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On
this page, we list and explain the tools that are most likely
to help you do the work asked of you in an EOTU-affiliated
class. If you find navigation of this site confusing
or cumbersome, please email the site Webmaster (you'll see
an email link at the bottom of the left-hand column on every
page): it helps us if you explain your problems or concerns
in some detail. We'll repair dead links and other sources
of confusion as quickly as possible.
Archive
We list this first because we think it's crucially important.
Unlike some other courses, EOTU-affiliated courses actively
encourage you to see what prior students have asked and thought
and done and written about the questions you've decided to
ask. The archive includes all work that EOTU has been
given permission by prior students to reproduce. We've
arranged this body of work by its thematic focus; within each
thematic category, we've arranged student work chronologically
so you can see how students build on work done by their predecessors.
If you don't care for the "balloon" version of the
archive front, turn to the text-only alternative we've provided:
both pages take you to the same destinations.
Narratives
and Ethnography
We list these tools together here (and in our links throughout)
because we think of them as intertwined approaches to the
subject of the university. We provide some sample "official"
narratives of the university (and we could have provided many,
many more) as a way of demonstrating that a university can
take on many different shapes as one takes different perspectives.
Ethnography, meanwhile, comprises a methodology that can
identify, describe, and analyze these narratives. As
one comes to know a particular narrative well (through various
forms of fieldwork, and through analysis of visual, written,
and statistical attempts to create the narrative), one begins
to ask how well a narrative performs. Is it accurate?
Inclusive? Up to date? By whom was the narrative made?
For whom was it made? How well has the narrative imagined
its audience? Questions like these emerge from ethnographic
analysis.
University Library Materials
The university has a history, of course, and in many ways
the present shape of the university owes more than a little
to its past. Specialists at the UIUC library have put
together a guide to the library archives, the Student Life
library, and other resources you'll find very helpful.
iLabs
EOTU asks faculty teaching affiliated courses to use iLabs
software. This pedagogical software (easy to learn and
use) embodies a recursive approach to writing and research.
In other words, it demonstrates that as we move forward on
a project--perhaps by showing it to someone else and asking
for feedback--we also return to the origins of our question,
thereby discovering new questions, new ways of asking old
questions, and new answers. We provide an iLabs
help page to ease you through its mechanics.
EOTU Live
While this multimedia presentation showcases earlier student
work, it also provides some very helpful examples of how
students did their work, and what it meant to them.
Highly recommended.
Consent & Permission
Forms
As you interview people, or observe one person closely over
a period of time, or perform any other kind of research that
depends on the cooperation of another person, you will need
to ask your human subject to fill out a consent form.
The form itself, along with links explaining the necessity
of completing consent forms, is available for downloading
and printing on the page linked above. So, too, is the
intellectual property form you will submit at semester's end
to your instructor. EOTU wants your work--make no mistake
about that; but we also recognize your right to privacy, and
we won't reproduce any of your work without your written permission. |
