 12/4: TBD
Final Deliverables Due by 11:00pm
W 12/6: TBD
F 12/8: Final Reflection Friday
Client Case Study Due by 11:00pm

Week Sixteen: The Last Week

M 12/11: TBD
Client Case Study Due by 11:00pm
Final Documentary Video Due by 11:00pm
Final Deliverables Due by by 11:00pm
Final Social Media Analysis Due by 11:00pm

Thursday, 12/14, 1:00: End of Semester Event, in Bronstein
Friday 12/15, Monday, 12/18 Final Story of Learning due by 11:00pm

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