The Honors Colloquium is team taught by professors from across the SUU campus with additional insights being offered by "visiting lecturers" from TED. The heart of the class is seminar through "shared inquiry" where teachers and students discuss the material from TED talks, lectures, and their own research. All students and instructors will be encouraged and expected to participate in this learning process.
Through shared inquiry participants gain experience in reading/listening for meaning, in communicating complex ideas and in supporting, testing and expanding their own thoughts. Through discussion and writing participants learn to give full consideration to the ideas of others, to weigh the merits of opposing arguments and to modify their initial opinions if the evidence demands it.
One of the new and exciting developments is that our course is being listed as an official TEDx event, which means that we have a chance to gain some pretty wide exposure for our avitivites this semester.
E-mail » The only reliable way to stay clear of the SUU SPAM ninja is to use your student gmail account. Hotmail and Yahoo mail messages are very unreliable. One of us will respond to most e-mail messages within one working day. It is very helpful if you include a course number in the subject line of e-mail messages you send to us. Also use the subject line to give us an overview of what your message contains.
Phones & Voice Mail » Many of you have mobile phones that were born in other places. We will not return your call if you leave a long distance number. This is very expensive for the university; moreover, voice mail is not a reliable way to get in touch with me. We have found the SUU system to be unstable. Messages are often lost and/or delivered much later than they are left. Better to e-mail or contact the honors office.
Act like a professional with your mobile phone. If we feel like your phone use is irresponsible, you may be asked to leave. See the above policy.
Backups and Computer Safefy » We recommend a USB stick drive (2-4 GB) for all your backups. Don't connect your USB drive to your keys. It wrecks the ports. For other important documents, use an on-line back up service or e-mail it to yourself. It's not a matter of "if" you're going to have a data loss, but "when" you're going to have a data loss. We are well into the 21st Century, so computer failure isn't an acceptable excuse for not turning in an assignment anymore.
Finals » Check your finals schedule right away before you make any travel plans. The schedule is available on-line. If you can't make the final for this class, you should take something else.
Seminar papers are pass/fail. The rest of the assignments will be graded with letter grades. The percentage break down is as follows. More complete descriptions of the assignments will come later.
Each assignment will be fullly described in class, but here is a taste.
SEMINAR PAPERS » These are short responses to the seminar material. There are three distinct parts. (1) On the lecture day, you'll do an initial response/thought paper on the designated TED talk(s). It should be about a page long, in your lab book. (2) During lecture/discussion, you'll take detailed notes, again in your lab book. And (3) To prepare for the seminar day (usually the following Tuesday), you'll do more in-depth writing, about 2 pages, typed. Include information from the preliminary response, your notes thus far, and your additional research. Sources must be cited in MLA style. These papers are pass/fail. Additionally, if you don't have a paper at point, you must sit in the outer circle. If you miss a paper, it's missed. You can't make it up.
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONCEPT MAP » As you work through the TED talks and seminars, you will have to keep a concept map of connections you have found betwen TED talks, seminar presenters' information, your classmates' comments, and outside research. This can be drafted and thoughts can be recorded on small sheets of paper, but the final version must be presentable to a large group during a final seminar near the end of the semester.
PRESENTATION » You will give an 8 minute presentation in the style of TED presenters. You'll work with the Speech Lab to perfect your presentation. You may choose to include visuals, or not, but the choice needs to be integrated into the core themes of your presentation. You'll give this presentation to the public in a public location. It will be video taped. We will discuss how to decide on the content for this presentation in class. The top five presentations, chosen by the audience of the event, will move on to our TEDx event.
VIDEO PROJECT » You will be given the audio and video files and digital images of visuals from one of your classmate's presentations. You will then assemble these pieces into a final 8 minute video version of their talk. You'll submit this as a file on a DVD (format to be determined). The multimedia lab in the library will be available to you for the completion of this project. You are free to work in Vegas Video, iMovie, or Final Cut--whatever is available and whatever you are comfortable with.
DISABILITIES » Students with medical, psychological, or other learning disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Southern Utah University Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), in Room 206-F of the Sharwan Smith Center or phone (435) 865-8022. SSD determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.
CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM » Scholastic dishonesty (which includes plagiarism in any form) will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent. You are expected to have read and understood the current issue of the Student Handbook (published by Student Services). At minimum you should understand the sections on student rights and responsibilities, the intellectual property policy, university procedures, and acceptable on-campus behavior. Any issue of scholastic dishonesty could result in failure for the assignment, or depending on the severity of the infraction, failure of the course, or worse.
In this particular course, you should be aware that mis-applying the rules of MLA documentation or neglecting to correctly cite your sources is considered to be plagiarism and could result in the abovementioned penalties. Because knowledge of academic documentation conventions is part of the high school Language Arts Core Curriculum for the state of Utah, and because these matters are central to the university's LM 1010 course, ignorance of the standard is not a valid excuse.
Issues of plagiarism (including consequences) will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
AMENDMENTS » Information contained in this syllabus (other than the grading, late assignment, makeup work, and attendance policies) may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor. Changes will be made available on the course website. These adjustments could extend as far as my failing a student for gross negligence and disregard for the aims of the university and of this course, even though such a student might be passing the class mathematically.
Posted 8/23/2009 • Changed 8/23/2009