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Group Project Ideas

Page history last edited by Leslie Chan 11 years, 7 months ago

Group Project Ideas

The group project is a major component of the course. While I provided some potential ideas during the web cast, perhaps you have other innovative and interesting ideas that you would like to try out. This is also part of the process of participatory learning, so please begin!

You may provide suggestions using the comment feature below, or you may edit this page directly by adding content.

Question:

For the group project, do we get to pick group members of our choice or is it assigned by the prof?

Becky and I (Leslie) are finalizing the details of the group project and we will post them in a day or two. In essence, we are going to ask students to form groups and to "map" the use of social media for development related initiatives or citizen driven movement in various regions of the world, and to compare how the tools and strategies are used and to what effect. So for example, a group of students will be looking at projects based in South Asia and ideally the students who work together should have familiarity with that region. This exercise will actually feed into a real research project that Becky and I are involved with as part of the an international network called Collaboration on Research on Democracy (CORD). A particular strand of this research network focuses on the link between "Knowledge and Democracy" and here is a brief concept note.

Comments (26)

I find it interesting when social media is used to promote campaigns and activism, like Kony 2012. Students seemed really interested in this and this specific campaign went viral, with the help of Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But does simply sharing a video online with friends do much? Are youth willing to do more in helping causes other than sitting behind a computer and sharing thoughts on certain ideas? Is simply sharing a video or posting your thoughts online sufficient to contributing to society?

Good questions. How would you propose turning these questions into a collaborative project?

Perhaps we can come up with our own cause and show a chain of events as to how an interest can actually turn into something practical. I suppose like a plan of action i.e. a rainforest with a lot of life forms is about to be cut down to make way for buildings. Students hear about this and are strongly against it so they start online campaigns (Facebook groups, Youtube videos, etc) to express their views on the issue. This online campaign is turned into protests, fundraisers, information booths and may even attract the attention of sponsors, etc. that successfully terminate the building project! Of course this is pretty broad but it would show how social media can make a change if people are willing to actually commit to doing so.

would you like to work together on the project together ! I want to start finding a group soon :)

You have a very interesting point, I know alot of people who stated they were apart of the kony 2012 movement however, didnt really do much to actually do anything more then share the video and by t shirts online. This does help promote the movement but i dont think it helps play a large role in the success of the movement. Social media did get the movement started because it went viral but i think that alot of the viewers can use social media as a crutch to say they are involed but not do much to actually help. I feel as some people for example who only share the video, talk about the movement on twitter or facebook, and order kony merchandise online can say they have done there part, when really there is much more that they can take part in that are more active and beneficial to the movement

Yeah exactly. It would be nice to see how something like that could be turned into something real and meaningful rather than saying "oh, I shared a video. I love justice!"

But wasn't that the point of Kony 2012, that the movement would "make Kony famous"? Things like talking about Kony with friends before class, sharing a link on Facebook, buying a t-shirt and wearing it in public, were all very active things, and were what made the Kony project seem like such a success. Within a few days, his atrocities had been brought to a huge international stage and he was, indeed, famous. It became an issue that governments and NGOs could not avoid addressing. This is the power of our networked society. In this case, what else could an average citizen have done to contribute to the goal of bringing a despotic dictator to justice? In this case, we have no other power but the power to disseminate knowledge about our concerns, through actions (however passive they might seem) like using Facebook.

Just an idea, but could we follow a method of communication that was used (or is being used) for international development purposes, and evaluate how effective it is, where its weaknesses are, and what we would use to improve it. This is sort of taking from your idea Professor Chan

I agree! It looks like we are all leaning towards the abilities of social media and to what extent it can actually influence change. Like mentioned before, many campaigns are promoted through social networking sites, but at the end of the day are ineffective. I feel emphasizing the practicality of social media use is ideal. For example, what would someone on Facebook do if they saw a post of a development issue in Africa? Realistically, they would either scroll, like, comment or share, and move on. It seems social media today is connecting everyone closer together, but at the same time building a barrier from reality!

Katarina thats a really great idea we could look into the positives and negatives of different methods of communication! or each group chooses a certain method! for example how social media is great for starting a movement and bringing the information however i feel as if its weakness lies inthe fact that most people who view the video just share it and move on. This also just brings a lot of hype regarding the movement but doesnt nessecarily bring much help. It seems that this doesnt help the movement move forward. We could also make up our own movement/or international development concern and show how the certain communication chosen will be beneficial vs unbeneficial. Im sorry if this sounds confusing or choppy im just trying to get all my thoughts together :)

This all sounds so good! Exactly what I had in mind. I see a potential for a group right here :)!

yes could we do that!

This is random --- but at most related to many strands of the course : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX-w6qiXGW0

The movie "Child 31" can depict of how social media plays a role in viewing 'poverty' at an international development level; through film. A simple, yet active process of participatory learning would be to watch some of the movies that are being showcased internationally --- and having to view it through different lens of developmental issues/movements/projects/etc.

Plot:
"In a time of unprecedented technological achievements and luxuries, close to one billion people still go to sleep hungry; but there's an organization attempting to change that. In this powerful new documentary film, Grassroots Films captures Mary's Meals' life-changing work in action throughout Malawi, Kenya, and India and its mission to help millions of children around the world realize their dreams. Follow Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow as we get a glimpse into his simple, yet groundbreaking, approach that is working to lift the developing world out of poverty and give a face to hunger's deadly numbers." - Child 31

Naseem email me brittany.yard@utoronto.ca! :) if you want to partner!

Hi everyone, I have a very hectic work schedule and am unable to comment during the day. How is participation broken down .

Do we get to pick who we partner with or are we matched. It does not matter to me but just would like to understand and be part of a group.

I find there are constant notifications in my inbox and was hoping if we could have a broken down syllabus of what exactly counts as participation and does creating a profile work as what percent of participation. And does the lengthiness matter.

Anna

Kirthika and Justine, email me at matthew.wang@mail.utoronto.ca or text me at 647-308-4973 if you two want to do the group project with me.

Prof Chan, do we get marks for commenting on posts like this? When are your Skype office hours since you were not online on Tuesday Sept 18th? Do we get marks for commenting on the Discussion Forum and profile pages/assignments?

Thanks.

I've just updated the marking scheme. Please have another look.

As I noted during the Orientation session. I REALLY want to de-emphasize the linking of leaning activities with marks. I hope most of you will be contributing to mutually interesting discussions. But yes, you will be given marks if that is the concern.

For the group project, do we get to pick group members of our choice or is it assigned by you? thanks.

I see someone is already into the project; ket me know if you can count me in as the ultimate (fourth) addition. Don't hesitate to turn down the request if not interested. Thanks!

I've been trying to think of a way that we could do a group project online... and I'm really struggling to come up with any ideas that would work. Some of the topics discussed above do indeed sound interesting but I don't understand how they will be turned into a completed work. To be honest, I would prefer to do an individual project. However in order to keep it connected to other classmates, maybe we could have a discussion chat session about the topics we're interested in and other students could give their opinions, which could then be incorporated into each individual student's project.

Please see the brief note I have above and see if this makes sense to you. We are still formulating a workable plan for multiple groups that would then feed into a single project.

Hey All,
After watching the video (provided in week three materials) on the Ugandan Health Information Network, I thought it would be interesting to look at how media and technology facilitate health knowledge/education, as well as facilitate the functioning and care of rural hospitals. I've worked with a couple of medical groups in South America, and am extremely passionate about the development of adequate health care facilities in South America. Would anyone be interested in doing a group project on a topic related to the use of technologies/social media to achieve health goals? Ie "to "map" the use of social media for development (health) related intiatives"? Let me know? The project could really focus on any region! Cheers!

Katie, we are about to roll out the group project that would involve the whole class. Becky and I have been working on the details and will post them by Monday. So please stay tune.

Sounds good!

Maybe we could choose group projects online but also meet up since i think it will be extremely difficult just to do a whole project without face to face discussions.

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Group Project Ideas