Group Project
Everyone turned in a project topic Wednesday on the class wiki. Use this blog to share with your classmates a little about your project. Also, tell the class how you decided to divide the work up and how you are proceeding with your research. Where do you plan to look for sources? What strategy does your team have to collaborate? Hopefully, each group can learn from the other's process.
If you are doing the project individually, tell about your topic and share what methods of research you are using.
posted by cmartin @ 2:23 PM
22 Comments:
For the project, my group is doing a project on Dr. Seuss. We plan to cover many different aspects of his work including, but not limited to, the picture books and the meanings behind them, Theodor Geisel's life/biography, and other media into which his work as entered (movies, video games, theme parks, etc).
So far, my group hasn't really divided up the project that much. We decided who wants to run with which part of the project, but nothing concrete has been settled yet. We have done a bit of research, however. We went to the library (so far our main resource) and picked out movies and books, and we did some searching on the Internet. We're meeting on Fridays before class to get more work done, so collaborating shouldn't be too much of a problem for us.
I'm really excited about our project, and I think it's going to turn out great!
I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but my group quickly established that we all love Disney movies. We all grew up with them, how couldn’t we? We also all recognize that Disney is a very pervasive company and can have a significant affect on childhood. Because Disney is such a broad topic, we had a meeting to narrow the focus of our paper. Having group meetings (in person rather than emailing or calling) is a great way to discuss general issues as well as specifics and establish organization. So far we have come up with ideas such as: old fable based movies vs new mainstream movies (including plot and technological changes), commercialization, and media conglomeration. Selecting subsections seemed to be helpful in the division of work. Each member is able to focus on a specific component of the topic and then we can work on combining the parts to make a paper that flows. The internet is always a great source of information as well as the library. Staying on top of the assignment by setting mini goals or assignments is important because the due date is sure to appear sooner than later. My group picked a topic that we are all interested in which helps to keep us motivated. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but at least we get to go back and watch all of our childhood favorites!
In response to chelseyc...
My group is doing Disney so Dr. Seuss seems similar in the sense that it is a very broad topic in which a lot of aspects can be discussed. We also plan to cover a variety of features within our main subject. We need to divide up the project more concretely as well. We already decided on sections, but not on who would cover what. We’re sure the library will be very useful so we plan to take advantage. Having a set day to meet is a great idea because it helps with consistency and progress, I think we will create one soon. Thanks for the advice and your project topic is very intriguing!
Response to kadler:
The idea of setting mini-goals seems like a really good idea. Since this is such a huge project, being able to track your progress and feel like you're getting something accomplished is very encouraging. My team will definitely have to incorporate this strategy into our project.
I also like the topic that you chose because there are so many different angles from which you can approach Disney. I'm sure you're going to do a great job on this, and I can't wait to see it at the end of class!
For the group project, my group is doing the topic Children and Technology. There are many topics that we want to cover and organized them into four categories: technology in education, children's entertainment, communications(which children have access to this technology), and children's medical advances. Each group member is focusing on one category. Each category will include how the topic has evolved over time and the positive/negative effects on children. We may be wanting to cover too many topics and might need to eliminate one aspect and divide a larger category up. We met outside of class at the library and came up with our current idea, but need to meet again to polish exactly what we are doing. I think that we did very well brainstorming and that we will find plenty of information for the topics that we decide to cover.
in response to kadler...
I totally agree that meeting in person is better than email or phone calls. Communicating in person helps to accomplish goals quicker and may lessen miscommunication. I also like your idea of setting mini goals. If you try to tackle the topic all at once, it will seem really overwhelming and almost impossible. If things are broken up and different dates set for small tasks, what initially looks like impossible really isn't so bad.
When our group first got together and everyone was shooting out ideas, it was quickly revealed how much our group knew about Disney. So collectively we came up with the idea to research about the Disney Corporation and how it impacts childhood. As we all know Disney commercializes on every aspect of a movie they create if it goes well and we wanted to discuss this, along with the idea of the change in movie plots over the past two decades. We divided up the work by sections. Each person has a duty to the group to research on the certain topic we decided to take and come back with information to help write the paper. Our group meets together which is easier than emailing or calling because we get most of our work done while together discussing and this technique has seemed to be helpful. We plan to look for sources on the internet, in journals, and in databases to get our hands on as much information as we can.
My group has decided on Children and Technology because technology is becoming more and more predominant in everyday life, and we feel that it tremendously impacts children and the adults they become. With this topic we will explore how and what technology affects children. We plan to cover a wide range of topics from technology in education, to entertainment, to communications (and access to technology), and finally to medicine. Within these topics we will discuss the positive and negative effects of each and the evolution each has gone through. This topic, however, may be too broad, and we will have to meet to discuss if we should cut it down in order to go into more depth on each topic. We all agree that meeting in person is the best way to collaborate; telephone conversations and email just won’t cut it when you have four people compiling all their information into one organized paper.
In response to leslie scott:
Its good that your group narrowed down what you wanted to discuss dealing with children and technology. There are so many ideas that can be covered in the topic but that would be very hard to put into one paper and it would be hard to cover in the amount of time we have to do the project. Also meeting outside of class is a great way to work on the project seeing is how you can go to the library and use the different sources that are given to you there. Use of the internet would probably be a good source for your topic, being is that it is technology and children use it everyday. Good luck on the project!
In response to laurenb…
Let me start off by saying that I love your topic; you picked a really good one. There are so many different subtopics you can go in to, and I am sure you will all research your material well and come out with an amazing paper. I agree with you that dividing the work into sections for each of the members is a good idea. By doing that you can efficiently use the time you have and get a lot of research accomplished. From what I can tell, after you have all this information, you will all work together in writing the paper. I think this is an interesting idea and one that my group should consider since right now we are writing about our own sections and combining them later, making adjustments so it flows nicely. Your insight has been helpful. Good luck in writing about Disney; you’re going to have a lot of fun!
I am in the Dr. Seuss group and we are planning on giving a discussion on the realm of different mediums that have captivated the young and the old. The project will have specific emphasis on books and movies that have addressed social issues of the time, and also include a bibliography of Theodor Geisel. The bibliography will be included because some of the events, like Cold War, that he experienced in his life, influenced his works. Our group has divided the work very informally, we all decided to get a general knowledge of the topic first and then get into specifics after a few meetings. We have checked out many books from the public library along with the two videos that Cathlena suggested. We are also planning on going through e-journals for more information. We plan to meet every Friday morning for the moment and then discuss other times when it gets closer to the deadline. We work well together so far so that is a plus.
In response to Danielle,
I think you are right when you said that your group may have to refine your topic. Technology is such a huge topic that for the purposes of this course, there would be way too much information for the size of the paper. I was interested if your group planned on taking an oppinion on the topic or if you planned on making it completely a researched based paper. I think both could be very affective. I think that your group has a very good plan of action and that you will work well together. I have found, if I may suggest, that meeting the same time every week helps to make sure that you don't put off the project. Just a tip, we all love to save ourselves any stress that we can! Good Luck!
As Kara said, the first thing we discussed was the nostalgia for the great animated Disney movies of the past. We felt that they have changed so much, maybe not so much quality, but definetly content. This shift is one that we wanted to reflect on. Furthermore, Disney has tried to absorb other tween markets. Disney Channel and Radio are all huge media conglomerates that promote Disney interests, movies and characters. Is this a change for greed, or is it a change in the tastes of kids? Why are no movies 'G' rated anymore? Why do they all take place in modern society? We wanted to write the paper with different people writing mini papers on each sub-section. Then heavily edit and conform the paper. We would collaborate to write the thesis/introduction and conclusion pages. I feel that it's difficult to collaborate on everything, because when it comes down to it, one person ends up writing.
RESPONSE TO LESLIE:
I think your topic is great! Childhood and Technology has been the focus of many of our in class readings so you'll have a lot of backgroun to work with. Furthermore, it's an academic area that is recieving newfound attention. My disney topic has hundreds of studies on it, but yours is a relatively new and constantly changing topic...that's pretty cool.
My group is doing our project on the evolution of educational media for children. We will be basically dealing with how the idea of educating children through a media (electronic or not) has changed. We will deal with the different skills that a certian educational product is focusing on (or lack thereof-of focus) such as reading/writing, speech/communication and even social skills. We will also look at how the actual media is utilized and the tools a product employs to engage/educate and how this has changed. An important aspect of our project will be how actual ideas on child education has changed, such as the age of exposion to educational media ("he/she is just too young" doesn't hold the same meaning anymore). On that note we will also be exploring what the scientific vs. the popular opinion are in regards to what is necessary to educate children on and when these learning milestones are. Another think that we will look at is the evolution of ideas and changing opinions reguarding electronic media as an education tool in schools. We have decided to do preliminary research to feel out our topic, bing in and discuss this together on Friday and then decide on the best way to organize everything. We decided to split the project into 4 parts, with each person researching their specific parts (hopefully we will all stumble across helpful info for each other and, of course all the while exchanging ideas and such). Once we have gathered all the relevant info we are going to put it together as a group and give a tantalizing presentation on the evolution of children's educational media.
Our group project is focused on children and technology and more specifically in three areas: education, entertainment, and communication. It's still a little broad, but that is what we are looking at now. We have each chosen a topic and we are going to individually write about three pages and then get together to share, proofread, and write our intro and conclusion. At this point I would say anything is fair game for resources. We will probably begin our search (or at least I will) on the internet. In the past, I have found that the library catalog of journals has been helpful.
in response to chelseyc...
I think it's a good idea that you all are meeting before every class to collaborate. It seems like an easy way to keep up with each other and make sure everything runs smoothly. I also think that researching Dr. Seuss would be interesting, since most people don't know a lot about him as a person.
in response to Kadler (and everyone in the Disney group):
I am excited to hear your guys' presentation on Disney because, like you said, it is number one when it comes to children's entertainment and it's influnence spans time and distance. I am interested to see if it is the quality and wide appeal of Disney movies that perpetuates this strong influnece or the corporation's awesome power to commercialize(or both).
Our group is presenting the evolution of educational media for children for our project. I believe we are going to focus on a specific time period and trace the changes over time with everything from subject matter, to age groups, to forms of media. We decided to research the general idea separately and have each person have three sources and information ready for this Friday. At that time, we are going to go through the information and decide what is most important and most interesting to discuss with the class. After this we are going to divide up the project into four equal parts, so each person is responsible for the same amount of work. Next, we are going to put it all together as a group to have a final project that works together as a whole.
IN RESPONSE TO LYDEL MATTHEWS:
I really like the topic you all chose because it sort of relates to ours, in that we will be discussing changes in technology in relation to educational children's media. It is also similar in that you decided to divide the project up into four parts, which is what we plan to do. It will be interesting to hear about how technology in general has altered children's media because I think this is something that is going to continue to affect the way that children play and learn in the years to come.
My group is going to be presenting on the evolution of educational media for children. This includes how the medium has changed, how the actual approach to children has changed and how these new developments, compared to old ones, truly affect children. For research I intend to visit the Educational Library on campus. I have been looking through the library catalog and it seems that library holds the most information for our topic. I am usually hesitant to use research from the internet because it is not always accurate; however I’ll probably look for ideas that can be further researched. Our group decided that we would all obtain two or three sources for research and bring them in on Friday. We can then narrow down our paper and get down to the organization. We have decided that the paper will be comprised of four “sections” that will be labeled after we begin researching.
In Response to Amanda……
Including a bibliography is a great idea; having a timeline of an author’s work can really clue you in as to how he’s evolved as a writer. I also think it’s great that your group has a standing meeting. I can’t wait to hear the presentation on Dr. Seuss because I know he was probably a very peculiar man.
Our group decided to base our research paper on Disney. However, we quickly realized what our most difficult task would be, narrowing our topic down. We realized through brainstorming all of the different angles which we could approach this assignment. We realized that Disney is not just a theme park, or a company producing movies, but Disney is a label representing movies, television, radio, and even toys. The name "Disney" is a marketing tool, and through our research we wish to analyze how Disney has changed and altered its image through media. Each member of our group has strong points. For example Lauren has a very vivid memory of Disney movies and I will hopefully have access to more difficult to find information because my dad works for the company. My dad has said several times how important the logo and name of Disney is because of the respect which the company has earned. Our goal is to analyze how and why this company has obtained such credibility and respect.
In response to Lydel Matthews...
Our approach seems very similar to yours. We all have strong points, some of which might represent another one's weekness. This will work for our benefit as we are able to fill in gaps in areas where others might have missed. Both of our topics are also very broad but by narrowing it down we should not feel like we are excluding information but rather just focusing in on what we feel is most important. Another fear of mine is the different styles of writing, however we have decided to sit down as a group and begin writing so that by editing each others work, the paper will begin to flow much like a single author work would.
My group is researching Dr. Seuss for our project. Our plan for the paper is to research social issues that influenced his writiing, such as the Cold War, Theodor Geisel's life, and other mediums of Dr. Seuss such as Seussland. While we haven't gotten very specific about our group topic we have done research on its different components and checked out pertinent information that Cathlena suggested. We also plan to meet Fridays before class to give us extra time to work on it. I'm excited about our topic because it has a lot of room for creativity and there is so much information for us to use.
In response to LaurenB, I think using a topic that is already familiar , such as Disney, is a really good place to start because a background already exists in each group members. My group is doing Dr. Seuss so our topics are similar in the amount of information about them and the diversity of it, extending into theme parks, movies, etc. I agree that meeting in person is easier than using other methods because it allows for more creativity and cooperation.
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