Courses
Section Topic: Social Networking
Coordinator/Contact: William Magrino
Course Description:
As the population of Facebook approaches that of the United States, it is becoming increasingly evident that the communication paradigm is shifting toward social computing. With consumers gravitating toward the Web 2.0 world of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, in accord with the exponential proliferation of blogs, the business community is compelled to take notice. If the savvy purveyor of goods and services is intent upon finding consumers where they are, marketing must continue to move to the new media channels. Over the past decade, the Internet has become an everyday tool of the trade for advertising. In turn, it is no longer sufficient to have a generic online presence. Conducting business today necessitates the development of a philosophy and creation of a strategy that translates the benefits of the product for the rapidly developing online milieu, while meeting the needs of the various distinct online communities.
Social Networking for Business will provide students with the tools to reach the growing online global marketplace. They will learn to market products, services, and even themselves by developing and managing an aggressive online presence. The course begins with an examination of the impact of professional networking services upon the job search process. Then, student-teams will research a commercial or non-profit venture that would benefit from a social networking approach. Teams will also present their findings in an open forum, taking the audience from the “creation of a buzz” through the development of a comprehensive online strategy. The final project for each team will be a researched marketing plan in support of a service or product.
Course Texts:
Shih, The Facebook Era
Section Topic: Game Design
Coordinator/Contact: William Magrino
Course Description:
Collaborative Writing Practices will provide you with both theoretical and experiential frames through which to examine the issues that need to be negotiated during collaborative writing. The work for the course will advance through increasingly complex tasks, beginning with an individual writing assignment then moving to an assignment for a pair of students, then an assignment for small groups.
In our course, teams will compete to design original gameS, which they will propose, test, write instructions for, and work to promote while reflecting critically on their collaborative writing practices. We will utilize collaborative writing tools from Google (see http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/) and other Web 2.0 providers to create our products and publish our supporting documents. We will also use Adobe Photoshop and other tools to help with the final game design. Most writing will be done in a lab environment structured to insist on group effort. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY.
Course Texts:
Brathwaite and Schreiber, Challenges for Game Designers
Class handouts and web resources
