Class Presentations

Each student will lead several class discussions (likely the half of two different classes). Since everyone in the class will have read the mandatory assigned papers, please do NOT reiterate everything in the papers. You should focus on evaluating rather than presenting the papers. Also, since most assignments will consist of two related papers, you should try to compare and contrast the papers from an integrated (rather than sequential) perspective. The reaction essays should be good sources of issues and questions for discussion. You can prepare slides if it makes you more comfortable, but it is not at all necessary or required. You can also assign a short group exercise before or in class to get everyone on the same page.

For each half of the class, we will first go around the class and everyone will be required to give their opinions of the paper(s).

Next, the discussion leader should present the claims of the paper(s) and address some interesting issues. What are the main contributions of the papers, i.e., what did we learn? Is the contribution important? Who will care and why? Is the contribution incremental or transformative? What are the strengths and weaknesses? What assumptions were made? What future work does the research suggest? What are the interesting discourse issues? What are the interesting user generated content issues? If an algorithmic contribution, what applications might benefit from the research? If an applications contribution, what new challenges does the work suggest?

Feel free to meet with me before your presentation. I can answer background questions and help you figure out what to focus on.

You might also find links to resources for paper reading and paper reviewing helpful (from a course I taught at Pitt).

If you make slides, please submit your presentation in IVLE (Student Submissions under Files (Workbin)) after you have given it in class, so I can post it.