Assignment Overview

For the final module project, students in their blog groups create a rationale for and sketch out the basic layouts and functions for a new app associated with the subject of your blog for either a tablet or iPad. The app will be presented to the class in the form of a Pecha Kucha.

Several years ago, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham invented the Pecha Kucha presentation format (pronunciation) in response to two significant problems in presentations: people tend to talk too long and people tend to use PowerPoint slides in mind-numbingly horrible ways. I’m sure you all know what I mean. Klein and Dytham’s solution: add constraints to the presentation format:

• 20 slides
• 20 seconds per slide
• total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds per presentation.

They held a conference. It was a success. And the Pecha Kucha format spread around the globe, landing, now in #tfwf14 at Rowan University.

Since the first conferences others have added additional constraints to the format, notably limiting the number of images on a slide, limiting how often an image can be used, and how many words may appear on each slide. These are often written in rules that look like this:

• 1/1/0 — 1 image per slide / each image can be used only once / zero words per slide

Because of the limited time, Pecha Kuchas are wonderfully devoid of fluff and filler. Presenters using such a format get to the point and explicate their points. The presentations are idea-and narrative-driven. That is, they take a single idea or issue (for example, bullying in a cyber world or the impact of gaming on writing) and over the course of the presentation explicate on that idea, the implications of that idea, and offer unique (not cliched) takes on what we are to do with this idea or issue. The presentations, when done well, are fascinating and gripping. They are funny when they need to be. And the leave the audience wanting to know and understand more. That is what you are going to try to do in your project.

Here is an example of a Pecha Kucha by Dan Pink of Wired Magazine in which he explains and provides an example of the format (and mispronounces the name):

Assignment Specifics: the app

The title of this module is Technologies and the Future of Writing. The app you design will be one that anticipates or makes real how writing will be learned, taught, used, and/or manipulated in the future. The app you design should build off of or significantly include ideas relating to your collaborative blog topic. For example, if your blog topic is gaming and writing, then your app should have a gaming-like component to it. If your topic is on the immediacy of writing, your app should be influenced by those ideas. Each app will also be informed by the theories and ideas introduced in our readings (such as, online community, sharing information, technological literacy, remediation, to name a very few) and in research your group conducts on current writing apps, as well as the functionalities afforded by Web 2.0.

You are not going to have to design a working app. Rather, your group will come up with a rationale for why the app is needed and create minor sketches for the the app’s different screens and functions. You can either sketch things on a blank paper or you can use one of these handy tablet wireframes (.pdf) by popapp:

Steps to Create the app

Each group will complete the following:

1. Research writing apps for various age groups, noting their features and functions
   • Each group member will compose 1 blog post in which they review a writing app, including screen shots and discussions of it’s features and functions. Consider how the app is anticipating a future of writing. The post should also consider the app in relation to Bolter’s ideas on remediation and Devoss and Porter’s discussion of the ethics of delivery. That is, what genres, modes, or technologies or writing are being remediated by the app. Be sure to link to the app. This blog post can count as one of your required 5 blog posts.
     Module 2 due date: by class-time 10/28
     Module 1 due date: by class-time 9/25.
2. Determine a target age group.
3. Determine what the app will teach and/or enable writers to do.
4. Create sketches for the app, including various screens and functions.
   • Each group member will create 5 sketches to present—do not designate one group member to create the sketches.
5. Compose a rationale for the app, which includes a discussion of the features and functions, and how it is informed by the theories and ideas introduced in our readings (such as, online community, sharing information, technological literacy, remediation, to name a very few) and in research your group conducts on current writing apps. The rationale should be 150 – 250 words long.
6. Create the Pecha Kucha and present it to class.

Assignment Specifics: the Pecha Kucha

Each group will present their Pecha Kucha to the class on the last day of the module. Each group member will also compose a reflection that is due on the Sunday following the end of the module. The reflection will contextualize the work the student completed on the Pecha Kucha. Though this is a group project, students will be assessed in terms of their individual work. If a group member does not fulfill their obligations, the other members will not be penalized.

The Structure of the Pecha Kucha

Each Pecha Kucha must conform to the following constraints:

• each blog group member will create 5 slides and compose the narrative for each of those slides (total time 1 minute, 40 seconds)
  • for blog groups with more than 4 members this will result in a presentation longer than 20 slides, which is okay for our purposes
• each group member must include in their narrative: a rationale for the portion(s) of the app they discuss; how it is informed by their app research; how it takes advantage of Web 2.0 functionalities, and what specifically anticipates or makes real how writing will be learned, taught, used, and/or manipulated in the future.
• each group member must quote from or reference at least 3 of the course texts, 1 of which must be a discussion of their portion of the presentation in terms of Bolter’s ideas on remediation, another must be in terms of Devoss and Porter’s discussion of a new ethic of delivery, and the third is up to you
• the presentation as a whole must conform to the 1/1/0 rule: 1 image per slide / each image can be used only once / zero descriptive words per slide (for example, don’t include words that explain what the slide is about)
  • each slide should consist of 1 app sketch created by that group member but in collaboration with the whole group (it is okay if there are words in your sketch as long as they are part of the app)
• though each blog member is solely responsible for the slides they create, the presentation as a whole must be presented as one seamless narrative
• a Works Cited list must appear as an additional last slide

Getting Started
Though students are creating their own slides and composing their own parts of the narrative, each blog group must collaborate when determining the overall goals of their app and the Pecha Kucha. This is because the presentation must be seamless. That is, it should appear as if it was collaboratively written or written by one person. Here is a suggested work flow for getting started:

1. Meet as a group and be sure you fully understand the nature of the assignment and the structure of the final presentation
2. Discuss what you have learned so far about your issue, writing, and Web 2.0
3. Based on those ideas, determine the overall scope of the presentation
4. Consider how your group might present the information so that the goal of what the audience learns is attained; that is, consider what important parts of the app need to be presented
5. Each blog member should select an important part of the app they will cover in their narrative for their 5 slides
6. Break out and begin composing individual portions of the assignment and designing images
7. Return to the group and begin to see how the individual portions complement each other and where they need to be fixed so the overall narrative is seamless
8. Be sure there is a kind of introduction and conclusion to your presentation so whomever is going first and whomever is going last should understand that they have to compose those portions, as well.

I suggest setting strict due dates for when work is going to be completed. If a blog member is not doing their work, the rest of the group should move on and not get held up.

I also suggest composing the final PowerPoint on a PC so there are no presentation issues when moving from a Mac to the classroom PC.

Setting up PowerPoint and Keynote for a Pecha Kucha

Students must set up PowerPoint or Keynote to advance automatically from slide to slide every 20 seconds. This takes a few easy steps.

Setting Up PowerPoint (on a Mac; PC may look different)
These steps can be taken before you start adding slides or after all the slides are completed.
1. Go to Slide Show –> Transitions

2. Click on Options.

3. Uncheck “On Mouse Click”; check “Automatically after” and add 20 “seconds”

Setting up Keynote (Mac only)
These steps should be taken after all the slides are completed (or during the process if you want to test things out)

1. Click on one of the slide thumbnails. Highlight all the slides by going to Edit –> Select All. You should notice all the slide thumbnails highlighted in yellow.

2. Go to the “Inspector” window and select Slide Inspector icon (second from the left). In the Effect pulldown menu, select None. In the Slide Transition pull-down menu, select Automatically and change the time to 20.0 s.

The Reflection

Thinking about your app, your app research, and the readings, I’d like to discuss what it means to be literate today. Is it just writing alphabetic text, or does it contain a more diverse and changing group of skills and abilities? When doing so, reference at least 1 reading/video from each of the 4 Web 2.0 reading sections on the Readings page. When making your case, point to your own app as evidence of what you are describing. The goal here is for me to more fully understand how you understand the readings we have completed, how you understand your own app, and how you are thinking about what it means to be literate today. Length: 500 – 600 words.

Submission Information
Save your reflection file as tfwf14-mod1-yourlastname-reflection.doc or .docx and upload the file to the Intro to Writing Arts folder on Dropbox you created as part of the Portfolio assignment. Please submit by 11:00pm, Sunday October 5.

Due Dates

Module 3
12/4: App review blog post due by the start of class (this is due even though the speakers are coming)
12/2: Group should know what their app will do
12/9: Rationale, rough draft of slides, and rough draft of narratives due by class time; post Rationale and 1 sample slide from each group member to your blog.
12/11: Final Draft presented to class; your blog group is to create one blog post in which you upload a copy of the PowerPoint and paste in the narratives for each blog member. Attribute the narratives to the blog member by firstname and last initial.
12/14: Add your Reflection and Blog Log to your Dropbox folder by 11pm

Module 2
10/28: App review blog post due by the start of class
10/28: Group should know what their app will do
10/30: Rationale, rough draft of slides, and rough draft of narratives due by class time; post Rationale and 1 sample slide from each group member to your blog.
11/6: Final Draft presented to class; your blog group is to create one blog post in which you upload a copy of the PowerPoint and paste in the narratives for each blog member. Attribute the narratives to the blog member by firstname and last initial.
11/9: Add your Reflection and Blog Log to your Dropbox folder by 11pm

Module 1
9/25: App review blog post due by the start of class
9/25: Group should know what their app will do
9/30: Rationale, rough draft of slides, and rough draft of narratives due by class time; post Rationale and 1 sample slide from each group member to your blog.
10/2: Final Draft presented to class; your blog group is to create one blog post in which you upload a copy of the PowerPoint and paste in the narratives for each blog member. Attribute the narratives to the blog member by firstname and last initial.
10/5: Add your Reflection and Blog Log to your Dropbox folder by 11pm

This assignment has been informed by similar assignments created by Jason Jones, Ryan Cordell, George Williams, and Mark Sample. Thanks to Casey Boyle for pointing me to popapp.