Week 16 — Wrapping Up
Well, we’re almost there. We don’t have new reading material this week, but we do have a new movie — The Social Network. I like to end with this movie because it’s a good one and because it connects way back to chapters 1 and 6 while telling a story about communication technology and organizational beginnings. I encourage you to re-read your notes from chapters 1 and 6 before watching. What can we learn about organizational communication broadly from watching this movie? Where do systems come into play here? How should we attend to issues of privacy and communication online? What kind of organizational culture was/is Zuckerberg building?
End of Semester Assignments
You have one more blog post to write, and you have two options for that post: a semester reflection or a blog audit. Whichever assignment you choose is due May 6 at 5 pm.
Option 1: Semester Reflection
Per the syllabus, you could write a reflection:
The purpose of the individual reflection assignment is to give you an opportunity to make sense of the work you’ve done this term and to demonstrate that you have thoughtfully considered how the course material may or may not be useful to you in the future. Your assignment may take many forms (e.g., prose essay, Powerpoint deck, infographic, video, song).
Whatever form you choose, your reflection assignment should explain how you understand some of the topics we covered in class. The syllabus and unit notes are all good resources for lists of concepts we covered. You don’t need to explain every concept, learning goal, and competency, but you should address at least a few. I’m especially interested in competencies and concepts that were completely new or that you understand differently now. Use the whole semester; don’t just write about technology alignment or competitive strategy.
Option 2: Blog Audit
Earlier in the term I floated the idea of a blog audit. Few of you reacted, but I like this assignment. It’s a different way to reach the same learning goals as the reflection — to get you to write about your own thinking and to consider on what’s changed over the semester.
Reread your own posts from the whole semester (https://medium.com/@[your_user_name]). Compose an analysis and reflection of your posts. This meta-post is open-ended and the exact content is up to you, although it should be thoughtful and directed. Feel free to quote briefly from your own posts or to refer to specific ideas from the readings we’ve studied so far.
Some questions to consider might include: What do you usually write about in your posts? Are there broad themes or specific concerns that reoccur in your writing? Has the nature of your posts changed since the beginning of the semester? What surprised you as you reread your work? What ideas or threads in your posts do you see as worth revisiting? What else do you notice? What aspects of the weekly blogging do you value most, and how does it show up in your posts?
