Explore The Impact Of Computing Innovations

Overview

Successful narratives will exhibit evidence of keen critical thinking supported by sound research. The narrative should not be just description, nor should it present a discussion based only upon conjecture or supposition.

Several assignments throughout the semester will contribute computational artifacts for your project, including drawing a logo that describes your topic, using Pixlr to create and alter graphics, creating a video with YouTube's video editor, and making a website.

There are three parts required for the project:

1. Proposal
2. Website
3. Video Presentation
4. Information Literacy Description

Part 1 - Proposal

In the beginning of the course, you will be asked to submit a proposal that rates your choices from the Computing Innovations chapter. Your instructor will use that to assign you a computing innovation topic that you work with for the duration of the course.

Part 2 - Website

During the course you were asked to create a project website and were given specific requirements as to what must be included on the pages. If your web pages were missing some requirements or not rendering the way they should, now is your opportunity to fix them.

• Add content to completely fill in exactly these sections (click on the links below to see an example of each web page):
  • Cover Page
  • Purpose. On this page, place the following prompt (including its label A) and your answer to it:
    1. Indicate the name of the innovation and provide a clear description of its intended purpose (such as the problem that the innovation solved, the opportunity that the innovation created, or the discovery that the innovation made possible)
  • Effects and Impacts . On this page, place the following prompts (including their letter labels) and your answers to them:
    2. Explain a benefit and/or harmful effect of the innovation.
    3. Explain the impact that the innovation has had on society, economy, and/or culture.
    4. Indicate one field, other than computer science, which this innovation has impacted or has the potential to impact. Describe the impact.
  • Technical Aspects . On this page, place the following prompts (including their letter labels) and your answers to them:
    5. Describe how a user interacts with the innovation.
    6. Describe in detail how the innovation's technology incorporates at least ONE of the Big Ideas of abstraction, algorithms, programming, and/or the Internet to accomplish its purpose.
  • Relationship To Data . On this page, place the following prompts (including their letter labels) and your answers to them:
    7. Describe how the innovation consumes data (as input), produces data (as output), and/or transforms data.
    8. Describe at least one data storage concern, data privacy concern, or data security concern related to the innovation.
  • References At least three references, more are encouraged.
    • You may start by researching your innovation online or in the library for background information. Use encyclopedias or other library reference material and credible Web sites to help you develop a sense of the project. Keep track of new words or terms, relevant computing jargon.
    • You must show evidence that you have engaged in extensive research using substantial valid sources.
    • Give credit to any information you use that is someone else's idea by citing the source in this References page.
    • Each source must be a reliable newspaper, magazine article, book, news, or online source that anyone can access.
    • You should evaluate each source based on:
      • Currency
      • Relevance
      • Authority
      • Accuracy
      • Purpose
    • Use MLA citation style .
    • For online references, include the permanent URL (as a hyperlink) and the date on which you accessed the reference.
    • At least two of the sources must have been created after the end of the previous academic year.
• Your responses to each prompt must convey a deep level of understanding about the innovation and its impact(s). Each section should be its own web page showing the prompt(s) for that page and your answers. Look for the following points as you begin developing your exploration of the impact of your innovation:
  • Remain in sight of the origin of the innovation
  • Look for clear developments over time
  • Search out theories to support your points about the impact of the innovation
  • Stay aware of the problem(s) that motivated the innovation and its impact.
• Things to consider as you search for your topic:
  • Slant or bias of research information. Often authors of sources bring their own bias to the topic. One way to question or address bias is to look for enough pertinent examples to discover a norm from an individual voice.
  • Try not to examine your topic from a singular point of view but look for many factors that may have contributed to the impact of the innovation.
• Gather as much evidence or information as possible to support your research before starting to write a meaningful narrative. After gathering your evidence and all of your information, do the following:
  • Organize your evidence or information into an outline by topic (prompts A-H)
  • Analyze your informatin to see if if addresses your topic and your points about impact
  • Ask if it is enough. If not, look for more to complete all views
  • Write your findings and conclusion in a meaningful narrative No single response to a prompt is allowed to be over 200 words.


• Add CSS finishing touches to perfect your website. For example, this may include centering content, adding padding/margins/borders, changing colors, etc. The previous assignments specified minimum requirements - now is your opportunity to enhance your website.
  
  
• Use the W3C free spell checker to spell check all website text.

Part 3 – Video Presentation

You must make a video that presents your assigned innovations topic by taking the audience on a tour of your website. Do not simply read the website. Have notes that you use while speaking to make the main points from each of the questions A-H. Your presentation will also describe some of the technology that you used to create your website.

Video Presentation Requirements:

• The presentation must be 8-15 minutes (at least 8 minutes, no longer than 15).
• Explain the steps taken to arrive at the solution of presenting your points about the innovation. Briefly describe how you programmed the page in HTML and CSS and how you put it on the web with your web server.
• Briefly describe how you made your logo, banner, and animation. Include the names of the tools you used and techniques in the tools (e.g. use of layers).
• Go through each question A-H, by going to each page of your website. For each question, state the question and summarize the points in your answer.
• Add a title slide to your video (see the video assignment for how to do this) that includes your name, the topic name, and your logo. Make the title slide last for at least 5 seconds and have music playing just for the title slide.
• Using the mouse of the computer on which you are recording, point to each image on your website (including graphs) and describe that image's significance to your narrative. For the graph from your survey, explain how you used Google forms to collect data.
• You must play your own original video during the presentation by clicking on it and allowing it to play. Before it plays describe the technology that you used to record (e.g. your phone), edit (e.g. YouTube video editor), and publish (e.g. YouTube) that video.
• When showing your References page, follow a link on the page to your most useful web-based source to show the audience where you got the information from.
• Have a final slide (similar to your title slide), where you again have your name, topic name, and logo, but you also have the URL of your web site prominently displayed. Have this slide up for 10 seconds while you say something to the effect of "for more information, visit my website".

Example Presentation. Here is an example presentation (coming soon).

Creating a Video Presentation:

• You can download a 30-day free trial version of Camtasia Studio from here.
• Watch this series of short tutorials on how to make a video presentation with Camtasia.
• Create your video and upload it to YouTube as described in the tutorials.
• You will need a microphone for your computer to record your voice (most new laptops have a suitable built-in microphone, but this should be tested and it may be necessary to purchase an external microphone).

If you wish to use an online screen recorder instead of Camtasia, we recommend Screencast-O-Matic. The free version of Screencast-O-Matic does not have editing capabilities - so you may need to use Youtube's video editor to produce your final video (add title slide, music, etc.).

Part 4 - Information Literacy Description

1. Describe the process you used to find the information that you used in your project. This should inlude an explanation of the research tools and search terms used.
2. Provide your outline of how you organized your information by topic (promptd A-G) and bullet points under each topic.
3. Provide your bibliography from the References section with each source annotated by 1-3 sentences that address Currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of that source.

Academic Integrity