About Homework Assignments
The assignments that are listed on this page are to be completed before class starts the day they are due. The latest assignment will be placed at the top to reduce scrolling.
for Spring Break or Monday, March 23
As discussed below, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) materials are due either Monday, March 23, or at least 1 day prior to any interview you conduct during Spring Break. If you are planning to interview over Spring Break, I MUST approve your IRB Proposal materials before you can begin. The sooner you get them to me the better. These materials include: completing the Protecting Human Research Participants training, completing an IRB Proposal, and completing an IRB Consent Form.
For the Protecting Human Research Participants training (this is duplicate of what is stated below) you must first Register. Go to the course, Protecting Human Research Participants and click on the Register link. Register for the course and then follow the instructions to complete the course. The course has 7 modules, 4 of which are followed by quizzes. It should take up to 3 hours to complete. Once you have completed, you will be presented with a congratulations screen (and perhaps an email will be sent to you). To see your certificate of completion, click on “Get Certificate” from the main menu. Take a screen shot of the certificate and sent it to Dr. Wolff in an email. If an email is sent to you, you can forward that instead of sending the screen shot.
The IRB Proposal is the document where you discuss your research goals and methodologies, why the research is important, and what safeguards you have taken to ensure the rights of your human subjects. The Proposal is a formal document, standardized by the institution to which you are submitting it.
I would like you to complete your own IRB Proposal. I have prepared an IRB Proposal Template (.doc, if using Internet Explorer, right click on link and save to your computer) to help you complete the proposal. You will see instructions at the beginning highlighted in yellow. They instruct you to to find all spaces where I have used ALL CAPS to tell you what to include in a specific space. I have filled in many of the responses for you already; please do not replace those responses. Please read the document in full before you begin to replace the ALL CAPS text with your own text. I have also prepared a sample IRB Proposal(.pdf) to give you an idea what they look like when completed. This IRB Proposal was submitted to the Institutional Review Board so that you will be able to conduct this research.
I have prepared your IRB Consent Form (.pdf) for you. Please look at it. You do not need to alter it in any way, but are still required to turn it in with the other documents.
You are also required to turn in a copy of your Protecting Human Research Participants certificate.
Instructions for turning in all materials are available at the bottom of the last page of the IRB Proposal. Make sure you complete the Investigator Checklist and turn in all materials by the requested time.
Do not wait until the last minute to get started on this. The materials must be turned in correctly and approved before you can conduct any interviews. If you have any questions, please email me.
for Wednesday, March 11
Due to the fact that some of us are thinking about getting started interviewing narrators over spring break we need to move up our discussion of human subjects research. (Note: I do not recommend you start interviewing over the break; there is still much to be discussed about interviewing.) To ensure that ethical human subjects research is being conducted by faculty, staff, and students, colleges and universities have set up Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). These boards review research proposals that use human subjects to make sure they are designed according to the latest ethics and methodologies. In order to begin the process of completing a research proposal and consent form, researchers must pass a short course on the history of human subjects research. Though as students you are not required to submit a proposal to the IRB (you will be submitting it to me instead), you are required to complete this mini-course, which is online and can be completed at any time of the day.
To complete the course, you must first Register. Go to the course, Protecting Human Research Participants and click on the Register link. Register for the course and then follow the instructions to complete the course. The course has 7 modules, 4 of which are followed by quizzes. It should take up to 3 hours to complete. Once you have completed, you will be presented with a congratulations screen (and perhaps an email will be sent to you). To see your certificae of completion, click on “Get Certificate” from the main menu. Take a screen shot of the certificate and sent it to Dr. Wolff in an email. If an email is sent to you, you can forward that instead of sending the screen shot.
I will be uploading a sample IRB proposal and consent form. These will have blanks where you are to fill in the specifics of your project.
If you are planning to interview over spring break, you must complete the Human Subjects course by classtime Wednesday, March 11, and you must complete and email Dr. Wolff the Proposal and Consent Form at least 1 day prior to your interview. You cannot conduct the interview without Dr. Wolff’s approval.
If you are not interviewing during Spring Break, the course, Proposal, and Consent Form, are to be completed by classtime, Monday, March 23rd.
See the below video for more information on IRB, the process, and what to do with your consent forms once they are approved.
for Monday, March 9
This (oddly dark and yellow) video summarizes what we discussed in class on Wed, March 4, and describes the new proposal assignment and reading for Monday.
for Monday, March 2
Assignment detailed in the video. Video is due on YouTube by class time on Monday. Please email me with any questions.
for Monday, Feb 16
Assignment detailed in the video.
for Wednesday, Jan 28
Please watch the following videos and be prepared to talk about them in class.
“An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube,” by Michael Wesch (55.33 minutes):
“Wanna Work Together?” by the folks at Creative Commons:
for Monday, Jan 26
Please read the following: Garfield, “YouTube vs. Boob Tube” (some of the videos on this page may no longer be available, but they can be seen if you go to YouTube and search for them); Davis, “The Secret World of Lonelygirl” (be sure to watch the three videos on page 1—they are the first two of Bree and a latter one about Daniel), and Kelly, “Becoming Screen Literate.” These essays may be familiar to some of you. Please read them again thoroughly and thoughtfully as they are forming the basis for this course. Using the Flip Video camera, record a 3 – 5 minute response to the essays. Do not merely discuss whether you like them or not. Rather, talk about them in terms of what you think writing is and how video might be altering or changing perceptions of writing—or, how writing is altering how we think and talk about video.
If you have not taken Introduction to Writing Arts, please first read Axelrod and Cooper’s “Strategies for Reading Critically” and use the annotation techniques they describe when you read: Penrod (2007) “Why Blog?” and “Blogs as a New Writing Genre.” These, and all none-web-based readings, are linked off the readings page, which is password protected. Please email me if you forgot the password. The work we will be doing on vlogging is based on blogging ideas discussed in Introduction to Writing Arts, so it will be important for you to be familiar with what blogs are.
Please download, print, read, and bring to class the course syllabus (.pdf) read Computer Classroom Etiquette.
Download and install the Firefox browser (if you already have it, make sure it is the most recent version), and install the Download Helper plugin (requires Firefox). Download Helper allows you to save YouTube and other videos to your computer. Download and install Jing, which is a screen capture program that records all movements and sound on your screen as a movie.
Create an account at Jamendo, Moby Gratis (film music), Splice Music, Jaycut, and Diigo, using your school email address as your contact email. Jamendo and Moby Gratis are sites where artists have provided music that can be used by anyone for free. Moby’s site is specifically for “independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short.” Splice Music allows you to connect with musicians and create your own music online. Jaycut is an online video editing application that we will be using. Diigo is a social bookmarking and annotation application that we will be using. If you already have accounts at these applications there is no need to create new accounts. Take the tours on each of these sites over the next week so that you become familiar with their features. They will be referred to in class but not necessarily shown how to use.