I asked Dr. Oblivion for his thoughts on the final project. I don’t know how helpful they are though. So here are the final project details:

• You have the option of doing the final project individually or as a group project. If you do it as a group project, each group member needs to blog about it.
• Your project should showcase the multiple digital media skills you have developed over the semester. It could take the form of a post or a subdomain with embedded media, or a complex video incorporating audio production and design, or something else if you have a different idea.
• Potential final project prompts:
  • Aggressive Technologies vs ds106. See the visit from AT’s legal counsel. How should we respond, individually or as a group? The idea of pitting the class against its own creation has a sort of Frankenstein or Utron appeal to me. What do you think? ds106 takes no guff from corporate lawyers.
  • Characters and Aggressive Technologies. Bring some of the story threads the class has developed over the past several weeks to a conclusion. You might build upon the radio show project, or go in a different direction. This concept has good potential for collaboration because you could develop intersecting or interrelated storylines and work remotely and asynchronously. It would be interesting to see how many stories we could get to intersect, or even connect tangentially.
  • Analysis of pros & cons of artificial intelligence based on course experiences. What can we do with AI? What should we do with AI? What would Dr. Oblivion do? In spite of that last question, this would be an option to take a serious approach to issues of artificial intelligence. Has AI helped you be more creative in ds106, or has it felt more like a cheat or a crutch? Perhaps a little of both?
• As with everything else in ds106, you have a great deal of freedom as to how you interpret these prompts and execute the project.
• One of the things that makes ds106 what we know and love is the student input. Perhaps you find the above prompts lacking. Do you have ideas for final project prompts? It should be something that builds upon what we’ve been doing, involves the use of a variety of digital media, and gives people room for creative exploration. Feel free to post ideas, thoughts or questions in the #finalprojects channel in Discord. Take advantage of this if you’re looking for collaborators as well, or if you have questions about the assignment.
• Project size: You want the project to showcase what you can accomplish with digital media. It is a two-week project, so it should represent a fair amount of work. Your write-ups for each week should detail the thought processes and effort that go into the project. Ideally it should be something that you will want to archive and show off to family, friends, and future generations.

Timeline

Due Friday, 4/19, by midnight: a weekly summary outlining your project and detailing the work done so far. It would be a good idea to post one or two progress updates during the week, to share ideas and get feedback from the class, and to prevent procrastination.

Due Friday, 4/26: the finished project and a weekly summary reflecting on the work and your creative process, and describing how well it represents what you have learned over the semester. The project and the summary could be separate posts or they could be included in one – whichever works better for your project. Again it would be a good idea to post a progress report during the week.

Daily Creates

Daily Creates are optional for these two weeks.

3/15/24 – 3/29/24

For weeks 9 and 10 we will be working on producing long-form audio narratives, AKA radio shows. The shows will be broadcast on ds106radio the week after they are due.

Group Radio Show Guidelines

The radio show will be a group project. You will have two weeks to complete the project. These are the specifications:

• The show must have some sort of narrative, and it must connect to the course theme of AI in some way. How you go about that is up to you. Creativity is encouraged.
• Consider what a show should sound like. There needs to be an opening and a closing. You may need transitional elements. You will need to do audio production. This will include editing sections together, layering in background sounds, incorporating music, etc. It must not be just a recording of a conversation.
• On the subject of music – in the past some people had their work blocked by Soundcloud due to copyright violation. You can use CC Search to find openly licensed music and other media. You could also google open source music. You won’t find hits, but you will find things you can use.
• All group members must contribute to the final radio show. I recommend you create a Google Doc for planning and collaboration. If you invite me to be part of it, I can offer advice and input. It’s up to you. But I recommend it.
• The total show should be around 20 – 30 minutes, equal at least 5-7 minutes times the number of members in your group (for example, a three person group would produce a show of about 20 minutes; five people would go about half an hour.)
• The show must include at least 3 ds106 radio bumpers (they can be specific to the show or general bumpers for ds106radio) that are produced by group members.
• The show must include at least 3 commercials that the group creates. These are opportunities to do something creative that may or may not directly tie to the narrative of the show.
• Blog about your process and progress. Every member is expected to blog at least once during the first week about progress; every member is expected to blog at least once during the second week about the completion of the project. These should be substantive blog posts in which you explain what progress/decisions the group had made, what individual work you’ve been doing, what tools/tech you’re using, what’s going well, what’s not working, etc. tag: radioshowweek1& radioshoweek2
• Each group member needs to do at least one promo poster/bumper sticker/logo etc. for their show during the first week — a little splash of design work.
• Keep the instructor apprised of your progress. You can email me, send me messages on Mastodon or Discord, etc.

As you found out during Intro to Audio week, audio editing is time consuming. Plan to be done early and you will probably be done on time.

Summary of Deadlines and Assignments for the next 2 class weeks

Due by Midnight 3/22 (Summarized, as usual, in a weekly post):

1. Radio Show Progress:A blog post on your radio show process and progress. Tag this radioshowweek1
2. Radio Show Design Project:A blog post for your radio show poster/bumper sticker/logo etc. Write this post just like you would an assignment post — with the same amount of detail we usually expect! Tag this radioshowpromo
3. Commenting: Everyone needs to be reading/commenting on other students’ work.
4. Audio Assignments:  Complete at least 2. You should use your audio assignments to develop content for your radio show (bumpers, commercials, intros/outros/transitions, etc.). We are assigning these this week so that you make progress on developing content for your shows! If you do random assignments just to make the quota you are wasting your time and efforts. Feel free to bend or create assignments to suit your needs.
5. Daily Creates:Complete 3 TDCs this week.

Due by Midnight 3/29 (Summarized, as usual, in a weekly post):

1. Completed radio show. Upload it to Soundcloud or Google Drive.
   

   Remember to check “Enable direct downloads” in Soundcloud so we can get your show on the air

2. Radio Show Progress: Second blog post summarizing your radio show process and progress. Tag: radioshowweek2
3. Commenting: The more, the better. It may be a challenge this week though.
4. Daily Creates:Complete 2 TDCs this week.

Audio resources:

In addition to the Audio Resources page, here are a few additional items worth reviewing:

• The Convergence Center has recording equipment and facilities available for you to use. Take advantage of them!

The UMW Digital Knowledge Center is available for tutorials for audio editing. You can schedule a tutorials for assignments and the radio show here: https://dkc.umw.edu/