The "Project Log" for documenting progress

A critical part of collaborative work is accountability. And with large projects with much in flux, it is equally important to document what one is doing for one's own sake as well as for others.

To this end, I'd like each of my students to start a "project log" post. This is to be updated at least twice weekly as students account for what they have done both to move forward their individual project, and to contribute to the overall project. Each student will only create this blog post once, but will update that same post, briefly logging their activity and linking to the other blog posts they've completed.

This kind of log is a bit of a hack -- there are other ways of doing this. But it will work, and this will keep each other aware of what one another is doing. (For academic purposes, this will also help grading.) Instructions follow. I have modeled how to do this in my own project log.

Assignment: Index Card Pitch Post

we are using index cards
to prototype visual communication ideas

My students just went through a round of presenting their preliminary ideas for their individual semester project by using 10 index cards in a five-minute presentation to their peers in class.

I'm now asking them to create a blog post based on that presentation. First I will say why, and then how they should do so.

Why repeat the presentation as a blog post? To answer this I appeal to a principle of communication of increasing relevance in the digital age: translating one's ideas into a new format helps one to refine and develop those ideas. For class, they used handwritten images on index cards combined with an oral presentation; for this blog post, they will re-use those index cards as described below

This post is due by 10am (earlier if you can do so); and comments on others' posts are due by 11am.

Here are the requirements for the post: