BRIEF
SUMMARY OF THE COMMUNITY ACTION WEBSITE PROJECT - Fall 2007 Through the Community Action Website, introductory anthropology students experience anthropology as more than the material presented in lectures and books. They address important ethical concerns within the discipline that relate to the discipline’s place in the world today. Using the internet to draw students at various universities together into an intellectual community, the Community Action Website encourages students to consider ethical issues that lie at the interface of anthropology and the contemporary world. Once the webmaster as created an account for you, you can log on to your personal TA/GSI webpage anytime, simply by going to www.publicanthropology.net and entering your email address and password. (The initial password sent to you is welcome -- in small letters -- the first word of text on the www.publicanthropology.org home page. You are encouraged to chagne the password to one of your standard ones) If you forget your password, you can reset it by going to the bottom of the page and clicking on: Reset Your Account. Please NOTE: You cannot log on until the webmaster sets up an account for you. (Since you are a TA/GSI, you are able to see special information that students cannot see -- hence you have to have your account created in a special way.) Please DO NOT TRY TO REGISTER yourself as a student. KEY
TOOLS
DASHBOARD: The Dashboard is the set of numbers and bar graphs in the middle of your home page (the page you see once you have logged in). The Dashboard allows you to track THREE THINGS: (1a) the progress of students signing up in the class as a whole plus (1b) the progress of students specifically assigned to your section (or sections). In addition, it allows you to track (2) students who have registered and paid the registration. You can see which students have paid the $10.00 registration fee (2a) through PayPal versus (2b) have paid you. (Paying you means that you have to accept money from the student and check their names off from a list.) It is important, in this regard, for students to understand they cannot gain access to the Community Action Website until they have registered and paid the ten dollar. Finally, once the Action Period begins that you are involved in (BUT NOT BEFORE THAT TIME), the Dashboard tracks (3) the progress of students through the 2 ½ week Action Period. This involves indicating (3a) which students have and have not written their letters (during week one), (3b) which students have and have not done their evaluations (during week two), and (3c) the number of students who have signed one or more of the selected (or “winning”) letters (during week three). Further information on the Dashboard is located on in the more complete TA/GSI Guide (see below under FOR THE CURIOUS for the link). These pages will explain such details as how to select out the students assigned to your section from the class as a whole as well as which students have (or have not) completed what assignments. NAVIGATION BAR: The Navigation Bar is on the left side of your webpages. It allows you to select important webpages quickly and effectively. The Home page brings you back to the dashboard. My Account allows you to check and change specifics about youself. My Classes allows you to select (from the class as a whole) students who are in your section as well as print out for the students in your section (a) each student’s letter and (b) the overall grade received for that letter. My Action Period allows you to see the selected (or “winning”) letters and how many students have supported each of them. Finally My Students allows you to call up information on each specfic student in your section – including (1) the student’s email, (2) a special password (called Review Password) that allows you to enter the student’s webpage and see what the student is seeing on his or her webpage, and (3) how a student’s letter was graded on each of the five writing criteria. (The grades under My Action Period, because they involve students in your section, only list the total grade for each student not what the student received on each of the five evaluation criteria.) Further information on the Navigation Bar is located in the TA/GSI Guide (see FOR THE CURIOUS below, for the link). THE ACTION PERIOD (WHAT HAPPENS WHEN) The heart of the Community Action Website Project is the two and one-half week Action Period. Your teacher will know which Action Period the class is participating in. (You can also email me at webmaster@publicanthropology.org for this information.) The Action Period you are associated with determines the specific dates for what happens when. Prior to the beginning of the Action Period, your students are expected to do TWO THINGS: (1) register and (2) if they are required to read the free on-line YANOMAMI mini-book -- some teachers make it optional -- then they should read it at this time. Once the student has registered, she or he can log in and see the link for the mini-book on the left side of the screen. Simply by clicking on the link, the student is brought to the on-line version of the YANOMAMI mini-book. Students can read the mini-book on-line or, if they prefer, they can hand it out.
While completing the three stages of the Action Period only takes between 2 - 2 ½ hours of a student’s time, each stage is spread out over a week so students at different schools with different schedules can complete that week’s assignment with ease. Usually between four and ten schools participate in an Action Period at a time. During the first week of the Action Period, students write professional-style letters to a specific person who, because of his or her position, is able to directly address the problem being considered. The students articulate their personal positions – pro or con – and strive to convince the individual being addressed of their merit. Background information needed for writing the letter is provided on the student’s webpage. Also included on the student’s webpage are the criteria to be used in evaluating the student’s letter. During the second week of the Action Period, students evaluate four letters from other students without knowing who wrote them or which schools they are from. This peer review process draws students to reflect on how they, themselves, performed in respect to the grading criteria. At the end of the evaluation process, students receive feedback from other students on how well they did on their letters. The letters with the highest grades are declared model (or “winning”) letters. During the third, and final ½, week of the Action Period, students can, if they wish, add their names in support of one or more of the model letters. The letters become petitions, in a sense, strengthening the argument each letter presents. The model letters along with their supporting signatures are sent to the person addressed in them with a request for a reply. The hope, following the pattern of Amnesty International, is that the letters draw the individual into taking specific action that will help resolve (or at least alleviate) the problem addressed by the students. Further information on Action Periods is listed in the TA/GSI Guide (see below, FOR THE CURIOUS). YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES Overall TA/GSIs are responsible for three critical things. In each of these cases there are ways to reduce your workload so, in fact, none of the responsibilities are very onerous. (1) You should make sure that all your students are registered successfully for the project prior to the beginning of the Action Period. By having students register on the website a week before the Action Period begins, any problems students encounter can be addressed without taking time (or focus) away from the Action Period itself. If a student runs into problems registering there are three easy steps for you to advise the student to follow: (a) First, have the student read the directions on the www.publicanthropology.net home page (they are on the navigation bar: INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING A STUDENT ACCOUNT). (b) Second, if there is still a problem, refer the student to the link below the instructions on the navigation bar: HELP! SOLUTIONS TO SIX COMMON PROBLEMS. This provides detailed solutions to the most common problems students encounter. (c) Third, if the student still has a problem after reading through the HELP! solutions, ask the student to email the website's webmaster with a description of the problem. The webmaster usually respond swithin three to six hours of receiving an email and, working with the student, will find a way to resolve the problem. Please note: you are under no obligation to help students beyond emphasizing they should follow these three steps in sequential order. (2) Handle the financial transactions involved in registering. Students are encouraged to pay the $10 registration fee through PayPal with a credit card during the registration process. You should strongly encourage students to do this because it involves considerably less work on your part. For students who do not have a credit card or who run into problems with PayPal, you should encourage them to pay a friend or parent the $10 and have the friend or parent use their own credit card to pay the registration fee through PayPal. The more students pay through PayPal the less work you have to do. Please NOTE: Independent of who pays Paypal -- the student, a friend, or parent -- the student's own email address must be used in the registration process since this is the email address that the student will receive all communcations from the webmaster at. For students who are not able to pay the registration fee through PayPal or have a friend pay the registration fee through PayPal, there is also the option of the student paying you the $10 registration fee with a check or cash. The check should be made out to Center for Public Anthropology. If you collect cash, please keep it and write a check for the amount to the Center for Public Anthropology and give it to your teacher or send it to Center for a Public Anthropology, 707 Kaha Street, Kailua, HI 96734. The dashboard – which appears on your TA/GSI website as well as on the websites of your teacher and the webmaster – allows you to keep a record of which students have and have not paid as well as whether they have paid through PayPal or you. (3) The dashboard is arranged so TA/GSIs can collect information on the students they are responsible for (and not be inundated with information on students assigned to another TA/GSI’s supervision). For the students under your supervision, you are responsible for tracking: (a) who has and has not registered, (b) who has and has not written letters, as well as (c) who has and has not completed the evaluations. All this information is readily available on your TA/GSI dashboard. You will see when you log on to your personal webpage for the first time (or in the general student category after that), a list of names with a check box to the left of the name. What you want to do, is check off the names of students who are in your sections. That way, you will only see on your dashboard the students you are responsible for. (You dashboard will not be cluttered will all students in all sections.) Many students wait until the last minute to complete their first and second week assignments. To address this problem there are two deadlines set. The first, Friday at 11:59 pm, is when students should have their assignments in. But for students who failed to meet the deadline for one reason or another, there is a second and final deadline, Sunday at 11:59 pm. If you take the hardline approach – students need act responsibly and complete assignments on time – you will probably spend little time tracking down students who fail to register and/or miss the Friday deadlines. If you tend to be more caring, you will likely spend some time trying to help students in this regard. At what point you leave students to assume responsibility for their inactions is a choice you, and only you, can make. In summary, (1) insure students know the three steps to follow in solving problems they encounter during registration, (2) have as many students as possible pay through PayPal, and (3) you decide to what degree you wish to hound students to complete their assignments on time. That is it. FOR THE CURIOUS http://www.publicanthropology.org/Yanomami/ Those interested in exploring further may wish to look at two sections of the TA/GSI Guide: (1) Frequently Asked Questions answers a range of questions teachers, TA/GSIs, and students have asked about the project. You can skim through the questions and decide which, if any, interest you. (2) HELP! Solutions to Six Common Problems provides solutions to most of the problems students encounter in registering and/or progressing through the Action Period. Because students have diverse settings on their computers, it is virtually impossible to solve all computer problems before they occur. But because only a few problems repeatedly pop up, solving them tends to be fairly easy. There is also an Overview of the Community Action Website Project which includes the project’s goals as well as a brief summary of what an Action Period entails. Your Responsibilities and Value of Experience are oriented to TA and GSIs. Your Responsibilities sets out the TA/GSI’s responsibilities for the project as well as a sense of what happens when. Value of Experience describes various positives for TA/GSIs assisting with the Project. |