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Question: Do
students always need to complete their work? And how
does one define "completion" in an interactive,
new media design process?
Yes, students need to reach a
point with their work that they can feel is indeed a
completion point. While I always tell students that
the Lumiere Ghosting Project and the construction of
the CompuObscura are long-term collaborations that may
well never have a satisfying, verifiable "end,"
the individual work that they create for class does,
indeed, have deadlines and end points. Following some
of the precepts put forward by those who use contract
grading structures in their composition courses, I work
out a contract with each student, early in the term,
stating exactly what will be completed and also stating
what terms will be used to determine the relative success
and/or failure of that completion. But beyond this simple
and somewhat reductive process necessary for grading
and record keeping, I feel that focusing too much on
completion takes away time that needs to be centered
on collaboration, debate, discussion and exploration—focusing
on what students and faculty can learn together by working
through an open-ended technology
development process.
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