Beauty Pagents, Wigs, and . . . Senior Capstone Projects!

Another exciting day of senior capstone projects commenced! The class began a little late, but Ann soon got things rolling easily with a learn@UW quiz. She went through the questions afterwards plummeting the students into the apparently foreign land of peer review (at least, that's what you would guess by the apathetic, confused responses to the question, "you guys have done peer review before, right?") They warmed up a little bit when Ann mentioned that this is the same kind of thing one does in an English class.

Though some peer-reviewing ended up happening, there were a lot of other enjoyable activities, if not completely productive. Just a glance around the room in real time: Pari shows Jesus a computer that he apparently built himself - a laptop! Wow, go Pari! Kiki and Jesus discover that some of the chairs are creaky - like Pari's! Pari, after hearing about Kiki's decision to enter the ELF modeling contest, declared he wanted to win a modeling contest . . . to win makeup! He seemed excited. Kiki had everyone in the class vote for her on the website - she had quite a beautiful picture!

This is Kiki's profile picture for the contest!

Peer reviews sort of happened . . . Jesus eventually looked at Pari's proposal, reluctantly. Elizabeth's reliant K music provided a satisfying backdrop for the general murmur of conversation. We Americans are rather monotonous in our speech style - we must seem so boring to the rolling of the British or the lilt of the Irish! But we know how to have a good time - Pari was designing a photoshopped image of himself in a BLUE wig, that turned out to have NOTHING to do with his project, so Elizabeth made him stop! Elizabeth offered to review college entrance essays, and Jesus promptly turned one over to her critically encouraging eye (hopefully!)



Ann all the while met with each individual student to discuss their ideas. Elizabeth met with some of them a second time towards the end of class. Here's the basic gyst of it:

Pari - has a good idea - He's redesigning a website for a wellness center. He needed a little more direction with deadlines/goals etc - I think we got him straightened out there. Now he has a list of clear objectives and will be meeting with his group members regularly to accomplish his goals. Next session we need to check in with him, Alex, and Laura.

Kiki - She's working for the student organization Students for a Free Tibet. I'm excited about her work - she'll have to be more self-initiated as it's more 'they'll tell me what they want as I go'. She has some good ideas - I told her to be keeping an inventory of everything she'll be doing, so she'll have a clear record by the end of the year. I also helped her set up a few more specific deadlines for the projects she does have notice for.

Jesus- He is creating ITA 30 second commercials for 4 different units. He is working with Marc Pedone and Jesus. After sitting down and talking with him, he now has a clear plan of his due dates. All of the commercials will be due by the holiday luncheon. They are to have their scripts done today and begin filming next session. They are supposed to have draft one of their videos done by Novemeber 21st and will continue editing December 5th. Ann suggested to the students that they should individually edit a different software to be most productive and then give each other feedback. Currently, each of them are writting a separate script.

Williams - He is doing an ITA logo redesign. His tasks will include a new logo, t-shirt options to vote for during the winter luncheon, an ITA powerpoint background, and a new brochure. Ann tried to explain to him that this new logo is going to stay and needs to be professional. By next session he should have 4-5 different logo options. Williams needs to be pushed him with due dates to get him to work .

Tenzin- He is doing a Flash animation for something medical. The details are unclear, and he needs to talk to Ryan. Tenzin e-mailed Ryan today. Then he is going to start his flashcard simulation. Tenzin talked to AJ, but the details are unknown and an instructor needs to check in on him.

Peer editing for fun and profit, staring the senior class

In Felipe's and Eliza's class, we spent a large part of today doing peer editing for our proposals. Everyone was incredibly focused and was able to read at least two other student's proposals. We talked about why peer editing is useful: not only can you really help out the other person, but you can get good ideas for your own work when you see a variety of examples.

After peer editing, everyone incorporated the changes suggested and then began actually working on their projects. Some students have a pretty clear vision already and were able to dive right in and begin working. Others needed some more coaching and guidance, but everyone made at least some progress. Most of the period, everyone was working on various aspects of the projects.

Speaking strictly for me, I am really excited to see what the students are going to do.

• April is making a tattoo portfolio.
  
• Marc P. and Danny want to make commercials for ITA programs.
  
• Briana is going to make a personal website.
  
• Antonio would like to create a website to highlight his professional modeling.
  
• Ruben and Mark T. want to make a creative video that demonstrates what might happen to the Earth if the sun and the moon disappeared.
• Pao and Tenzin T are working on designing an informative website about the H1N1 virus.
• Sheng is making a personal portfolio website.
• Gabriella is working on a website to display the artwork a local artist.

It should be quite an adventure to see what happens between now and the end of the school year!

Session 3 - Proposals a Million

A lot of what we're trying to stress during the Senior Capstone sessions is that the students' perception of what ITA was to them will no longer work for their individual projects. They are used to a system where we lecture to the students, the students explore, and we quiz them. What we are trying to demonstrate is that they now have to take their skills and show independent drive via projects that will demonstrate to others their growth both as an ITA graduate and as a person. Our role as their capstone advisers is to help them troubleshoot any problems that will come up during the cultivation of their project and to help them become more attractive candidates for any sort of employment in the future.

Many of the projects currently being undertaken by the students heavily feature web design for local non-profit community groups. Many of our students feel the most comfortable with with their skills using dreamweaver and photoshop, not so many with flash. However, one student would like to use flash skills to help design an educational game. In general, our students have been largely self-sufficient by doing their proposals and portfolios on their own time.

It becomes hard to accurately blog what happens in our class as our time is spent largely as an independent study group. As the students start to progress further with their proposals and projects, and better yet, develop more content, these updates will get more exciting. Some questions to take away as instructors for this session:

1. How best to modify the "class" to offer the most help to the students, while preserving their sense of independence as capstone students.
2. What sorts of assignments, or landmarks should be placed for the students to respect their different projects, yet keep everyone on the same page of progress.

We're Cool (and, we are also really HOT) Like That! 10-10-09

Today was a very productive day in Felipe and Eliza's room. The first thing we did was to ATTACK the Learn@UW Quiz. Then we downloaded our portfolios from the web and worked on them for the first hour. Everyone was working on different projects for their portfolio. We all worked on various parts of our portfolios until about 1:45 and then A.J. and Felipe talked about goals for working on the Capstone project at home.

A.J. told us about how he started recording music in high school and how that eventually led him to be working for ITA. He also shared an analogy to help everyone get motivated: ITA is like water in a pot and each student is like an electric burner on the stove. At ITA, the instructors can make sure that the pot is there, that is doesn't have holes in it, and that it is full of water, but only the students can turn on the heat and make the water boil (and then make spaghetti or rice or something else wonderful)-- which means that only the students can take advantage of this opportunity and use it to its full potential. Everyone then blogged about the analogy that A.J. shared.



The very last thing everyone did was to finish their proposal and email it to the course instructors. It seems like everyone is getting interested in their projects and we are all excited to see what everyone does.

9/26/09 Session

Eliza started class by introducing herself and explaining our blog requirements/expectations. The students weren't fully attentive and were lectured for it. Tony invited the rest of the students to the Senior Capstone Google Spreadsheet. After all the students got access, they started writing their Capstone Project Proposals. Letara left at 2:00 when break started. Upon returning from break, they started to do review activities for certification tests. The students also worked on their resumes. They finished up the day with their end-of-the-day blog.

Williams' Resume

The class

Senior Capstone (Felipe's Room) 9-26-09

The first thing we did was talk about how important blogging is, both to individual students and to the ITA team. Then the students took some time to improve their blogs from last week. Then Felipe directed the students to create a Gmail task list for the day. Each student also looked at his or her portfolio folder on mywebspace to see what they have there and what they might need to update. After a short break, Eliza showed us how to download and use Dropbox. Then Felipe explained the process of writing the proposal and the students began working on their proposals.

Some of the students needed some brainstorming time, so instructors circulated and talked about projects that students could do while others worked on writing their proposal. Although some students seemed to be taking the project less seriously than others, most seemed interested in finding a project that would be motivating, engaging and useful.

During the certification period, students chose two software reviews to complete with the goal of having an artifact to upload to their blogs at the end of the class period.

Bacon is Good for Me...OR Senior Class 2010 (Ann and Ryan)

Ann and Ryan both have a diverse group of students in regards to their interests for their capstone projects. With the exception of a few students, most of the class already came with ideas at the ready, and were busy working on what to put on their proposals. Unfortunately, this being the first day, there is not a whole lot to reflect upon, except for their general attitude towards the capstone program. For the most part, the students seem very receptive to the idea of being able to take an independent interest and work it to the fullest.