April 5 - the third interview is due

Today we are looking forward to regional and country reports by various groups, a review of the third interview using the same review document from round one and two, and posting winners and a link to the spreadsheet with all results, as before. That needs to be completed today.
Then it's time for the final project. Please post it by next Tuesday including an outline and literature you may want to use - and start working on it.
No class next Tuesday, April 12; I am in Mankato for an external review.
We will meet again on April 19 and I will ask each class members to speak about the final topic chosen. We will then try to optimize the final topics and their outlines, due on 4/19.
See you at 5PM today in MC.

Regional culture reports 3-29-11

Class members are expected to organize themselves into 5-6 regional groups in the second half of class time. Find classmates who interviewed students from the same or bordering countries or regions. Sit together and discuss what you found interesting and noteworthy about the culture you interviewed. Collect all of these observations by all group members into one presentation to class. You will present next week. Each group member will post the same group presentation on her or his blog.
• outline the main observations by theme
• create a visual map of ideas that serves as a blue print for presentation
• use media clips
• use text resources
• cite your sources
• tell who contributed which information to the presentation

Interview competion 2 (March 29, 2011)

Please read all posted second interviews. If one is missing, fill out a form with the name and zeros. You will receive evaluation forms today and you are expected to fill out one set of parameters for each class mate. Post the results in a shared document and also post your top three winners and link to their interviews.
The parameters are here for reference:
en191s18s11 Name:________________________________________________________
How is the preparation documented?    0..1..2..3
How good are the personal considerations regarding the interview process? 0..1..2
How comprehensive and informative is the country report?  0..1..2..3..4
How does the interview read? Interesting, good questions/answers?  0..1..2..3..4..5
How well is the complete interview presented on the blog? Clarity, errors, visual appearance all count. 0..1..2..3..4..5..6
total:______________________________________________________________

Score card - copy the spreadsheet to your own docs and fill in the results of all students and make a spreadsheet in your google account. Post (share) the document and link a new Post on your blog to the spreadsheet. Do not forget to post the three best scores, names, URLs of interviews of your personal "winners".

Remember the interview format:
Elements of each interview that must show up on your blog:
Title: My first interview
1. Describe your preparations. (1) Interview preparations.  (How did you approach people? When, where, and how did you conduct and record the interview? Whom did you interview?)
2. Describe the interview. What did surprise you? How did the interview unfold? (2) Interview report
3. Report on country/region and culture: (3) Country Report
4. Transcribe the interview. (4) Interview transcription

March 22 more interviews in LH116

Today at noon, the second interview was due posted on your blogs. Please be sure to provide complete transcriptions of the interview, not a general description of what was said (unless it's the one interview permitted without transcription). Interviews without transcription cannot be graded A. B is the best possible grade.
Today I will see Chris, Hua, Beibei, Hui, Vidura, Ahmed, Kim, Asif, Ibrahim, Sam, Alexandra, Luke, and Thao. We will meet next week, 3/29 in the Miller Center again. The third interviews are due at noon on April 5, and we will rate them and determine a winner in that meeting.

Class does not meet in Miller Center today: You'll meet Roland in his office.

Hi all, please be sure to have posted interview two by next week Tuesday noon, the 22nd. Amanda, Yao, Ahmed, Josh, Sam,  and Margaret have not reviewed and posted reading results for interview 1. Two elements are needed in your post: a doc with a link that documents your evaluation of all interviews, and also a list of top three scores.
Reviewing other interviews is just as important for this class as conducting them.

I will see Natalie, Moizuddin, Kyle, Shan, Maggie, Yao, Mengfei, Amanda, Huiyu, Xiaping, Jordan, Nan will see me today in Lawrence Hall.

Interview competition 1

Please read all posted interviews. If one is missing, fill out a form with the name and zeros. You will receive evaluation forms today and you are expected to fill out one set of parameters for each class mate.
The parameters are here for reference:
en191s18s11 Name:________________________________________________________
How is the preparation documented?    0..1..2..3
How good are the personal considerations regarding the interview process? 0..1..2
How comprehensive and informative is the country report?  0..1..2..3..4
How does the interview read? Interesting, good questions/answers?  0..1..2..3..4..5
How well is the complete interview presented on the blog? Clarity, errors, visual appearance all count. 0..1..2..3..4..5..6
total:______________________________________________________________

Score card - copy the spreadsheet to your own docs and fill in the results of all students and make a spreadsheet in your google account. Post (share) the document and link a new Post on your blog to the spreadsheet. 

Remember the interview format:
Elements of each interview that must show up on your blog:
Title: My first interview
1. Describe your preparations. (1) Interview preparations.  (How did you approach people? When, where, and how did you conduct and record the interview? Whom did you interview?)
2. Describe the interview. What did surprise you? How did the interview unfold? (2) Interview report
3. Report on country/region and culture: (3) Country Report
4. Transcribe the interview. (4) Interview transcription

interviews, final

Office hour sign-up sheet for en191s11    Meet me in LH 116   
        Student name- last name, first name
Available day and hour        write your name into the desired time slot, if available. Do not erase other students' names when entering your own, please.
3/15/2011    17:00:00    Stephanie Van Houtan
2    17:15:00    Natalie Severson
3    17:30:00    Moizuddin Hashmi
4    17:45:00    Kyle Louks
5    18:00:00    Shan Lu
6    18:15:00    Maggie Schwagel
7    18:30:00    Yao Hu
8    18:45:00    Mengfei Xu
9    19:00:00    Amanda Hayes
10    19:15:00    Huiyu He
11    19:30:00    Thao thi vo
12    19:45:00    xiaoping Zhao
13    20:00:00    Meyer, Jordan
14    20:15:00    Yingying Nan
       
       
3/22/2011       
15    17:00:00    Chris Klaphake
16    17:15:00    HUA YUNFEI
17    17:30:00    Beibei Wei
18    17:45:00    Hui Zhang
19    18:00:00    Vidura Wickramasinghe
20    18:15:00    Ahmed Iqbal
21    18:30:00    Kim Siemsen :P
22    18:45:00    Ahmed Iqbal
23    19:00:00    Asif Hussain
24    19:15:00    ibrahim alsgoor
25    19:30:00    Sam Mingo
26    19:45:00    Alexandra Holker :(
27    20:00:00    Luke Walcheski :P
28    20:15:00   
       

Meeting dates, meetings with the professor, etc.

On March 1, 2011, noon, all students will have completed the first interview, posted it on their blog, and come to class prepared to decribe the process, review all interviews according to parameters we will establish, and determine the best three interviews. Students will post the first, second, and third interview winners in a separate post labeled "Interview 1 winners"  and supply the winner's name and also a link to that interview.  Example:
First place: Student name, link to interview
Second place: Student name, link to interview
Third place: Student name, link to interview

On March 8, 2011, we have spring break. After spring break we will use two meeting days on 3/15 and 3/22 to meet with me in LH 116, my office. Use the Office hour sign-up sheet for en191s11 to select a time slot.

Being in the library, we might as well use it

1. Work in the existing groups. Each member create a post "Library Research Assistance" for theor own part of the task and all other group elements prepared today. By the end of today, we want to have facilitated research of any topics enabling you to better research about countries and cultures of your interviewees, including reporting of the process and interview content. Remember to cite your sources!

Objective: Select examples from the web-resources found and relate how they can be used and what they can deliver. In case of "Citation Styles" you may want to pick two and introduce them explaining their purpose, and where they are required and expected.

2. Open to the Research Assistance in the Library menu

Group 1 prepares for presentation "Research Basics"

Group 2 prepares for presentation "Subject Guides"

Group 3 prepares for presentation "Course Guides"

Group 4 prepares for presentation "RefWorks" (must create a new id to use)

Group 5 prepares for presentation "Citation Styles"

Group 6 prepares for presentation "Reference Sources"

Each member of the group needs to study and prepare one aspect of the topic. Assign who will do what. Post the information on each others blogs: each member will link to each post from other group members that pertain to this task. That means that we could access any member's blog and find there all group elements in the new student post "Library Research Assistance- group #____; topic: ___" .
Start: 17:30
Finish 19:30, then review presentation by all groups

PS You may wonder why we would include "Course Guides" here. The list of courses taught may link to our topic, though, as in the example of CMST 212, where the syllabus offers access to topics and resources not only in interpersonal communication, but also intercultural communication. A topic that might interest you... so check all other courses and see what might connect to Global Communications. I would not suggest looking in Electrical Engineering or Biology. But Mass Communications, Speech, Sociology, Foreign Languages, English, and many others, may contain useful information.  

The coming weeks ... deadlines and to-dos

Students finished grammar presentations and we spent time on citations, in-text citations, works cited pages, and the requirement to cite your sources to avoid plagiarism. Students provided excellent examples for both.
The mock interviews prepared you to go and find your own interviewees and start interviewing. The first completed interviews are due on March 1, 2011 at noon and will be evaluated by the class that evening. Again, there is a competition for the best interview.
Next week we will address issues that may arise from interviewing, recording, transcribing and reporting of the dialogues. The reason for three interviews from the same country or region is the ability to cross-reference information. You may re-use the same country report, unless new perspectives have become evident in the interview. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the four elements of each interview: country report, preparation's report, transcript, and interview report. These four elements need to be posted together.
BTW only 19 students attended class. Please read the syllabus in the right margin of this blog and consider the 5% drop in grade you will see unless I have agreed to your absence, and we have discussed make-up or catch-up activities. An email to me informing me of your absence is too forward at best and offensive at worst.
For the next weeks, our time in class will be split between short excursions into different writing topics, review of existing interviews, refinement of the standards, and smaller papers on special topics. You will have two weeks for each interview to be completed and posted.
Interview 1 completion date March 1, 2011
Interview 2 completion date March 22, 2011
Interview 3 completions date April 5
We will then have the meetings on April 12, 19, 26 to work on your final project. The final project could be an additional interview, a comparison and contrast of the three you already performed, or a review of interviews by your peers in class. But I am also open to other topics, as long as they relate to Global Communication. The final project needs to be posted on the day of final, May 3, 2011, and show evidence that you
• know to research a topic and quote sources
• structure your topic well
• utilize the newly won knowledge from interviews and preparations
• understand global communications, cultures, and dialogue from different perspectives.
Final papers need to be at least 2000 words long, show books, articles, and web-resources on the works-cited page, and demonstrate simple in-text citation techniques. You may pick the standard (APA, MLA, etc.) but you must adhere to it. Questions? Please ask next Tuesday.

Homework for next Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011

1. Create a post with your own seven questions as well as seven of the core questions
Core Questions
1. Do you think it will be easy to find a job after college?
2. What was the hardest thing about transitioning to the U.S.? (Culture shock)
3. Why did you decide to come to SCSU instead of studying or working in your own country?
4. What is your opinion of the American diet? Kill it.  Delicious greasy pizza.
5. How does the  climate in your home country compare to here?
6. What are some cultural differences between your country and here?
7 Who takes care of the finances in your family?
8 At what age do men and women spend private time and at what age do they consider marriage?
9. What are your personal experiences with racism since coming to the US?
10. What were your preconceptions about the US before coming here and how have they changed?

2. Create a set of objectives for your interview process. What do you want to achieve, learn, encounter?
Create a post with the label "Interview objectives for _____ (your name)"

Objectives and questions for the interviews

When writing your questions, please be sure
• not to lead (manipulating the questions; "And how do you like it here in the great US of A", or "You must certainly think..."
• to allow the interviewee to ask questions of you
• to wind down the conversation slowly (you could ask whether your interviewee would like to add thoughts and ideas that you did not ask for, you could invite them to ask you questions, etc.)
• to thank your interviewee for the time and effort invested on your behalf


Each interview will have four components:

1. A country report (1-2 pages) about the country or region that your interviewee calls home

2. A process description: How did you prepare, conduct, record and transcribe the interview?

3. A transcript of the interview (you may adjust words and sentences, make mild editing choices where sentences are incomplete on the tape, etc)

4. A personal review what you thought about that interview, what was new and exciting, or what disappointed you. Here you compare what happened to your objectives, and draw conclusions.


Q&A with respect to interviews:
How many interviews with international students do I have to conduct and record?  
Answer: 3
Do I have to transcribe all three?  
Answer: You may deselect the weakest one and only transcribe the two best interviews.
What do I post if I de-selct one interview?  
Answer: You post the country report, the description of the preparation process, your objectives, and the explanation why you chose not to transcribe this interview. Then you post all of that minus the transcript.
 

Synthesizing, categorizing, eliminating

Source for collecting categories and core questions
Group 1 speaker: categories and core questions
Group 2 speaker: categories and core questions
Group 3 speaker: categories and core questions
Group 4 speaker: categories and core questions
Group 5 speaker: categories and core questions
Group 6 speaker: categories and core questions