Parameters for a Collaborative eBook Project

Flickr - nikkorsnapper
(creative commons licensed) 

Yesterday my students and I had a frank chat about where we could apply our efforts, individually and collectively, toward an authentic outcome for this course on Writing about Literature in the Digital Age. Having discussed many alternatives online and in person, it now appears that we are gravitating toward creating some kind of eBook that allows for students to make use of the literary work each has been studying, research about that book, and the more general explorations of digital culture we've been studying in common. I've urged my students to continue with more specific proposals about our eBook project, which must take place within these project parameters:

• Focus
  Our focus must stay on writing, literature, and research to prepare one for additional literary study and for life-long learning.
• Authenticity
  What we choose to focus on 1) must be engaging for us personally; and 2) must have demonstrable value to specific stakeholders.
• Accountability
  As a group, we must decide on benchmarks to measure progress and standards to assess our final product(s). As individuals, we must each be able to demonstrate individual contributions.
• Individual Researched Writing
  Whatever group work is done in whatever format, each student is responsible for creating formal writing on their blog in which they 1) analyze literary works; 2) make interpretive claims; and 3) use (and document) researched sources.
• Scope
  We can only take on projects that we can reasonably complete by June 15, 2011.

As our project takes shape, this will require a change in my students' blogging -- a subject I will save for my next post.