Task/Question

This assignment allows you to revisit your analytical, academic, and critical engagement skills, as well as build your transferable skills such as research, time management/project planning, adhering to format rules, and over time developing an argument. Especially with future application processes, papers, and dissertations, this is an excellent opportunity to improve your academic language as well as professional planning and development.

Assignment Description

You must write an essay on one of the following topics and apply the related concepts and issues discussed in the class:

1) The Gamification of learning and instruction

2) Ownership issues in digital music/video

3) Social networking and privacy concerns

Strong papers will be grounded in a good theoretical background on the subject matter. They will\ be analytical and critical in their approaches to the subject matter. This paper is not a “report” on a text, organization, or audience. Instead, approach it in a way that allows you to have a strong thesis statement that is organized around concepts related to the topic. You are not permitted to recycle a paper from a previous class.

This paper should be treated like a research paper. You will need to utilize sources other than the slides, textbook and readings. That said, the texts will likely be significant contributors to many paper topics, so take care to read the assigned chapters. Quality sources (like academic journals) generally contribute to the quality of a paper in more significant ways than poorer
sources (like blogs; Wikipedia is NOT a source).

You will need to hone the topic area and theoretical background and make sure you have a clear thesis statement that is used to organize the body of the paper. Work towards this when