New Jersey Institute of Technology College of Computing Sciences CIS677: Information System Principles, Spring 2002 Professor Bieber
A Public Research University

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Technology Presentation (Distance Sections)

Goal

The goal of this assignment is to provide an introduction to several current technical developments.

Assignment

Everyone will participate in one technology presentation across the semester. There will be one presentation a week, so you will need to work in teams of 5-6 people.

Choosing Teams & Topics

In the "Technology Team Matchmaking" conference on WebBoard, you can suggest a technology topic or sign up for a topic that someone else has suggested. Please sign up by Thursday 1/31.

Topics can include hardware or software issues, and possibly policy and organizational issues.

Once you have a team, post a message in this conference with the topic: "Team Chosen, Topic: XXX, Date: YY/YY."

Once each team is formed (and I approve of your topic :-), I will formalize it on the class schedule. You'll then be responsible for posting your presentation to WebBoard by the assigned dates.

Presentation Format

Each technology presentation will have its own conference, which I'll create on WebBoard. Post your presentation there. Text is fine. You don't need to do Powerpoint slides or anything like that. Rather it should be a clear and interesting description of your topic.

In your conference, please post the following information, each as a separate posting. (Be careful to post each as a new comment, not as a reply to an existing comment.)

1. non-technical description of the topic (what it is, it's goal, focus, area of applicability, how it is used, etc.)
2. technical description (a short technical description - this may be a link to a technical description on the Web, or a cleaner explanation that you have rewritten)
3. short example with a clear explanation (if appropriate for your topic)
4. the history of the topic (what it grew out of) and its current status (this should be more than just a list of its versions)
5. problems, issues, caveats and debates concerning the issue
6. related topics (what is related to your topic; how do they differ?)
7. other interesting information about it (anecdotes, interesting uses, etc.)
8. references and biography: useful Web sites; other references, list of interesting articles (newspapers, trade press, academic research-related, etc.); include URLs of the articles and attachments if possible

Thus, in your WebBoard conference, we should see 8 separate postings with the topic headings "Non-Technical Description," "Technical Description, " "Example," "History and Status," etc. If you cannot find information on a particular topic, then state in its posting "No information available" for full credit; do not leave a topic out. (Perhaps someone else in the class can help out.)

No written report is necessary.

General Notes

• Please include examples wherever possible.
• Please refrain from posting Word documents if you can help it (due to the danger of passing viruses).
• Please do not rely on links for the main content of your presentation. We should be able to get a good understanding without having to link to other sites. You can, of course, provide links to additional information, and to your sources.
• Please list all the sources you used to find information at the bottom of each of your comments. (You can repeat them in the "References and Biography" comment.
• If you are going to use more than a few words from someone or somewhere else you must put it in quotation marks and you must cite it (say where you found it). If you paraphrase information from someone or somewhere else, you do not need to put it in quotation marks, but again you must cite it. Generally there is nothing wrong with incorporating other people's ideas to a limited degree, but you must make it clear when you are using and building upon other people's ideas. (Plagiarism can result in failing the course and being put on probation. This unfortunately has happened to several students in the past in my classes.) To summarize:
  • rewrite, whenever possible - don't copy unless it is important to include the original material unaltered (rewriting makes things especially clear to our audience)
  • if you need to copy, then use quotation marks
  • always provide references to all articles and links to all Web pages you used information from, even if you have rewritten this information
• You potentially could copy some examples from the Web as long as you include the source location(s) AND you explain the example well.

Checking through Turnitin

Please submit each of the 6 categories above through Turnitin (excluding your example and the references/biography). I'm asking for two reasons. First to remind you not to use materials without fully citing them. Second, to encourage you to reword your source materials (though you still need to cite them). If you just copy materials (in quotation marks) from other places, often these are written for other audiences and will not be clear to your classmates. By forcing you to rewrite them, you will make them much clearer for all of us to understand. (It will also force you to understand it well enough to rewrite it clearly :-)

At Turnitin, I will create 6 categories so you can enter the text of each of your entries.

Mentor the Discussion

During your week, please monitor the discussion of your presentation. Reply to any questions asked if no one else in the class does.

Private Team Conference

If you would like, I can set up a private conference on WebBoard for your team. Just let me know in an email message (bieber@njit.edu).

This page: http://ccsweb.njit.edu/~bieber/CIS677S02/technology-presentation.html
To comment on this Web site, please email bieber @ homer.njit.edu