Question: OVERVIEW Course Project: Online Technology Conference

The final project is a presentation for an imaginary technology conference called in order to evaluate the impact of technology on culture.

Students will pose questions of cultural concern in regard to new or emerging technologies and answer these questions in a multimedia presentation that uses scholarly research. The project will be completed in stages throughout the course and shared with the class in the final week. Students choose a new or emerging technology and ask the following questions about it (from Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century):

1. What is the problem for which this technology is the solution?

2. Whose problem is it?

3. Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological solution?

4. What new problems might be created because we have solved this problem?

5. What sort of people and institutions might acquire special economic and political power because of technological change?

6. What changes in language are being enforced by new technologies, and what is being gained and lost by such changes?

Students answer these questions by doing research in the UMUC library. At least six scholarly sources must be employed to answer the questions.

At the end of the session, you turn in a final presentation based on 5 earlier assignments. It will be a multimedia presentation on a particular technology and its relationship to culture.

DUE THIS WEEK, Part 4: Project Media

This is Part Four of your six-part project. It builds upon the work you did in Parts One-Three, and will be continued in the upcoming weeks of this session.

With the outline you created last week, create media for your project using the below resources to guide you. Use this resource to help you think about how to best address your audience:

• Writing for an Audience

Resources to help you with the presentation:

• Sample PPT with Notes

• Twelve Tips for Creating Effective Presentations

• Website for help with designing a PPT

• Introduction to SmartArt Graphics

• Convert Slide Text to a SmartArt Graphic

This week your primary focus should be on the PowerPoint (or similar tool) itself. Next week you will submit a full draft of your presentation, which will include your audio narration.