Week 1: Introductions

January 22 — Introduction to the class and each other.

For Wednesday:  

  • read “Censorship is” and be ready to discuss
  • peruse the ALA’s Top Ten Most Challenged Books Lists for last several years:  http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

January 24 — Exploring Challenged Books/How to Find a Case

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Identify at least one book challenge that you’d like to explore and begin researching: who, what, when, where, and why.
  • Read Belinda Louie’s “Politics in Children’s Literature” in Shattering the Looking Glass.

Week 2

January 29 — Guest Speaker: Research librarian on key terms and potential library resources

Due: Blog post.

For Wednesday:  

January 31 — Resources and school districts

Due: StoryMap JS Introductions

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Read Bobbi Swiderek’s “Censorship”
  • Contextual resourcing:
    • If exploring challenge in school district or library, you should request materials: i.e. patron complaint, letters of support to ban or not to ban book, district/board committee reviewal of book and other materials, board decision
    • If exploring historic censorship/challenge, you should determine authoritative sources to interview

 

Week 3:

February 5 — Guest Speaker: Susan Thomas, Truman State University’s IT Designer on WordPress and Copyright Law

Due: Blog Post

For Wednesday:  

  • Schedule session with research librarian on your campus for sometime this week
  • Read Chris Crutcher’s “How They Do It”

February  7 — Resources for Historical Cases
Assignments over the weekend:

Week 4:

February  12 — Writing for the Web

Due: Blog Post

For Wednesday:  

  • Visit your university’s library and list technological resources you’ll need: voice recorders, for instance
  • Read Grace Enriquez’s “The Reader Speaks Out”
  • Continue researching for source material and analyzing data found

February  14 — Case Roundtable

  • Be prepared to discuss your potential cases, the research you have done to date, and the available resources.  If you have already settled on a case start thinking about how you want to present it in a digital format.

Assignments over the weekend:

Week 5:

February  19 — Digital History Sites

  • Be prepared to discuss the sites that you looked at and the one that you chose for the Annotate a Website assignment

Due: Blog Post

For Wednesday:  

  • Read Paul S. Boyer “Gilded-Age Consensus, Repressive Campaigns, and Gradual Liberalization:The Shifting Rhythms of Book Censorship.”
  • Read Donald A. Downs, “Government Censorship since 1945.”

February  21 — Providing Historical Context.

  • Be prepared to discuss the case you selected and how it fits into the general history of censorship in American history.

Due: Select Your Case

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Annotate a website
  • Work together to draft your project contract

Week 6:

February  26 — Digital History Possibilities

  • Students should be prepared to discuss their draft contracts and think about what digital tools they plan to use on their sites.

Due: Blog Post.

Due: Annotate a Website

For Wednesday:  

  • Continue researching for source material and analyzing data found
  • Work together on finalizing your contract

February  28 —

Due: Project Contracts

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Work on your website

 Week 7:

March 5  — Share updates on your progress.

Due: Blog Post.

For Wednesday:  

  • Continue researching for source material and analyzing data found

March 7 — Timeline JS.

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Continue researching for source material and analyzing data found
  • Identify key dates/events in your project for sharing on Timeline JS

After Week 7, unless otherwise noted, we will move to one large group meeting per week. Note that during Week 13 we will meet both Monday and Wednesday.  

Floating SPRING BREAK — Please confirm the dates of your spring break with us by email. We will not be taking a break from weekly meetings, but if you must miss a meeting, you can catch up by watching the meeting at a later date.

Week 8:

March 12 —Share updates on your progress.

Due: Blog Post. By this point in the semester you must have completed your posts about:

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Plot out your website’s navigation, build WordPress pages (even if blank) to begin to see it on the site.

Week 9:

March 19 — Share updates on your progress.

Due: Blog Post

Due: Timeline JS entries for your project

Week 10:

March 26— Share updates on your progress.

Due: Blog Post. Your post-Interview Blog post must be completed at this point.

Week 11:

April 2 — Share updates on your progress.

Due: Blog Post

Week 12:

April 9 — Share updates on your projects.

Due: Website Projects Due

Due: Blog Post

Assignments over the weekend:

    • Using Hypothesis, students will review student sites assigned to them.

Week 13:

April 16 & 18 (Note that we meet on Monday and Wednesday  in separate peer feedback sessions)

Due: Blog Post

Due: Peer Review of websites using Hypothesis

Week 14:

No class meeting.

Due: Revised Websites.  By Friday, April 27

Assignments over the weekend:

  • Work on your presentation.

Week 15:

April 30 and May 2 (if needed) –

Due: Blog Post on Defense of Contract (April 30)

Due:  Public presentations of projects will be scheduled on April 30 and May 2 (if needed). These will be public presentations which may be “attended” by faculty and administrators from other COPLAC institutions and may be posted on the course and/or COPLAC websites.

NOTE: Given that these are public projects, students will commit to fixing issues found by Professors Moran Hajo and Dierking during the final evaluation of projects.