PADM 7240 Assignments

Assignments

Spring 2008

Book Review

After a careful reading of The Lost City , you should prepare a 5-6 page critique of the book. According to Ehrenhalt, what is the role of authority in developing a sense of community? What is the relationship between individual choice and community? You will notice that Ehrenhalt examines the “tightly knit neighborhoods” of Chicago in the 1950s. What does his analysis reveal about a sense of community both past and present? Be sure to cite specific examples which reveal a careful reading of the book. After you finish the book, you might reflect on the value of the book. How might we restore the feeling of community in America? Is The Lost City simply an exercise in nostalgia for a lost time period? Does your community, past and present, fit the description offered by Ehrenhalt?

The book review should be prepared in Microsoft Word and submitted to me as an email attachment through WebCT. The book review should be double-spaced and free of grammatical/typographical errors. It should have a cover page with your name, the course number and title, and the date.

(For more information on how to write a book review, check this site at Indiana University: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/book_reviews.shtml.)

Threaded Discussions

A key component of this course will involve weekly discussions of selected topics. Based upon the course readings and lectures, topics will be posted each week in which students are expected to provide insightful commentary. Such analysis is only possible if you read the online lectures and assigned materials for a given unit. Students should respond to comments made by other members of the class. Read the instructions/guidelines on the threaded discussions.

Project Presentation

Each student will do a project to present to the class through a PowerPoint. For this research project, you will be asked to identify a social problem in your community and to analyze the efforts of community based organizations and the local government to address the problem. You might select a social problem such as the homeless population, food and clothing for the poor, battered women, teen pregnancy, substandard housing, lack of affordable daycare, juvenile crime and after-school programs, illiteracy, or drug trafficking.

The presentation should be divided into four sections. The first section should examine the scope of the social problem in your community. The second section should identify the community based organizations and local governmental agencies which are working to tackle the problem. The third section should examine the cooperation and conflict between the community based organizations and the local government. The final section should conclude with an evaluation of how successful local efforts have been to address the social problem. You should suggest avenues for improved cooperation between the public and private sector. After you conclude your research, what reforms might you suggest?

Project Submission

All project files and assignments will be submitted as attachments to E-mail and formatted as outlined below unless another format is negotiated with the instructor. These files will follow the formatting and file naming conventions listed and explained below:

Text documents will be formatted as either Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat *(PDF) documents.
Data files (if needed) will be Excel files (for spreadsheet data) or Access files (if database information is required).
Presentations will be PowerPoint files.
Project File Names: for the proposed agreement, use "agreement.doc" as the project name; for the case study, use "case.doc" for the project name.
Ownership of files: to indicate your ownership of submissions, use your first and last names with either a dot *(.) or underscore *(_) between the parts. For example: gerald_merwin_agreement.doc and gerald_merwin_case.doc
Course Codes in Subject Line: If you send email through BlazeNet be sure to associate your submissions with our course to aid in filtering of E-mail, use the PADM 7240 in the subject line of all messages sent to the instructor.
Questions: Please ask questions if any part of this information is unclear.

Reference http://www.valdosta.edu/~gamerwin/pa/classes/padm7240/assignments.html

Updated 12/30/2007, contact Jerry Merwin