Overall Organization

• Weeks 1-4: Project 1 (prototype)
• Weeks 5-9: Revise and extend to final project, OR option of selecting another project.
• Week 10: Final presentations

Those who want to take the option of completing a project of their own choosing in the second half of the term should indicate that on the entry questionnaire on the first day of class, and must in addition submit a project proposal by Tuesday of week 4.

Each Week

Monday

Most Mondays beginning week 2 will begin with short presentations by each project team. You should prepare slides for these. Handouts are optional. You should also provide constructive criticism of both content and presentation to other teams.

As time allows, Tuesday may also include a conventional lecture or a discussion of a topic related to the project.

Notes on presentation

Presentation duties should rotate among team members. Presentation and verbal communication skills are important; use this as an opportunity to practice in a friendly environment. I would like everyone to give at least part of one presentation during the term, and everyone to critique presentation style as well as the content of presentations.

I know some people have deep anxiety about public speaking. If you do not feel able to take a turn presenting to the class, come talk to me about it. I'll excuse you from this part of the class provided you are doing something else to hone your verbal communication skills.

Wednesday

Most Wednesdays will consist of lecture and discussion, including discussion of papers I will assign you to read. Contribution to discussion will be an element of your grade.

Exceptions

There will be occasional days that don't conform to our usual plan of team presentations Monday and lecture and discussion Thursday. This will include at least week 1, week 5, and week 10, and other exceptions are likely. Twice during the term I will be traveling.

Week by Week Schedule

I'm going to try using Google Calendar to maintain and distribute our course schedule. You should be able to view it through any iCalendar-compatible calendar application or an RSS reader. This is an experiment, so do tell me if you run into problems, but don't assume I have a ready answer.

Calendar address:
XML (read-only, for feed readers)
ICAL(read-only, for iCalendar-compatable applications like Apple iCal)
HTML (simple read-only view in your browser