Fieldnotes - Introducing yourself and your internship

This week you'll set up your personal field notes discussion, and introduce yourself and your internship site.  You'll also leave some comments for fellow students as they set up their own pages.  

1. Set up your field notes discussion space

Each student's field notes will be posted to an individual threaded discussion in the Discussions section of our web site.  (You'll see a silly example already present.)  This will allow you to post your field notes every week, and will also allow others to easily comment on those field notes.

To create your own personal discussion, go to the Discussions section of our Canvas site, and click on the red "+ Discussion" button at the top-right of the screen.  An editing window will open up that looks like this:

In the "Topic Title" field, type your first and last name, a dash, and then the name of your internship site -- for example, "Greg Downey - Museum of Extratemporal UFO Studies".

Then in the large text box below, type "About me:" and write a short description of yourself — your name, major, hometown, etc. Which aspects of your UW education so far do you think will be of greatest use to you in your internship?  Try to write at least two  paragraphs, as if you were introducing yourself in person to a class full of fellow students.

If you like, see if you can figure out how to upload a photo of yourself to the page as well (use the little editing icon that looks like a photo of a mountain sunrise).  This visual cue will help your fellow students (and the instructor) remember who you are when they visit your page.  (Remember to adjust the size of your photo, by dragging the little corners, so it doesn't take up the whole window.)

Next, leave a black line and type "About my internship:" and provide the name of your internship organization.  Compose a brief description of the organization -- its mission, purpose, audience, and history.  Tell us what you expect you'll be doing for the organization on a daily basis, and why you're interested in working with this organization.  Include a web link if applicable.  Again, try to write at least two paragraphs so fellow students (and the instructor) have a clear picture of where you're working.

Finally, go back and adjust the fonts, spacing, text color, or other attributes of this document to your liking.  Make it your own!

When you are finished editing, scroll down a bit to get ready to save your work.  You'll see these options:

Click the checkbox labeled "Allow threaded replies" -- this makes it easier to read when other students comment on your field notes.  Then, at the bottom click "Save & Publish" to make your field notes introduction visible to the rest of the class.  

Congratulations, you've just created your own field notes discussion area!  If at any time you want to edit your work, you can click back into your discussion and do so from the Discussions screen.

2. Enter field notes for the first week

Now it is time to write about what happened in your internship this week.  Producing these "field notes" is your main reflective writing task each week.

Go back to the Discussions page and click on the title of your discussion to view it (you can just click directly on your name).  At the bottom of your discussion introduction there is a long rectangle with the word "<- Reply" in it.  Click on this rectangle and you will open up another little editing window where you can type in your field notes entry.  

For ease of reading, first type "Field notes: Week of " in bold, and then type today's date.  Then try to write at least four substantive paragraphs, about your experiences in your internship this week.  For example:

• How did your supervisor introduce you to the workplace and your colleagues?
• Where and how often will you be working each week?
• What kinds of tasks did you get started on this week?
• What kind of training did your organization provide you with?
• Are you working with any other interns or entry-level colleagues?
• What are you most looking forward to as you start your internship?
• What seems like it will be the most challenging aspect of your internship?
• Do any of your past or present UW classes relate to your internship area?
• etc.

The more you are able to write each week, the better your reflections will evolve over the course of the term -- and the more raw material you will have for the summary reflection at the end.  

What if you haven't started your internship yet?  Not all internships have the same timing and it can sometimes be challenging to match the start of your internship to the work required for this course.  If you haven't started your internship yet, you can still write detailed reflections about your internship experience to date.  For example:

• How did you find this internship?
• Who did you interview with and what was the process like?
• Have you seen the internship office or site yet?  What  are your first impressions?
• What kinds of tasks do you think you'll be assigned to do?
• What are you most looking forward to as you start your internship?
• What seems like it will be the most challenging aspect of your internship?
• Do any of your past or present UW classes relate to your internship area?
• etc.

Here are some examples of detailed field notes:

When you have finished typing in your field notes, click the red "Post Reply" button on the bottom-right of this editing window.

Congratulations, you've just left your first "Reply" to your own discussion board.  This is how you will leave field notes each week, and also how you will comment on other student's field notes as well.

3. Upload your field notes in this Canvas assignment to alert your TA

Once you've posted your field notes to your Discussions board, you must then copy them and paste them into the text box for this assignment, to submit them through the Canvas grading system and get credit for this assignment by the due date. 

4. Leave some comments for fellow students

Now that you've introduced yourself and your internship site in your own Discussion, and left some detailed reflections on one of this week's readings, it is time to comment on other student work. 

Go back to the Discussions page and click on some other student's discussion thread.  Just as you did for leaving your own field notes reflection in your own discussion thread, you can click the "<- Reply" box under anything in this discussion in order to reply to something the student wrote. 

Find this student's first field notes entry.  Read about this student's internship and leave some comments of your own under their first field notes entry.  (Try to leave at least a paragraph-long substantive reaction, not just "Hey that sounds great.")  Leave comments for at least two fellow students in your section.  

(Please make sure to leave your comments under one of the student's field notes entries, and not under their main "Introduction" discussion posting -- this will make it easier for readers to hide those comments when they visit the student again later to look for an updated field notes entry.)

Here are some examples from past student comments on field notes in this class:

Congratulations, you've just participated in an online discussion!  And remember, if you mess up a comment on someone's discussion board, you can go back in and "Edit" or "Delete" the comment (click on the three little vertical dots on the upper-right corner of the comment that you left).