2014 Project Description

TalkTech 2014: A Collaboration Project between “Politehnica” University of Timisoara and Bentley University

 

With your international partners, you will use web-based collaboration tools to meet both synchronously (in real time using voice, video, and chat) and asynchronously (via e-mail, or bulletin boards) to research popular tech trends. You will create a multimedia artifact using ThingLink, an image annotation tool, to present collectively what your group has learned. Think of this as an interactive infographic.

 

For this project you will use the VICADIS online tool at http://www.vicadis.net/campus/course/view.php?id=119

 

All the information, your messages, etc will be stored here. To access this account please check the email message you received with your login information.

 

ThingLink

 

ThingLink helps you create interactive images by annotating them with photos and images, video, text, music, and audio. See examples of ThingLInks that others have created here: http://www.thinglink.com/learn

 

Bentley students have created these ThingLinks to introduce themselves to students at UTP:

 

Section H01 – http://www.thinglink.com/scene/563359349964013569

 

Section X01 – http://www.thinglink.com/scene/563359682773647361

 

Each ThingLink has a background image that can be enhanced with text, audio, and video annotations.  Your group should collectively discuss and design the background image you would like to use for your topic.  It can be a screenshot, photo, scanned image, digital collage, photoshopped image, or other image that describes your topic. Your background image should contain several areas that you can annotate with text, voice, and video using ThingLink. Do not use an image that you find online already. (Ok to modify one if it has permission to allow this.)

 

After creating your group’s ThingLink, set sharing settings – who can edit, and image visibility (public or unlisted). Check Allow Anyone To Edit so others can edit your image!

Post the link to your image to VICADIS so that everyone in your group can access it.

 

Text Annotations (Individual)

 

Image and Text Annotation (One per person, in two languages!)

Each person in your group should create at least 2 text annotations that includes research you have done about some aspect of the topic.  Be sure your name is clearly associated with the annotation that you write.

 

Each annotation should be between 100 and 150 words. Include an image to accompany your annotation. Create the image yourself and post it online, or find one online that you can use. Enter the web address for the image in the “link” field on ThingLink.

 

Create two versions of your annotation: one in English, and one in Romanian. (Use Google Translate if you need help!) Post your annotation twice, once in each language.

Make sure your name is near the comment that you contributed.

 

Presentation Video (One per team)

 

Create a video conversation where preferably the whole group appears to  lively discuss/ debate/present  about your topic. The length should be approximately 4 minutes.  We encourage you to speak longer, and then edit your video to include the highlights of your conversation. Post the video on YouTube, Vimeo, or another video hosting site online. Your video should have an appropriate title screen, and credits. Write a brief description, and include the link to your audio annotation on ThingLink. It’s ok for everyone to speak in English!

 

Presentation Audio Annotation (One per International Pair or Triple)

 

Create a recording containing voices from at least one Bentley student and at least one UT student in which you have a short conversation about an aspect of the topic. The length should be approximately one minute. Post the audio recording on SoundCloud. Write a brief description, and include the link to your audio annotation on ThingLink. It’s ok for everyone to speak in English!

 

Hints:

 

You might try using Google Hangouts, and recording it directly to YouTube, or look for a free video call recorder for Skype. You might use join.me’s meeting recording feature, or a screen recording service such as screencast-o-matic.com or screenr.com to create a short demo of your app or web site.

 

Social Media

 

Each person in your group should share the ThingLink when it is completed, on one of your own social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GooglePlus, etc., or post it to your own personal website or blog. Please use the hashtag #talktech2014 . Include an appropriate screenshot and link on Vicadis to document your social media post.

 

Topics for 2014

  1. Augmented Reality
  2. Big Data
  3. Internet of Things
  4. Open Data
  5. Creative Commons Licensing
  6. Wearable technology
  7. 3D printing
  8. Apps and Devices for Streaming Video
  9. Bit Coin and Digital Currencies
  10. MOOCs
  11. Voice Recognition
  12. Crowdsourcing Apps
  13. Payments using Mobile Devices
  14. Online Tools for Event Planning and Scheduling
  15. Information Privacy when using Online Social Networks

 

Timeline

 

Week Of Milestone
October 3 – Vicadis Password sent – save the email!
October 7 – 10 Sign up for a group and a topic, and exchange contact information with group members.

Try to identify a time when you can meet regularly with your international partners.
October 14 – 20 Make first contact to arrange a real-time chat, and discuss project division of responsibilities
Oct 21-27 One person creates Thing Link Account. Group brainstorms content of background image and decides how it will be created.
Oct 28- Nov 3 Post background image on ThingLink.

Share the link to your ThingLink on your group’s Vicadis blog so everyone can see it.

Discuss which aspects of the background image will be annotated and how, and by whom

Decide what you will talk about for your audio and video annotations
Nov 4-10 Work on individual text annotations, and post them to ThingLink

Begin working on audio annotations.
Nov 11-17 Work on video and audio annotations with partners and post to audio and video hosting sites, then to ThingLink
Nov 18-26 Post final annotations online, post final thing link to Vicadis and on social media sites

Holidays:

 

Oct 13, 14 – Bentley Fall Break

Nov 26, 27, 28 – Bentley Thanksgiving Holiday

Nov 28 – 2 Dec – National Day in Romania

 

Grading

 

Do all of your work on Vicadis. http://www.vicadis.net/campus/course/view.php?id=119

Share transcripts of IM chats, email messages, or other communication as evidence of your collaborative efforts.

 

This project has a maximum of 50 points, to be allocated as follows:

 

GROUP SCORES
Background ThingLink image posted to Vicadis by Nov 3 5
Quality of Content of Group Video (10) and  Audio (5)

  • Is the information correct and relevant?
  • Do you share anything insightful?
  • How is the quality of the audio or video? Is it audible? Is the video fuzzy?
  • Is there evidence of collaboration in this multimedia: (For example, in the video or audio recording, do you interact with or speak after your international partner?)
 Video: 10

Audio:  5
Group Process

  • Did your group document process, how you would work together, and post evidence or snippets of your work together (chat logs, call recordings) of this throughout the project to the VICADIS Blog?
 10
INDIVIDUAL SCORES
Your Text Annotations

  • Is the information correct and relevant?
  • Do you share anything insightful?
  • Does the image illustrate or enhance the text?
  • (and is it in two languages?)
 10
Your Participation in Process

  • Is there evidence of your participation throughout the process through chat transcripts, posts to VICADIS, etc.?
 5
Your Social Media Sharing

  • Did you share your completed thinglink on social media and post evidence to Vicadis?
 5

International Conference Calls

 

Diana Visits Mark’s Class:  Tuesday  11am /  6p ; 14:15  / 21:15

Mark Visit Diana’s Class on Skype    Monday 0900 -/ 1600