Smart Phones, Mobile Selves

Here are a few landmarks to help you organize your weekly study plan for our course. Most of it is just a suggestion that will vary a lot depending on your other activities and life situation during the semester.

Friday

• Material for next week will be posted online

• Readings and Videos

• Engage in Async Discussions

Saturday

• Watch mini-lectures and suggested videos for the week.

• Engaging in Async Discussions

Sunday

• Flip-flop time :)

• Reserve a day to completely disconnect from course work. Enjoy the time with your loved ones!

Mondays

• Sync Session 1 (4:00 to 4:50 pm ET)

• Working Group Meetings A (4:50 to 5:20 pm ET) every "odd" week - once we begin Unit 2

• Working Group Meetings C (4:50 to 5:20 pm ET)) every "even" week - once we begin Unit 2

Tuesday

• Watch mini-lectures and suggested videos for the week.

• Engage in Async Discussions

Wednesday

• Readings

• Engage in Async Discussions

• Extended Office Hours in the morning ET (particularly designed to EMEA students)

Thursday

• Sync Session 2 (7:00 to 7:50 pm ET)

• Working Group Meetings B (7:50 to 8:20 pm ET) every "odd" week - once we begin Unit 2

• Working Group Meetings D (7:50 to 8:20 pm ET)) every "even" week - once we begin Unit 2

• Office Hours before sync session

Basic Terminology

FA (Formative Assessment) - They always prepare the ground for future assessments and course topics. They are also a way for you to collect feedback on your progress. Low and mid-stakes in terms of grading.

SA (Summative Assessment) - They are a chance for you to demonstrate and practice what you have learned in the course so far. High stakes in terms of grading.

Discussion Groups - These groups of 4 or 5 students are pre-set for each unit and they determine which discussion forum each student should join in that specific unit

Project Groups - These are the groups in which projects will be developed. Students can self-organize themselves in four groups of 4 or 5 students each. Starting in Unit 2, these groups will meet with me every other week at the end of our weekly synchronous meeting. This time slots are also a great time window for separate meeting of the group as all students will be available at that time.

Asynchronous Discussion

The objective of these FAs is to engage all of us both in the readings and synchronous discussions. I will offer prompts to bridge our weekly reflections from the reading and mini-lectures to our synchronous conversations.

You will use our channel on Flipgrid and react with a short video. I hope it can be a fun and dynamic way for us to interact with.

The class will be divided into small discussion groups. So you will be interacting with 4 or 5 colleagues during the weekly discussions. You are expected to provide at least one contribution every week (we will certainly consider individual cases as we go along).

Conceptual Retrieval Reinforcements

These are short FAs connected to concepts and arguments from our mini-lectures and reading. They are designed to help you with the learning reinforcement of certain foundational ideas that will take you from a naïve reading to a conceptually solid critique of the ways smartphones impact our lives.

Individual Reports

Short textual reports of approximately 500 words connecting your experiences to our theoretical discussions. The following aspects will be evaluated:

• Descriptive: How detailed and nuanced is the report. The more details you provide the better we can evaluate the intensity of your learning experience. (40%)

• Theoretical: Integration of theoretical concepts and arguments from readings, mini-lectures and synchronous conversations. (40%)

• Reflexive: How did these experiences contribute to better understand the ways in which smartphones impact our lives.(20%)

Group Critical Comparative Study (CCS)

There will be two formative CCSs so that we can learn and fine tune this type of experience before the final project that will also be a CSS. These are also opportunities for you to apply our theoretical discussions and reading to real world contexts through a comparative analysis of mobile applications and services. The key criteria for these assignments are:

• Project Definition (Scope, Questions and Hypotheses) -15%

• Data Gathering (Quantitative analysis) - 30%

• Critical analysis of Personal, Interpersonal and Social Impacts - 35%

• Formal Aspects (Length, Participation on Meetings, Text Introduction, Coherence, Cohesion, Conclusion) 20%

Collaboration

One of the principal components of a DCS course is collaboration. However, you should always be clear on what part of the work you hand in is your own, what parts come from other sources, and what parts are collaborative. As a rule of thumb, we distinguish between interacting with another student using any written medium (e.g. pencil and paper, email, looking at their code) and having broad discussions with them. Unless you work with another student in a group, you are not allowed to exchange information through a written medium with him/her or provide answers to problem sets through conversation. This is a zero-tolerance policy.

It is permissible to use materials available from other sources such as the Internet (understanding that you get no credit for using the work of others) as long as: 1) You acknowledge explicitly which aspects of your assignment were taken from other sources and what those sources are. 2) The materials are freely and legally available. 3) The material was not created by a student at Bowdoin as part of this or another course this year or in prior years. To be absolutely clear, if you turn in someone else's work you will not receive credit for it; on the other hand, if you acknowledge it, at least you will not violate the Honor Code. All write-ups, reviews, documentation and other written material must be original and may not be derived from other sources.

Academic Honesty

We assume that every student is abiding by the Code of Academic and Social Conduct to which they agreed upon matriculation at Bowdoin: http://www.bowdoin.edu/studentaffairs/student-handbook/college-policies/ If you find yourself overwhelmed, unsure about what to do, without materials to use, or otherwise feeling like you have no choice but copying from the web and calling it your own work, contact Professor Nascimento before you make a very bad decision. DO NOT jeopardize your academic career for an assignment in this course. Talk to us first, because if we suspect any kind of cheating or plagiarism we will pursue the matter to the fullest extent allowable by Bowdoin policy.

Religious Holidays

No student is required to take an examination or fulfill any other scheduled course requirement on recognized major religious holidays. Students are expected to declare their intention to observe religious holidays at the beginning of the semester. Please contact Professor Nascimento within the first week of classes to make arrangements if you will be missing classes due to religious holidays.

Electronic Responsibility

“My computer died” and “I only saved to the lab laptop” are not valid excuses for having nothing to show for your work on the day an assignment is due. We are going to discuss and practice responsible management of electronic files so that you are never caught without a very recent copy of your very important work. Having nothing to show on the due date will be a sign that you started the assignment very late.

Accessibility

Bowdoin College is committed to ensuring access to learning opportunities for all students. Students seeking accommodations based on disabilities must register with the Student Accessibility Office. Please discuss any special needs or accommodations with me at the beginning of the semester or as soon as you become aware of your needs; I am eager to work with you to ensure that your approved accommodations are appropriately implemented.