Final Reflective Blog Entry

For your final blog entry of the year, I'd like you to reflect back on what you learned this semester. This should be a relatively lenghty entry where you can deal with some of the following.

• What did you lern about your own habits of CMC?
• What kind of "oh wow" moments did this course cause for you?
• Will you or have you changed anything about the way you communite using technology?
• What are your thoughts about the future of CMC in your personal or career life?
• What will you look at differently with regard to CMC?
• What kinds of things do you think you learnered?
• How was this course different from what you expected or exactly what you expected?

Please have these entries in by Sunday 5/6 and have at least two responses to two other people by Tuesday 5/8.

Prepare for Final Test

This Friday (5/4) we will be working in groups to assist in determining the questions for test Number 3 which you will have on Friday May 11th during the finals period.. This test is on S2:U4, S2:U5, S2:U6, and S2:U7.

To get ready for the test you need to do the following:

* Prepare four(4) questions for each unit. This will be a total of 16.
* Bring these 16 questions to class on Friday, May 4th.
* You will meet in groups on the 4th and submit seven (7) questions per unit from each group that will be considered for the test. Each group needs to provide the questions complete with page references.
* Make sure you bring two copies of the individual questions for class on the 4th. There is a one (1) point deduction for each question you fail to bring in on that day.
* Use the previous sheet handed out in class for help in writing your questions.

Wiki Links Needed!

Please post the links to your group wikis here in the comments section.

Reflect on "You've Got Mail"

You finished watching "You've Got Mail." Now it's time to reflect on what you saw.

Find something in the movie relating to a theory or concept we've covered concerning CMC. Discuss the concept or theory and use an example or examples from the movie to illustrate the theory or concept.

Post this the week of 4/23 and make sure you respond to other people's posts like your supposed to.

Facebook meet eHarmony

Humorous parody of Facebook and eharmony.

Respond to Cyber Liaisons

I'd like to guide your reflections the next two weeks.

This week I'd like you to read the article New To Cyber Liaisons. It's an older account of a woman and the genesis of her online relationship with a married man. It's a little old but very relevant to today.

Read the article, and choose some aspect of the article to reflect upon and have that be the topic of this week's reflective blog.

How's this for an online community

An online community devoted to women who aren't happy with the guys they've dated? You bet.

Best Buy enters world of Avatars

Best Buy Co. Inc. plans to open Geek Squad Island, a spot in "Second Life" where its Geek Squad technical support workers will offer free computer advice.

The virtual world will have regular office hours (6 p.m. to 3 a.m. EDT, seven days a week). The online characters will wear white, short-sleeve button-down shirts, black pants and, of course, a badge. (more)

Just a little fun before break

Religion, Avatars and Virtual Community

Now is the holy season for the world's Christians and Jews — on Earth and in the parallel cyberuniverse, Second Life.

In the real world, Palm Sunday began the Christian holy week that leads believers into the Easter story of salvation through Christ.

Monday night, Jews celebrate Passover's ceremonial Seder meal, retelling the story of God freeing the Israelites from bondage in Egypt.

Meanwhile, in Second Life, avatars (animated characters that serve as users' "in-world" identities) will join in online prayer and praise.

Second Life was created by Linden Lab in San Francisco in 2003; its founders imagined a social platform for an idealized online society. Membership has soared to 5 million; it has established a thriving economy and become a popular venue for politics and education. (more)

Group Project Description

Your group project (short as it may be in duration) is a wiki. I have created a wiki that describes the project.

Have fun reading.

Field experience for Wednesday April 4th

You and at least two other classmates should arrange to have an online chat using instant messenger or any other platform you like. You should spend at least 10 minutes chatting about the group assignment which is posted right after this post.

Someone should save the transcript of the chat and bring it to class on Wednesday. Your chat can be longer but there must be a least three people total in the chat. You can have more if your like.

Spend a short amount of time reflecting after the chat as to how it might be to have social or business conversations like this.

Cultivating your online identity

From Web Worker Daily:

Employers are realizing that what people do online can actually prove their value as potential hires, not just rule them out based on drunken photos or revelations of other past missteps. Last year we saw articles like Overexposed in the Blogosphere warning how people’s online behavior and misbehavior might ruin their careers. This year, thankfully, we see the other side in articles like Computer World’s Web anonymity can sink your job search.... (more)

MySpace the Movie

Here's the MySpace movie we saw in class in case you want to share it with others. Again, be aware that I don't endorse the contents of the movie and some may find some of the material offensive.

Get Ready for Test #2

This Friday we will be working in groups to assist in determining the questions for test Number 2 which you will have on March 30th. This test is on S1:U6, S2:U1, S2:U2, and S2:U3.

To get ready for the test you need to do the following:

• Prepare four(4) questions for each unit. This will be a total of 16.
• Bring these 16 questions to class on Friday, March 23rd.
• You will meet in groups on the 23rd and submit seven (7) questions per unit from each group that will be considered for the test. Each group needs to provide the questions complete with page references.
• Make sure you bring two copies of the individual questions for class on the 23rd. There is a one (1) point deduction for each question you fail to bring in on that day.
• Use the previous sheet handed out in class for help in writing your questions.
  

Questions for Monday, March 19th

You know the drill. Read S2:U2 and post one (1) interpretive question by 11:59 Sunday the 18th.

Just one.

Question for Friday, March 16th

We're back at it! We have three chapters in a row to cover now that we are back from Spring Break. Please read S2:U1 from your textbook and post One (1) interpretive question for Friday's class.

That's right, only one will do for the next few classes.

Online Learning as Communication

For Monday, Feb. 19th's class I have asked each of you to take some time to visit the web site for an online university. You received the link you need to check out in a seperate email.

For this class, you need to visit the site and observe a number of things about how this organization appraoches online learning.

Follow this procedure:

1) Visit the link you were assigned and not the following: name of the university, accrediting organization, who they are targeting as students, what programs they offer, is there a phrsical campus as well.

2) How they teach. Look around the site and see how they teach. What kind of communication do they use between learners and between the techer and the learner. Look for a link providing you with a tour of on online classroom and see what you find.

3) Is there anything on the site designed to assist the potential learners as to whether they are a good candidate for nline learning.

4) What kind of online communication skils do you think an online learner need?

Please come to class prepared to share what you fond with the rest of class.

Reading for Monday, Feb. 12th

You know the drill. Read S1:U5 in your text and post two interpretive question in the comment section of this post.

You have until 11:59 PM on Sunday February 11th to post.

Site for Emoticons and Acronyms

Here are the links I used in class for emoticons and acronyms.

Computer user High tech Dictionary

netlingo Smilies and Emoticons

The Acronym Dictionary

Internet Acronyms Dictionary

Presentation Guidelines - Part One

In this assignment you are to read a scholarly article on computer-mediated communication and give a 5 to 7 minute presentation to the class.

This assignment is individually graded using the rubric that follows.

You are to read the article that you selected from the online web site.

As you read the article make note of what the research question is, how it was investigated (method), and the findings of the study.

Your presentation will focus on the highlights of the article, and a novel application of the findings to the real life CMC. You might want to revisit the Blooms Taxonomy question starters for Application to get an idea of the type of questions you should ask yourself to get at the application.

Your presentation should have a good attention getter to start (not, I had to read this article and this is what it says).

Next you’ll give the highlights of the article. Deal with the reasons they conducted the study. What questions were they trying to answer? Give the brief description of what you think are key findings. This probably account for about 30 to 40% of the total time of the presentation.

Next, you need to apply these findings in a novel way. How would someone go about using these findings in everyday life. This section accounts for about 60 to 70% of the presentation

Reading for Monday February 5th

Please read S1:U4 in your textbook for Monday, February 5th. You need to write two questions based on the reading and posted here by 11:59 PM on Sunday the 4th.

Time to Start Reflective Blogging

Part of the class requirement is to blog your reflections about what you learn and experience as a result of this class. Blogging weeks run from Monday through Sunday beginning with Monday, February 5th. You are require blog each week through the end of the semester as long as we are here. You still need to blog on short weeks like those around Easter when we are only here for four days.

If you're not quite sure how to write reflectively, review the previous post and the resources that are linked there.

Here is the grading rubric for each week of blogging:

4 points
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Comments on at least two other classmates blog entries (you have two days after the week is over to get these done)
-Mature reflection which includes "what you feel" and "why you feel that way"

3 points
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Comments on at least one other classmates blog entries (you have two days after the week is over to get these done)
-Average reflection which includes "what you feel"

2 points
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Comments on at least two other classmates blog entries (you have two days after the week is over to get these done)
-Average reflection which includes "what you feel"

1 point
-Posts on time
-Minimum one weekly reflection
-Fair reflection which includes "what you feel" and "why you feel that way"

0 points
-Posts late or not at all for the week

Select Presentation Readings

As you might remember from the syllabus, there are selecte days where you will give a short presentation based on articles on CMC. It's time to select what you want to read.

Step one - go to the page containing the readings. When you get there you'll want to go to the botton and click the option of showing 25 entries.

Step two - go through and browse the articles and select one you want use as the basis of your presentation.

Step three - make sure no one else has chosen that article already (you'll need to read the comments on this post to make sure). This is first come first served.

Step four - Presentations will be on 2/14, 3/26 and 4/25. Select the date you would like to present. Rank the days in order or when you would like to present. There will be six a day and again it's first come first served.

Step five - Post your information to the comments section of this post.

Online Class Discussion Question Posted

The question for this Friday's online class discussion has been posted on the message board.

You must post your personal response to the board by 11:59 PM on Friday, February 1st.

Post a response to at least one other learner by 11:59 PM on Sunday, February 3rd.

Online Posting Information

This Friday, we will have our first online asynchronous discussion. Remember we don't meet in-person on the days where this is occurring. To get ready for the discussion, you will need to do the following.

You will notice a link to the right hand side of this page toward the top that says Message Board. Click on that and you will be taken to the sign in page. If You already have an account, just log in and you be ready for the next step.

If you don't have an account, go to the course registration page.

Click the Create New Account button and follow the directions on the page.

Login to the message board and read the posts that are already there. Pay particular attention to the post called Grading Rubric.

Getting Ready for Online Discussion

For Wednesday the 31st I'll have you read and do a couple of things to get ready for class.

First go through the PowerPoint on asynchronous discussion.

Next you want to find an online message board or forum and poke around an read. Observe the explicit and implicit rules for communicating on this board. Make note of the tone of communication and come prepared to discuss and work out recommendations for successfully communicating in this type of arena.

Check out this Google directory of online message boards or the big-boards site has a number of links you can use. If you already know of a message board or use one, you can use that for preparation.

No questions to post for Wednesday.

Reading for Monday, Jan. 29th

Please read S1:U3 in your textbook for Monday the 29th. You need to write two questions based on the reading and posted here by 11:59 PM on Sunday the 28th.

Each post is graded on a 4 point scale and what follows is the rubric:

4 points - Questions are posted on time, there are two of them, you reference a portion of the reading, provide a page number, written according to the top 4 levels of Bloom's taxonomy.

3 points - Questions are posted on time, there are two of them, you reference a portion of the reading, provide a page number, questions too simply worded and NOT focusing on top 4 levels of Bloom.

2 points - Same as three but forgetting to paraphrase of provide page number.

1 point - Post is late. One point automatically.

0 points - Does not post.

Get Ready for Reflective Writing

You will be using the blogs you set up to write reflectively about your experience with this class and/or the resources and materials you encounter. You don't need to write anything yet, but now is a great time to read a couple relevant sources on reflective writing.

The University of Central Florida has a good page.

Here's one from from the good ol' UK.

Blogging Articles for Fri. January 26th

Hopefully you were all able to stay with me in class today about group numbers and your number within the group. Below are the readings for Friday. Find the your individual number and read the approriate article. You should read it in such as way that you can explain the contents to the rest of your group.

• Number 1s should read How to blog safely.
• Number 2s should read How to start a blog
• Number 3s should read Blog usability: Top 10 Design Mistakes
  
• Number 4s should read What we're doing when we blog
• Number 5s should read The art of blogging - Part One
• Number 6s should read How to write a better weblog

That's it! No questions need to be written for the readings...just come prepared.

The New York Times on Social Networking

The New York Times has placed an article on sites that are integrating social networking components. The term "social network" make not be familiar to you, but it will be. A quick readof the article will hep you understand the concept better.

Reading for January 24th

You need to read S1:U2 in your textbook for Wednesday's class. We are still in the practice mode for writing your questions, so just come up with one question and post it by 11:59 PM on Tuesday (1/23). I'm giving you a little more time to get the questions posted.

Remember what was said in class about providing a context for the question you come up with.

Next week we'll get to the two questions for each chapter and I'll start keeping track for a grade.

Preparing Questions about Readings

For Monday you will need to read S1:U1 from your textbook. If you remember what the syllabus says, there will be times when you will need to generate "deep" questions about your readings. In order to get you used to this process and to help you learn how to write good questions, you should follow the quick steps I'm detailing here.

First read the following resources about questions:

• Some Answers About Questions
  
• On the importance of questioning
• Deep Questioning related to Bloom's Taxonomy Levels
  

You don't need to understand everything, but you will have a better idea of how to write good questions.

Next, try generating one really good question about the reading for Monday. Just one for now, but make it really good.

When you have that question, post it in the comments section for this post by 6 PM Sunday, January 21st.

Reading (short one) for Friday Jan 19th

For Friday, please read this short question and answer session with Technocritic Christine Rosen. You obviously don't have to agree with her on everything, but please note the places where you agree, disagree, or thing she might be slightly off. I'm not sharing this because I necessiarily agree with everything she write, I share it because it stimulate thought.

Welcome to COM-SPE 301

This is the blog for COM-SPE 301 Electronic Communication. This blog is how I intend to communicate with you throughout the semester. I'll tell you more about how to use this as the time comes.