Final Project

*instructor: dr. patricia ericsson*	*ericsson@wsu.edu*
*spring 2005*	*phone: 335-4820*
office: avery 223	*office hours: 1:15-2:00 tth and by appointment*

Most of you are almost finised with your undergraduate studies and have taken this course as Tier III requirement to obtain "breadth" in your university education. For many of you, the readings and class discussions have probably taken you far from the topics you typically consider in your major and may seem to have little connection or imporance for your major and your career. The central idea of the final project is to bring your thinking full circle and to make connections for yourself between the work you've done for this class and your major area.

For your final project you will be composing a text that relates the readings you have done in this class, class discussion, and other writing projects in this course to your major field. This final project may take the form of a traditional research project, a web-based project, a research report, or a non-traditional form that has been discussed with the teacher. The ballpark length of this project is from about 5-7 pages or about 1250-1850 words. If you do a web-based or other non-traditional form, the length should be decided upon via conversation with the teacher.

At first glance, this assignment might seem almost impossible for some of you. After all, how do you relate the issues we've read and talked about to Mechanical Engineering, Information Systems, Construction Management, or Apparel, Merchandising, and Textiles to Digital Diversity? Each of these majors has a connection to at least one of the major topics this course has covered: the Digital Divide, Race and Cyberspace, Schooling and Cyberspace, Gender and Cyberspace, Living in a Virtual World, and more. You job is to make that connection and write about it.

In your explorations of the connection(s) between your major and this course, you must use at least four (4) of the readings that were included in the course and at least two (2) sources from your field (from a journal, magazine, book, or carefully chosen website). This project will probably be most successful if you choose just one or two of the major topics in this course to relate to your major.

A class discussion on possible topics, connection, and ideas will be part of preparing for this assignment. In addition, you are encouarged to talk to classmates outside of class as you're brainstorming for this project.

Important Dates:

February 15
Assignment given; class discussion on possibilities

March 22
Brief project proposal due: sent to teacher by email (ericsson@wsu.edu); must include 1) a two paragraph overview of the proposed project, 2) a list of course readings that will be used in the project, 3) a list of major area readings that will be used, and 4) an explanation/justification of the project format.

April 19, 21, 26
Oral presentations of projects (five-eight min. presentation); more details provided later

April 28
Final project due

office: avery 223