Excellent Projects

Throughout Winter quarter 2010, the Introduction to Sociology course was working on projects. Most of the projects were created using youtube videos, however a few groups also did a photo project using flikr. I have selected some of the best projects that were submitted.

Video 1: The Phenomenon of Sex in Advertisement

This video portrays the different ways in which advertisements use women as sex objects to sell their products. This is a good example because it is not only interesting by using current advertisements it also uses a variety of sociological concepts that were covered throughout the course.

Video 2: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

This video looks at the different ways in which women have been systematically held back in society and also it looks at how women are breaking boundaries. The groups also discussed stereotypes. This group also interviewed different people around the campus which helped support their argument.

Video 3: The Repression of Homosexuals


This is another excellent video, that discusses homosexuality. It compares homosexuality to other types of oppression that have occurred in our society throughout history. This project had a lot of great photographs and also a lot of great research about homosexuality in American society.

Photo Project 1: Ohio Bobcats and Conflict Theory

Using conflict theory this group looked at the idea of a basketball game that was being played by Ohio University. They took a variety of photos, but only selected the best ones to use for the project. The project utilized different terms and concepts in sociology and showed their knowledge of the subject. They also took some really great photos, which helped strengthen their project.

Congrats! You have completed your project!

This is the thread where you turn in your project. Here is how you do it. The contact person from your group will post a comment in this thread. It will include four things:

1. The name of your group.
2. A brief discussion of what your project is about, this should be based on the description from your google document. Your description should include both the topic, and the sociological concepts that you used, and the types of things that you hope that people learn from your project.
3. A brief list of the bibliographic references for works that you used and an explanation of how you used them.
4. The URL that links to what you produced for your project, whether it be YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia.

New group tasks: Creating and Sharing your Project Info Sheet

Congratulations!

You have a group. And some ideas for a project. Now what?

Here are some things you need to do to get started.

1. Project Info Sheet: You need a place to post information that is helpful for your group. It needs to be a place that all of you can access but is not completely out in the open. That way you can write up ideas, post links, make outlines, etc. without worrying about what other folks might think. You also need an easy way to show your work to your TA. To make a Project Info Sheet your contact person will start it by creating a Google document and sharing it with your group and your TA. The Google document is like a word doc that exists online, and that you can edit, and so can anyone you invite to edit it. This works best with Gmail email addresses.

2. Creating a Google Document: While logged into Gmail, click on the documents link at the top of the page. Create a new document and name it: "Info Sheet for 'your group name here'"

3. Put info on your Project Info Sheet. Start by copying and pasting all the info from your group blog comment. Then, make that info better by updating it with:

3.1. List of Full Names of all group members, including two ways to get a hold of each of them.

3.1.1. For example: Max Weber, Weber.Iz.Teh.Awesome@gmail.com, Weber1@ohio.edu

Georg Simmel, Georg.Simmel@gmail.com, etc.

3.2. Include an improved description of your ideas including

3.2.1. general idea behind your project, and the type of project (video, photo essay, etc.)

3.2.2. key ideas in sociology that relate

3.2.3. links to resources, examples, etc.

4. Share your Project Info Sheet with everyone in your group AND with all of the TAs and Ted. Use our gmail email addresses, listed in the email that copies this information. A particular TA will work with you in the future on your project. For now, include all of us.

Note that after you create and name your project info sheet you should share it by clicking the "Share" button on the top right of the page. Then select "invite people" and copy paste all the people you want to share it with, including us, listed in teh email on this topic.

5. Be ready for comments or feedback on your project which will be posted to your Project Info Sheet.

6. Take a look at the updated project description page, it has current info about projects and links to many other projects. Most groups prefer the YouTube video projects, but there are other options. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Htw3/Autumn_2008_Projects

Come together, right now, . .

If you don't have a group yet, come together in this thread. Remember that Ringo was not one of the original Beatles. There is still hope.

You have two options:

1. Post a comment in this thread if you don't yet have a group. You might mention what you are interested in or if you have some skillz.

1a. Keep paying attention to this thread-- and reply to other folks who post in it.

2. Check out the existing groups in the group thread :

http://projectsinsocandsocialchange.blogspot.com/2010/02/group-thread.html

2a. If you see groups with only 3 or 4 people, send an email to the contact person (who posted the group comment).

Group Thread

Step 1: Form group

Step 2: Give distinctive name to your group

Step 3: Decide on group contact person

Step 4: Brainstorm 5 possible ideas for project topics

Step 5: Post to this thread with:

A. Name of group

B. List of people in group

C. Gmail of contact person

D. Your 5 possible ideas

Step 6: TA will contact your contact person with next steps

Skills!

In the comments section, please post any skills you have that may be beneficial and useful in the group projects.

Ideas!

Please post any ideas you may have for the project your groups will be completing this quarter in the comments section of this post.

Intro to Student Projects

Like water to fish.

We all live in society. We are all parts of our culture, and are involved in groups, organizations, and sub-cultures. We learn and respond to social norms, we recognize different social roles, and are embedded in different social structures. These concepts, and many more besides, refer to aspects of our social world that can help us understand how and why things happen the way that they do.

Although norms, roles, social structure, and sub-cultures are parts of our lives everyday, most of the time, most people don't think about them one bit. However, it is often the case that a little reflection can go a long way towards making sense of everyday events. A central aim of this course is to help people see and understand aspects of the social world in ways that are helpful and interesting.

We all become teachers.

This quarter students will work in groups of 3-5 to create projects that teach about sociological concepts in ways that are effective, interesting, and entertaining. Student projects will be publicly presented via a post on this blog, and through whatever publication medium is standard for the project (youtube, flickr, picassa, wikipedia, etc.). Details about the project requirements will be posted on the course webpage. Note that earlier quarters of 101 did not use a blog, so the following examples lack blogpost write ups which will be required for the current course.

Examples of successful projects from earlier quarters:

1. Faces of Athens, a flickr photo set. This photo set was created by a photo-journalism major almost two years ago. The set is successful for the imagery, for the commentary that brought in concepts from sociology, but primarily, because of the combination of the two.

2. You tube video, slide show. Body image and the media. Two students teamed up in 2008 to make this video, and it remains one of the most popular projects to come out of this course. They did a great job of using concepts, addressing important issues, and making it interesting.

3. Youtube video, live action. This video was produced in Winter of 2009 by a group of about 5 students. They did a good job of bringing humor and some thoughtful reflection together in the same video.