This is not a drill-and-skill type of course. I expect everyone to be involved in class discussions, which are extremely important for critical thinking. You must contribute to class discussions. Fifteen or 18 percent (18% for 5000-level students) of your grade is based on participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In-class participation means you are ready to be called on at any time<\/font><\/strong> to respond to a question, prompt, and\/ or suggestion about the course material. Yes, I will call on you in class periodically, so be prepared to demonstrate that you\u2019re reflecting thoughtfully on the readings. Thoughtful reflection doesn\u2019t mean you give THE answer; instead, it means you show awareness for the complexity of our subject by describing your interpretation or asking questions that demonstrate critical thinking (as opposed to certainty). We embrace ambiguity in this course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additional-class participation means you respond to questions, prompts, and\/or suggestions about the course material without being called on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merely showing up will not get you participation credit\u2014you must engage the course materials. If you’re not in class, you can’t receive credit, so your participation grade will be affected. I will note your participation (or lack thereof) daily. Thoughtful participation means that you engage critically in our discussions or ask engaging questions about the subject. Simply making quips or responding that you like or dislike something does not warrant thoughtful participation. Doing work for another class or distracting other students will lower your participation grade\u2014even to the point of falling below 15% (meaning, you can have a negative participation grade).<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Please see me ASAP if you’re concerned about your participation grade because you’re shy or if you don’t understand these requirements. Telling me at the end of April that you didn’t participate because you’re the quiet type or because you didn’t understand what “thoughtful” meant will be too late. The purpose of discussions is for students to have control over their own learning and to reinforce critical thinking generally and dialogic exchange of ideas specifically. I am willing to provide a quasi-alternative to supplement a student\u2019s participation grade, but please note that discussion, which allows speakers to exchange ideas, is an extremely important component of critical thinking. Alternative assignments are rare and based solely on my discretion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will have prompts related to our readings and class discussions. In order to foster your understanding of the course material and theories, I want you to interact with other classmates through writing (we\u2019ll do plenty of speaking in class, but feel free to talk about these ideas with your classmates outside of class). Each week, I\u2019ll ask you to respond to a prompt I provide by Friday at 11:00 pm. Set those weekly reminders now. I\u2019ll have these Discussion prompts on Canvas<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Posting or responding in uncritical ways\u2013ways that don\u2019t rise to the level of a 4000\/5000-level course\u2013will affect your grade. So will not responding in at least 250 words. All citations are in addition to the 250-word reflections–no padding your response with long quotations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you read and participate in class discussions, consider video games as products of culture. This semester, we’ll identify cultural values and how video games reflect these values. For this essay, you should define American Culture by explaining some prevailing values. How many? It’s not about quantity. You shouldn’t just list or state the values. You must describe (make an argument for) why you feel those values are part of a culture. You could do a fine job on one value, but two or three related values would also be a valid approach. Imagine someone asking you, “what’s the essence of American culture?” This would be your response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do not expect you to go into a tremendous amount of technical or historical detail in your essays; instead, try to pick a value that might fit our discussions regarding American values in general. Although we might all agree that a particular value (e.g., individualism) is an American value, you must offer support for such a claim\u2014you can’t just state it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After you identify and describe the values, you must describe how those values are located or embodied<\/a> in the American culture. You may use “I” and even bring in personal examples, but you have to defend your reasons for arguing the way you do. Below are the format logistics (I don\u2019t take off for formatting, but I am always asked about formatting so\u2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the course of the semester, the above ideas should make more sense. You’ll have a chance to workshop these essays and revise. Please start thinking about American Culture and identify values. You’ll workshop this on 2\/10\/2022<\/strong> (Google Docs) and turn it in via Canvas on 2\/17\/2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please don\u2019t email me a draft and say “look at this.” Office hours are Tuesdays & Thursdays 4:00-5:00 pm and by appt (Zoom is preferred). If you’re wondering if one particular value over another would be better suited, please ask, and I’ll offer some advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You will need to cite our readings, but I also expect this to have some personality. Late essays will start at 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using a theoretical lens, a blend of lenses, or just a smart perspective you must analyze a video game (or games). You may do a rhetorical analysis where you explain how meaning is conveyed in the game or compare meaning across games. The most straightforward approach is to pick a video game (or related video games) and set out to explain what makes the video game a product of the culture from which it comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alternatively, you could analyze games from one of the analysis types we discussed in Understanding Video Games<\/em> (Table 1, p. 11)–looking at gaming communities or gamers themselves is appropriate for research. As you know, we focus more on rhetorical and cultural analyses, but there are other analyses you may do. In order not to bite off more than you can chew, I suggest not analyzing gamers playing games. To do such an analysis properly, you would need to interview gamers, record their game play, and transcribe hours of data. You could analyze gaming discussions that you find online or focus on a vlogger\u2019s \u201cwalkthrough\u201d of a game (YouTube has 1000s of these). There is plenty of background research\u2014mostly case studies\u2014on video gamers, so, if this is the approach you\u2019d like to do, do your research early. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, you don\u2019t have to have played the game to focus on a segment of the narrative (or game play). YouTube has so much game play recorded, so, if you\u2019re not agile enough to get through a game, you may watch game play and analyze that. Remember, the YouTube video and the video game itself are both cultural products\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of your approach, you are not summarizing.<\/strong> You are doing a critical analysis and making sound arguments about the meaning(s) of a game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These will be workshopped on 3\/17 and are due 4\/07<\/span> on Canvas. Format this the way an essay should be formatted and make sure it is at least 7 pages (9 for 5000-level students)<\/strong>. It requires research outside of the class reading, and you will also need to cite our readings (yes, and readings not assigned), so make sure you do that. If you don\u2019t cite\u2014use in-text citations\u2014any of our readings or outside research, I\u2019ll tell you to do it over. Therefore, your essay will be late, and all late essays start at 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did I mention that you aren’t supposed to summarize the games: you interpret them or explain their significance culturally, historically, or clinically.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n *Change from the syllabus.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n *This is now worth 200 points because I’m combining it with the Final Presentation, so it’s just one assignment.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You have many options for this assignment. Basically, you will make an argument using new media. You have lots of freedom to work with visuals, video, or audio in any way you\u2019d like. Consider creating a project that reflects or is inspired by something from this course. Instead of rigid guidelines, I want you to have plenty of room for experimentation. I\u2019m just looking to see how the course reading inspired you to communicate in a form other than a traditional academic essay. This may (and probably should) be related to your Video Game Essay assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t need to be an editing guru to do this. You can easily create a project using a program like Video Editor, which is a standard program for Microsoft Windows. Using text, images, videos, and F\/X, make an argument. I will show you a few examples (I hope), but I\u2019m not concerned with how well-edited this is. I\u2019m concerned with your argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have plenty of possible ways you can do this assignments. A video would be a good choice (example<\/strong><\/a>–way too long for your model).\u00a0Just make sure I can play the project, and please have citations (URLs and such) for the material you get online. Yes, you MUST cite our readings, so your last frames (or final frames) will have citations from our readings and the material you use from outside of class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n New information on the combined assignments:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n *This is no longer required because it’s combined with the above Multimodal Project.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Participation (Every Class Meeting) This is not a drill-and-skill type of course. I expect everyone to be involved in class discussions, which are extremely important for critical thinking. You must contribute to class discussions. Fifteen or 18 percent (18% for 5000-level students) of your grade is based on participation. In-class participation means you are ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":8505,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8605","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-2eN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8605"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8971,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8605\/revisions\/8971"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Canvas Prompts<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
What is American Culture? Essay (Final Due 2\/17)<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Video Game Essay (New Due Date: 4\/07)<\/span><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Possible Topics<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nHere are the requirements for your 3\/18*<\/span> drafts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Multimodal Project (Due 4\/28-5\/09)*<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Final Presentation (Due 5\/09)<\/s><\/h1>\n\n\n\nYou will do a 4 to 5-minute presentation on your Multimodal Project. This presentation will be during our Final Exam Time, May 9, 2022 (or uploaded by that date). Don\u2019t go under 4 minutes, and don’t go over 5 minutes. We\u2019ll discuss these projects later in the semester.<\/s><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"