Due: At the end of Friday Discussions, Feb. 28

Read the Personal Connections in the Digial Aga for reference while doing the assignment

In this unit, we have focused on how media technologies and cultures may offer different ways of interacting and making or revealing meaning. In today’s section, you will work in groups to collaboratively analyze smartphone capabilities in a variety of cultural contexts.

Your entire group should work on every question – do not divide labor or allow one person to write one or more answers without them discussing with the group. Your instructor will be available to answer questions and may ask you about your progress during class.

Grading Criteria

This assignment is worth 30 points. All group members will receive the same grade. Points are earned for each question as follows (6 points for each of 5 questions):

1. Explanation of why this app was chosen for this purpose = 2

2. Description of app affordances = 1

3. Description of app constraints = 1

4. Description of culturally inappropriate uses of this app = 2

Imagine that you have a smartphone that has the following apps and capabilities:

Telephone call
Email program
Facebook
Foursquare with Uber
Instagram
Periscope
Twitter
WhatsApp
Yelp
Tumblr
Reddit
Snapchat

Which of these apps is the BEST for a given communicative goal? Consider the following scenarios:

• a) You want to meet up with friends at a restaurant.

• b) You need to stay in touch with a family member who now lives in Australia.

• c) You want to express yourself creatively and build an audience of friends and/or fans.

• d) You are annoyed about something or someone and want to talk about it.

• e) You are trying to stay on top of news and current events.

Please note: Your responses to each scenario will require multi-part answers. For each scenario, answer the following parts:

1. Decide which capability of your smartphone would be most appropriate

2. Describe the affordances and constraints (vocabulary that you need to know from the reading assignment) of the app or capability, and then,

3. Explain why this is a culturally appropriate choice of medium.

4. Finally, give counterexamples – what would be a culturally inappropriate use of this medium

You may submit handwritten responses to your instructor or email typewritten responses to your instructor by the end of your discussion session. Please include each group member's name at the top of your responses.