Course Orientation

Week 1 - course launch and onboarding.

Orientation runs roughly 3-4 class days depending on pacing. Each slide deck and activity below is reviewed together in class, then lives here for you to come back to any time.

Most courses hand you a written syllabus on Day 1. This one doesn’t - instead, course expectations and Week 1 work live here as a set of slide decks built for two jobs: getting reviewed together in class, and being a reference you can return to any time you need a reminder.

This page is also where late-arriving students get onboarded. If you joined after the class started, start at Day 1 and work through it on your own time. CFUs and the survey can be done individually; the AI-policy drafting is the one Day-3 piece you'll catch up on in a quick one-on-one.

Every slide deck wraps with a CFU (check for understanding) so we know it landed before we move on.

Day 1 is orientation. Cellphones first - the bandaid pull. Then the macro view, who I am, the syllabus, how to take notes in this room, and a working block where I get every student set up with the accounts they need to do CFUs.

  1. 0.

    Slideshow 0 - Cellphones

    The opening conversation. Personal devices and the world we're trying to create in this classroom - operating against the InspireNOLA "Off and Away" policy. Pulled forward because everything else depends on us actually being here.

    Slide deckCFU
  2. 1.

    Macro view: what we hope to accomplish in this course

    A high-level look at the whole semester - what you'll have at the end and why we're doing it this way.

    Slide deckCFU
  3. 2.

    Who is your teacher

    A short introduction. Background, why I built this course.

    Slide deck
  4. 3.

    Syllabus

    Course expectations, attendance, late-work, devices in/out, AI use ground rules. Final slide has a downloadable PDF of the full syllabus.

    Slide deckDownloadable PDF
  5. 4.

    How to take notes in this course

    The notes practice this course uses - short, daily, structured. Worth doing the same way every time.

    Slide deckCFU
  6. 5.

    Work time: account setup and CFU access

    Studio block. You log in and verify you can access CFUs while I troubleshoot any account issues one by one.

    Studio block

A short stack of articles about the effects of AI - on work, on attention, on creative fields, on the way information moves. We read together, do a CFU on each, then you take the student tech-and-AI experience survey so the class can see where everyone actually stands.

  1. 0.

    AI article - TBD

    Slide-deck walk-through of the article + CFU.

    Slide deckCFU
  2. 1.

    AI article - TBD

    Slide-deck walk-through of the article + CFU.

    Slide deckCFU
  3. 2.

    AI article - TBD

    Slide-deck walk-through of the article + CFU.

    Slide deckCFU
  4. 3.

    Student survey: experience with technology and AI

    Short anonymous survey about how you already use tech and AI. The class reviews the results together at the end of Day 3.

    Survey

We end the week by writing the policy that governs how AI is used in this room - and starting an ongoing Act 1 practice of looking at real websites with intent.

  1. 0.

    What is the goal of an AI policy?

    What an AI policy is for, what good ones do, what bad ones miss. Sets up the class drafting work.

    Slide deckCFU
  2. 1.

    Building our class AI policy

    We draft the policy together as a class. The result is the policy that governs the room for the rest of the semester.

    Studio block
  3. 2.

    Observe and describe a website you like

    First entry in an ongoing Act 1 practice: pick a website, describe what you like, what you don't, and what you'd change. We come back to this practice across the act.

    Studio block

Quick-access list of the CFUs that anchor the orientation and the project activities students complete. Items marked “Ready” are clickable.

CFUs

  • CFU 0:Cellphones - being here, in this room

    Day 1

    Coming soon

  • CFU 1:The Course, Your Teacher, The Syllabus

    Day 1

    Coming soon

  • CFU 2:How to take notes in this course

    Day 1

    Coming soon

  • CFU 3:What AI Is Doing to the World

    Days 2-3

    Coming soon

  • CFU 4:What is the goal of an AI policy?

    Days 3-4

    Coming soon

Project Activities

Surveys

  • Survey 1:Tech and AI experience

    Days 2-3

    Coming soon

Slide-deck embeds, the syllabus PDF, the survey link, and CFU forms will land in each item card as they’re built.