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Tl1788100
ATHintroduction.docxThe final exam will be held Friday, Dec. 12. The exam will open at 12:01am and stay open until 11:59pm. You may begin the exam at any time during this period. Once you begin, you will have 110 minutes to complete the essay you have chosen to write.
This exam is divided into projects. Four projects are listed below. You will complete ONE project. Students should review these projects, choose one, and carry out the exercise described before the time of the exam. The exam itself will be an on-line writing project.
Professors teach by creating a rich atmosphere of opportunities for learning through lectures, class discussions, assignments, group activities, films, and readings. Exams are our opportunity to see how much you have made of these opportunities; that is, what things you have taken from the class and integrated into your repertoire of skills and models for thinking about, and acting in, the world. The final exam is your last opportunity to show me what you have learned in this class. Keep that objective front and foremost as you do the projects.
Exam Project One: Multicultural Identities
People with hyphenated identities (Asian-American, African-American, etc.) have a particularly tricky problem as they struggle to create identities that allow them to be full members of the communities in which they live (e.g. “American”) while recognizing that people ascribe to them heritage characteristics stemming from the place their ancestors lived (e.g. Asia, Africa) . This is particularly challenging for those whose communities of origin may be stereotyped by the host society, and those stereotypes may be expressed in public culture. New technologies create opportunities for people to discuss these issues with others as they seek to forge their identities.
1. Go to one of these blogs
Angry Asian Man http://blog.angryasianman.com
Reappropiate http://reappropriate.co/
Angry Little Asian Girl http://www.angrylittleasiangirl.com/
2. Explore the site. Make sure to look at comments on the posts, not just the posts themselves.
3. If you like, post a few comments. See if you get responses.
On exam day, write an essay answering the following questions: In writing about racism and representation of Asians and Asian-Americans, what kinds of identities does the blog construct? What kinds of representations does he characterize as racist and why? Are there representations on the web site that might be perceived as racist stereotypes in other contexts? What things can these Asian bloggers say that someone not Asian-American might not be able to?
Exam Project Two: Design an Intercultural or Global Assignment
Recently Miami University decided to adopt the AAC&U competencies as part of its system for assessing whether students are learning the skill sets they need for the 21st century. Two of these skill sets are global competency and intercultural competency. This course, Intercultural Relations, meets the standards for both. The competencies are as follows:
Intercultural Competencies:
1. Articulates insight into cultural roles and biases
2. Demonstrates understanding of the complexity of elements of importance to members of other cultures in relation to its history, values, policies, communication style, economy or beliefs and practices
3. Asks complex questions about other cultures, seeks out and articulates answers to these questions that reflect multiple cultural perspectives
4. Initiates and develops interactions with culturally different others. Suspends judgment in valuing his/her interactions with culturally different others
Global Competencies
1. Develop and exercise the ability to communicate and act respectfully across linguistic and cultural differences
2. Explore and understand their place and influence in the changing world
3. Determine and assess relationships among societies, institutions, and systems in terms of reciprocal interactions, benefits, and costs
4. Describe the development and construction of differences and similarities among contemporary groups and regions
5. Identify and analyze the origins and influences of global forces
For the exam, you will design a lesson and assignment that demonstrates one of these competencies. Here's the project, broken down:
1. Choose any Miami course from the Bulletin that is not currently a Global or Intercultural course.
2. Choose one of the Global or Intercultural competencies listed above.
3. Design an assignment that would show a professor that a student has learned that competency.
4. Design a lesson that would teach the student the knowledge and skills they need to complete the assignment. You may include any materials from this class, but are also encouraged to offer new materials appropriate to the course you chose.
5. For the exam, identify the course you chose, give the name of the lesson and the competency it is meant to teach. Then describe the lesson, and the assignment. The more engaging, detailed and clearly in line with the concepts taught in this course, the higher the grade will be.
Exam Project Three: What’s Wrong With MOOCs?
MOOC stands for massive open online course, a form of distance learning intended to provide unlimited participation and open access to education via the web. MOOCs may include such elements as video lectures, on-line or downloadable readings, and problem sets, as well as interactive user forums that facilitate interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs). Surveys reveal that one of the most prominent motivations for teaching MOOCs among professors at prestigious universities is “altruism—a desire to increase access to higher education worldwide.”
While the desire to increase access to quality education for millions across the world is a laudable one, how feasible is it? Even if we assume that the people accessing the site have functional English, what kinds of barriers might exist to the use of such an on-line platform to make education available across cultural boundaries?
1. Go on-line and learn about MOOCs
2. Visit some MOOC sites offering open classes.
3. Join one and explore it
4. Based on your own experiences, and the concepts in this course, evaluate the course in terms of its ability to teach its lesson across multiple cultural boundaries. The more concrete and specific your analysis is, and the more it clearly draws on concepts from the course, the higher your grade will be.
Exam Project Four: Intercultural Relationships
One aspect of global life that is fraught with intercultural misunderstandings are transcultural romantic, sexual and marital relations. People share these on-line as well…
1. Go to one of the following sites:
· interracialmarriageandfamily.com/ (链接到外部网站。)
· masalamommas.com/ (链接到外部网站。)
· myhongkonghusband.com/ (链接到外部网站。)
· whitegirlinasari.wordpress.com/ (链接到外部网站。)
· yesweretogether.com/ (链接到外部网站。)
· Explore the site you chose, and locate one or more posts in which cross-sultural misunderstandings or conflicts are discussed.You may have to dig a little; some sites have many of these while some just have a few.
· Comment. Post at least one questions. Be honest and admit you went there for a class, but share your thoughts. Pay careful attention to any responses you receive. If possible, initiate dialogue.
· For the exam, write an essay answering the following questions: Describe the intercultural misunderstanding you read about. Who were the stakeholders and what was at stake? What concepts (if any) from the course readings are relevant here? How do authors and commentators frame the intercultural issues and what kinds of advice do they offer?
Grading
The exam is worth 100 points. The following rubric shows how the exam will be graded, and how many points are possible for each aspect of the essay.
_____ Answers all the parts of the question (15)
_____ Thesis, Position or Argument (15)
_____ Use of course concepts (15)
_____ Illustrations or examples (15)
_____ Organization/Structure (15)
_____ Writing Style (15)
_____ Mechanics (10)
An A essay touches on all the elements of the multipart question, offers a coherent thesis, takes a position or makes an argument, is well-written, and uses appropriate examples from the readings, films, lectures and presentations to illustrate what is meant and/or support what is said. It has few or no errors of spelling, grammar, syntax or punctuation.
A B essay will answer the multipart questions, but treats the components like a list and offers no coherent thesis or argument. B exams may not be as well written, or make less cogent use of examples.
A C answer is competently written but may be incomplete. Some parts may be ambiguous and unclear. The essay may fail to support assertions with examples or may use inappropriate examples. It suffers from mechanical errors.
A D exam is poorly conceived, poorly written, and shows only the most rudimentary grasp of material or concepts covered in class.
An F exam fails to demonstrate any effort to understand or use the concepts covered in this class. It is poorly written, confusing, and difficult to understand.
Note: These questions, like most issues in the real world, involve multiple perspectives and contexts. Answers that reduce the issues to just two conflicting frames—unless you can give good evidence for doing so-- are falling into that ethnocentric American cultural practice of assuming there are (only) two sides to every story and will be graded accordingly.
