Overview
Final Paper Assignment for Being Digital
My Big Three: The Key Concepts in Being Digital from My Perspective
There are two motivations underlying this final assignment. The first is to give you an opportunity to draw these diverse materials on human cognition, computers and networks together and make sense of them in terms of your own experience and professional aspirations. The second is to give you an opportunity to put these facts and concepts to work to show that you understand their importance, their structure and their relevance to personal and professional life in the digital age. We are interested in your thinking on the relevance and comprehensibility of this domain of digital literacy. If you think being digital is only relevant in some careers, tell us more. If you think these materials are particularly hard to understand, tell us why. A primary assessment of your understanding of the content of this course has been the old standard -- the multiple-choice-item quiz. It is a reasonable standard, but it does not call for you to interpret and integrate what you have learned. No creativity there. So here’s your chance to really shine – to display deep understanding and critical thinking. Everybody’s final paper exercise will have the same title: “My Big Three: The Key Concepts in Being Digital from My Perspective.” During the course, keep an eye out for particularly relevant and interesting insights for you personally. Different students will select different issues. During the final weeks of the semester settle on your “big three.” Extra credit if you can draw one each from the three sections of the course on human cognition, computer fundamentals and network fundamentals (but not required). If you are interesting in a management career it might be the “magic number seven” as a key to keeping a group you lead focused on a limited number of goals. If you are interested in public policy it might be the asymmetric empowerment of encryption as important to security policy. If you are interested in graphic arts it may be the issue of digital image resolution. Or you may just have a personal fascination with the phenomenon of human selective attention. You get the idea. You should have no trouble picking three. In each of the three cases first demonstrate that you understand the concept and then put it to work demonstrating its relevance and significance for professional (and personal) life in the digital era. If you can tie all three together in a summative final paragraph, great (but again, not required.) Make it clear where in the course you a drawing your key insights from (Lesson 12 “Who Controls the Internet” etc). Plan on devoting between two and a half to three pages for each key concept so your essay will be about 7 ½ to 9 pages double spaced. Diagrams and images, appropriately used, are welcome. Any format for citation of bibliographic or in-class references is OK. A bibliography at the end is helpful.