Media & Design of Social Learning Environments (Winter, 2010)

Media and the Design of Social Learning Environments

(Communication: COMT115; Human Development: HDP115)

Winter 2010

Discussion: Monday & Wednesday 1:30 - 2:50

Location: Social Sciences Research Bldg #308

Site Visits: Mon thru Thurs 3:30 – 5:30 (Mon & Wed or Tue & Thurs shifts)

Location: Town and Country Learning Center

4066 Messina Dr., San Diego, CA 92113 (map & pic)

Instructor: Robert Lecusay (email)

Reader: Rachel Cody-Pfister (email)

Office hours: Social Sciences Research Bldg #305 (Mon. 11 – 12)

Course websites:

Syllabus: http://communication.ucsd.edu/rlecusay/comt115WI10/index.html

Field note database: http://fieldnotes.ucsd.edu

Learning Center: http://www.tclearninglounge.org

UC Links: http://gse2.berkeley.edu/~uclinks/

Requirements Schedule Course Materials Research Partners

Media and the Design of Social Learning Environments is a practicum course uniquely designed to help you learn and apply theories of human development and communication. You will be introduced to these theories in a seminar setting and asked to draw on them outside the classroom as you engage in field research in an afterschool learning center. A key objective of the course is to teach you how to critically study human cognitive and communicative development as it unfolds in environments and situations that people commonly experience in their day to day lives (work, school, after school vs. controlled laboratory settings). A large part of your training will involve learning by doing. You will visit the after-school center to work, play, teach and learn with the resident youth. It is through your participation at the center that you will be socialized into the culture of the center. As you do this you will also learn to carefully observe and document your own and other’s participation in the ongoing activities at the center. These qualitative research skills will help you evaluate theories of learning, communication, and development. Furthermore, your participation in this practicum will enhance your interpersonal teaching skills as well as skills necessary for conducting qualitative research (e.g. expository & narrative writing, data analysis). The aim of this course is not only to teach you how to conduct social science field research in a skillful and ethical way, but also to connect you with the local community in a way that helps you realize that this community and the communities to which you belong are interdependent.

Course Requirements (back to top)

Attendance

1. Class discussion: Mondays & Wednesdays, 1:30 – 2:50 pm, SSRB #308.

a. Mondays: discussions will generally focus on student experiences at site and organizational work including conference call with the Learning Center site coordinator to plan ongoing activities.

b. Wednesdays: discussion of assigned readings.

c. Mondays & Wednesdays: During the first thirty minutes of discussion we will take the time to experiment with and talk about some of the computer activities available at the learning center. We will also discuss some of the routines at the center. The objective of this portion of the discussion is to familiarize you with the culture of and varieties of activities at the Learning Center.

2. Site Visits: Monday - Thursday, 2 day shifts, 3:30 – 5:30, 4 hours total per week. During site visits your priority is to learn, play and work with the resident youth. At times you will also work with the friends and families of the resident youth as well as the staff of the Learning Center, participating in activities designed to contribute to and sustain some of the basic functions of the Center. We will discuss the rules and routines of the Learning Center in class. You can get a head start on your Learning Center education by checking out this list of rules from November, 2008.

Field Notes: You are required to write field notes that document your experiences at the Learning Center. Your notes should be written and submitted within 24 hrs. of your visit to the Learning Center. A guide for how to write your field notes (including a description of how field notes are graded) is available here and one for uploading your field notes is available here. You will receive hard copies of these guides on the first day of class.

This course forms an integral part of an ongoing collaborative research project for studying human development from the individual to the institutional level. The project brings together a wide variety of people and organizations from the university and local community. As a student in this course, you are now part of this research collaborative both as researcher and participant. The field notes you write are data critical to this research project. They are one of the primary sources of information used by our research collaborative to study changes in the people and organizations that together make up the Learning Center. Furthermore, you will be asked to use these field notes, as well as your classmates’, as evidence to support the claims you make in your final paper. It is therefore vital that you take care to write detailed, comprehensive field notes in a timely manner.

Collaborative reading-discussion: Students will be divided into small groups. Twice during the quarter each group will be asked to lead discussion about the assigned readings. Guidelines for how to critically read can be found here. On the days you are asked to lead discussion, please be prepared to discuss the answer to two of the eight questions included in these guidelines. You will be assigned your questions and “presentation” dates during the first week of classes. (1/7/10 - You can access your assignment schedule here.)

Quizzes: Class discussions are more worthwhile for you and your classmates when everyone comes to class having read the assigned texts. In order to encourage students to read these texts, five unannounced quizzes will be given throughout the quarter. Each quiz will consist of one question designed to assess your basic understanding of the concepts, arguments, or methods presented in the text. These will be simple quizzes. If you read the text, you have a 99.99999% chance of getting full marks.

Final project preparation assignments: In order to help you prepare for your final project, two project organization tasks will be assigned. The first (DUE in class Wednesday, January 27^th) is designed to get you to think about what you have been doing at the center, who you have been doing it with and what you find interesting (or not) about the activities you’ve engaged in so far (see assignment here). The second task (DUE VIA EMAIL Friday, February 12^th) is designed to help you come up with your research question(s) and the methods you will use to address it (see assignment here).

Final Assignments

******ALL FINAL ASSIGNMENTS DUE Wednesday March 17th – 12 noon, SSRB rm. 308 *********

Final Reflection Paper (3 full pages minimum): At the end of the quarter you will be asked to review your field notes and use them to create an account of your experiences in the class. This account should include your honest impressions about what you think you learned and if and how you changed. Draw on your field notes (and, if necessary, those of others in the class) to compare your impressions at the beginning, middle, and end of the quarter.

Final project (paper only or Mixed Media Option): In addition to your reflection paper you will also write a final research paper. You can choose to write a final paper only (7 full pages minimum) or do the Mixed Media Option (paper (3.5 pages minimum) + a/v media). In both cases the purpose of the paper is to critically present and analyze the research you conducted during your time at the Learning Center. You will be expected to draw on the theories and methods introduced to you in class as means for organizing and interpreting your work. We ask that you use your field notes and those of others in the class to support the claims you make in your paper.As noted above, you will be given two preliminary assignments to help you organize this project. We will discuss the ins and outs of developing and completing your project throughout the quarter. In addition, read the Guidelines & Suggestions for Writing your Final Paper & Final Reflection. Final papers from previous quarters are available for your review (ask the instructor or TA). Here is a list of some paper titles from previous quarters:

Performing Attitude as a Response and Defense
The Battle of Interest and Learning in an Informal Science Activity

How much help is too much help?
Children’s listening skills: Is ignoring an important part of communication?
Teens’ interpretations of politics in the news.
More than reading 101: a look at one child’s reading progress
Interactive tutoring: using the internet to help with homework
A new plan for the media center
When playing WITs age matters
Parent involvement at Town and Country
The challenges facing the healthy snack program
More than plants grow in our garden
The teens at T&C: special challenges
Trash Talk
Cultural differences between the kids and the buddies at T & C
Little girls and sexualized play
Getting kids involved: Why (rewards/punishment/nagging…) does/does not work.

Mixed Media Option: In the past some students have pursued performance and/or digital media projects (e.g. video documentaries, arts & crafts projects) created for or in collaboration with the youth at the Learning Center. When done thoughtfully, these projects can offer powerful insights into the activities that they represent, and by extension, into the life of the Learning Center and its members. If you think you would like to turn in a mixed media project instead of a traditional research paper, see the instructor or TA early in the quarter to discuss your plans. Your media must be accompanied with a final paper (3.5 pages minimum) that addresses the purpose of the project, how & why it was developed and completed, and what you think the project contributed to the Learning Center community.

Double-sided printing is encouraged, but not required.

Advising & Email

Check the email you use for school-related purposes once on Tuesdays & Thursdays. I frequently use email to communicate with the class about assignments, organizational work at the learning center, etc.

For questions, appointments, or anything related to the course, please email me or the TA. Please allow 48 hours for us to respond to your emails. If we don’t respond within 48 hrs., you may email us again to remind us.

I encourage you to contact me or the TA whenever you have any questions, doubts, concerns. I especially encourage you to contact me to discuss your plans for your final project, not just once you have developed them, but as your are developing them. This means discussing your plans with me or the TA throughout the quarter, not leaving your work to the last minute.

Finals week: Although I will try my best to answer all your questions about the final portfolio, I reserve the right not to answer questions 24 hours before the portfolio is due. Time your work on the final portfolio accordingly. (I do this in order to discourage students to wait until the last minute to complete their final portfolio).

Grading:

Participation                                                    10%
Field Notes                                                     35%
Quizzes                                                    15%
Reflection Paper                                           15%
Final Paper/Mixed Media Project                    25%

Course Schedule

(back to top)

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10

WEEK 1: Monday, January 4 (back to top)

Discussion:     Course introduction.

WEEK 1: Wednesday, January 6

Discussion:     History and intellectual foundations of LCHC-inspired afterschool research; how to write field notes Pt 1.

Read & Explore:

1.    Cole, M. & the Distributed Literacy Consortium (2006). Introduction. In M. Cole & the Distributed Literacy                    Consortium (Eds.) The fifth dimension: An after-school program built on diversity (pp.1 - 13). New York: Russell            Sage Foundation.
2.    Field note writing guide (including two sample field notes: sample 1, sample 2)
3.    Syllabus: read through the online syllabus thoroughly including all of the course materials (assignments, paper                writing tips, etc.)
4.    Town and Country Learning Center website: explore it! http://www.tclearninglounge.org

WEEK 2: Monday, January 11 (back to top)

Discussion:     Impressions from Week1; how to write field notes Pt 2 (review of field notes and feedback in the field note                        database); Organizing for the week and quarter ahead.

WEEK 2: Wednesday, January 13

Discussion:    Rationale for the design of after-school programs and activities. Ethics of short-term collaborative                                     ethnographic research.

Read:

1.    Cole, M. & the Distributed Literacy Consortium (2006). The intellectual foundations of the fifth dimension. In M.            Cole & the Distributed Literacy Consortium (Eds.) The fifth dimension: An after-school program built on diversity            (pp.15 - 33). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
2.    Conquergood, D. (1985). Performing as a moral act: Ethical dimensions of the ethnography of performance.                    Literature in Performance, 5: 1-13.
3.    Fine, G. A. & Sandstrom, K. L. (1988). Researchers and Kids (pp. 13 – 33) & To know knowing children (pp. 72 –        76). In G. A. Fine & K. L. Sandstrom (Eds.) Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors. Newbury            Park, CA: Sage Publications.

WEEK 3: Monday, January 18 HOLIDAY NO CLASS (back to top)

WEEK 3: Wednesday, January 20

Discussion:    TCLC visit discussion: Preliminary ideas for group projects; more discussion of field notes; general                                    impressions; organizational work.
                       Theory discussion: Sociocultural theories of learning and development. Mediation as a concept for thinking                        about thinking. Culture and cognition as mutually constitutive processes.

Read:

1.   Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. In L.S. Vygotsky Mind in Society (pp. 79 –         91). Cambridge, NA: Harvard University Press
2.   Rogoff, Barbara. (2003). Development as Transformation of Participation in Cultural Activities. In B. Rogoff (ed.)        The Cultural Nature of Human Development (pp. 37 – 62). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3.   Fine, G. A. & Sandstrom, K. L. (1988). Participant observation with preschoolers. In G. A. Fine & K. L. Sandstrom        (Eds.) Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors (pp. 36 – 47). Newbury Park, CA: Sage
       Publications.

WEEK 4: Monday, January 25 (back to top)

Discussion:     Preparing for your final project pt. I (developing a research question) ; general impressions; organizational                        work.

WEEK 4: Wednesday, January 27

*********ASSIGNMENT DUE IN CLASS: Organizing your paper, Pt. I********

Discussion: Learning, Development and Identity: An example of developmental research in a university-
                    community after-school research collaborative.

Read:

1.    Polman, J. L. (2006). Mastery and appropriation as means to understand the interplay of history learning and identity        trajectories. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15(2), 221-259.
2.    Fine, G. A. & Sandstrom, K. L. (1988). Participant observation with preadolescents. In G. A. Fine & K. L.
       Sandstrom (Eds.) Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors (pp. 49 – 58). Newbury Park, CA: Sage        Publications.

WEEK 5: Monday, February 1 (back to top)

Discussion: General impressions; organizational work.

WEEK 5: Wednesday, February 3

Discussion:     Graduate student research presentations: Camille Campion, Rachel Cody-Pfsiter, Tamara Powell and
                       Ivan Rosero.

Read and watch:

1.   Growing up online. Frontline documentary on youth’s different uses of digital media. Access at:
       http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/.
2.   Excerpt from “Commognition: Thinking as communicating” chapter in Sfard, A. (2008). Thinking as
       communicating: Human development, the growth of discourses, and mathematizing (pp.76 – 80). New York:                   Cambridge University Press.
3.   Fine, G. A. & Sandstrom, K. L. (1988). Participant observation with adolescents. In G. A. Fine & K. L. Sandstrom        (Eds.) Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors (pp. 59 – 71). Newbury Park, CA: Sage
       Publications.

WEEK 6: Monday, February 8 (back to top)

Discussion: Preparing for your final project pt. II (methods, data collection & analysis); general impressions; organizational work.

WEEK 6: Wednesday, February 10

***ASSIGMENT DUE VIA EMAIL by 5:00 pm Friday, February 12: Organizing your paper, Pt. II***

Discussion: Interacting with kids.

Listen to & and be ready to discuss:
1.    Discussion of G. A. Fine & K. L. Sandstrom (1988). Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors.
2.    How to Talk to Kids podcast: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1209

WEEK 7: Monday, February 15 HOLIDAY NO CLASS (back to top)

WEEK 7: Wednesday, February 17

Discussion:    What does it take to do community research? The politics of collaboration.
                        General impressions; organizational work.

Read:

1.   Sarason, S. (1972). Resources and Values. In S. Sarason The creation of settings and the future of societies (pp. 114        – 144). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
2.    Mcguire, R. (1989). Here. RAW 2(1).

WEEK 8: Monday, February 22 (back to top)

Discussion: General impressions; organizational work. Preparing your final project (Outlines, Citations, Making claims).

WEEK 8: Wednesday, February 24

Discussion: Demography and education. If culture/cognition is situated, whose situation is it?

Read and listen to:

1.   Macleod, Jay. (1987). Ain’t no makin’ it: Leveled aspirations in a low income neighborhood. In David B Grusky        (Ed.) Social Stratification: Race Class and Gender in Social Perspective, 2nd Ed (p.421-434). Cornell, Westview            Press.
2.   Davies, K. (producer) (2009). Getting out. This audio documentary chronicles the life of an African-American boy            who wins a scholarship to boarding school and has to deal with the complexities of navigating between life at the
       school and life in the inner-city neighborhood he has left behind. Access at:
       http://hearingvoices.com/news/2009/06/hv060-getting-out/

WEEK 9: Monday, March 1 (back to top)

Discussion: Preparing for the goodbye party, pt. I; general impressions; organizational work.

WEEK 9: Wednesday, March 3

Discussion:     Research methods and topics for studying learning and development in informal learning environments,                            Pt.I.

Read:

1.    Pea, R. D. (1993). Learning scientific concepts through material and social activities: Conversational analysis meets         conceptual change. Educational Psychologist, 28(3), 265-277.
2.    Finkelstein, N., Gallego, M. (2004). When the classroom isn't in school: The construction of scientific knowledge in        an after-school setting. In Randy Yerrick and Wolff-Michael Roth (Eds.) Establishing scientific classroom discourse        communities: Multiple voices of research on teaching and learning. Lawrence Erlbaum

WEEK 10: Monday, March 8 (back to top)

Discussion: Preparing for the goodbye party, pt. II; general impressions; organizational work.

WEEK 10: Wednesday, March 10

Discussion:    Research methods and topics for studying learning and development in informal learning environments,
                       Pt. II.

Read:

1.   Nocon, H. (2005) Productive resistance: lessons from after school about engaged noncompliance. American
       Journal of Education, 111, 191-210.

GOODBYE PARTY – tentatively scheduled for Thursday, March 11

WEEK 11 - FINALS WEEK:

**** HARD COPIES DUE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17 noon at SSRB, room 308 ****

Final Portfolio:
1.    Field notes
2.   Reflection paper
3.    Final paper