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INTERNATIONAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
ASSIGNMENTS
Spring 2001
| Class Participation ... Readings ... Issue Paper ... Critique ... Country Report |
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INTERNATIONAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
| Class Participation ... Readings ... Issue Paper ... Critique ... Country Report |
Active involvement is the key to learning. For this class, involvement can be demonstrated by active participation in the class, as evidenced by attendance, preparation for each class, participation in discussions, demonstrated leadership through class contributions and suggestions, and acting collaboratively to help create a productive and satisfying learning community.
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Reading is an important part of this course. For each class, you should plan to spend some time reading one or two chapters from the books on the reading and reserve lists, reading assigned articles and those you discover yourself, and exploring relevant web sites. I will ask you to share your reflections on these readings and explorations through four or five short reading reflection papers due in approximately two week intervals during the class. Your readings will help you be able to contribute thoughtfully to class discussions. Reflective Readings
A reading commentary may take several forms, e.g., a critical bibliographical essay of your readings (3-5 items on a particular topic or one book), or a short possibly more eclectic annotated list of your readings, a short reflective essay of the items read (@ 2 pages) weaving your own thoughts with reactions with what you have read, or a critical evaluation of several web pages on a particular topic, or a summary and assessment of one international agency that has an extensive web site. I'm sure there are other models. The goal of the assignment is to share your readings and reflections with me and the rest of the class.
Please provide complete citations (author, title, place, publisher, date, pages for print material; title, author or agency, URL, date on item and date accessed for a web site) with each of your reading commentaries.
This assignment may be done individually or in a team of two or three people. If the latter, all members will receive the same grade (unless there is substantial evidence why it should be otherwise). Issue Paper and Presentation
For this paper, select one of the issues listed on the course description page or another that seems relevant to the class and your interests. We will discuss issue choices during the first class. To write an issue paper, first do some preliminary exploratory reading to select a focus for your paper and an audience (project an audience beyond the immediate class). After selecting your focus and audience, investigate the literature in more depth so that you can present your topic with authority. You may wish to include opinions and recommendations in a persuasive paper, or you may wish to present a more balanced informative report. The choice is yours.
You are also asked to present your findings to the class in the form of a presentation of some kind -- a poster, a Power Point presentation, a series of Web pages, or a class-involving activity.
The paper (5-10 pages) and presentation (10-20 minutes) are due at about the midpoint of the class.
You can learn a lot from one another. One way is to read critically one another's papers. For this individual assignment you will be assigned one of your colleague's issue papers to read (the same paper may be asssigned to more than one person). We will develop some criteria in class for a good issue paper and you are to apply it to the paper you read. Critique of a Colleague's Paper
Your 1-3 page critique will be similar to that required when serving as a referee for a journal article or a conference paper. Please turn in two copies of your critique (with a copy of the original paper if you have commented or made corrections directly on the paper). Please put your name on only one of the copies and refrain from providing any identifying information in your critique.
I will give one anonymous copy of the critique to the original author(s) who may choose to revise the paper with the aid of your helpful comments. (The grade for a revised paper turned in by or before the end of the class can only go up so your critique may provide a helpful service to one of your classmates)
This assignment, similar to the Issue Paper assignment, may be done individually or in a team. If you chooe a collaborative partnership for this report, it would be educationally helpful to you to choose a different partner(s) from the first experience. Country/Region Paper and Presentation
As in the Issue Paper, do some preliminary exploration and then select your focus and audience before seeking more detailed information. In your report it will be important to identify any major issue(s) that is/are particularly pressing for this country or region. Write your country/region report as a persuasive report with opinions and recommendations that show how concepts from the library/information field might alleviate problem conditions and/or lead to overall improvements within the country or region.
The report (5-10 pages) and presentation (10-20 minutes) can follow a similar format as that chosen for the issues paper. You are encouraged to use different methods of presentation for the paper and the report to maximize your learning experience. The report is due at the end of the class and the presentation in approximately 2 weeks before the end.
Send me email at Evelyn Daniel for further one-on-one discussion about the assignments.
Page revised 1/18/2001.
