In this course, we will be concerned both with how to use the Internet and with the social and cultural issues raised by this use. Many of the assigned readings address these issues. To encourage you to think seriously about these issues, I am asking that you keep a journal of your response to the readings. Use it to raise questions, express your opinions, sound off, note similarities and differences with other readings, relations between the readings and current events, etc. Your responses should demonstrate that you have both read and thought about the readings. You should comment on at least one selection from each day's assignment. (You need not comment on the assigned reading from Working the Web; you are welcome to do so, but only in addition to your comments on another selection.)
I want to avoid one problem with journal assignments, namely, the temptation to let the readings and the journal entries go until the day before the journals are due. In this class, there will be no set date on which the journals are due. You should keep them up to date and bring them to class each day (if you keep them in a looseleaf binder, bring just the pages since the last time I collected your journal). I will collect journals at random times, read selectively, and assign a somewhat impressionistic grade: H (honors), check +, check, check -, and U (unsatisfactory). These are not masked versions of A, B, C, D, and F, though there's obviously some similarity. I expect that I will read parts of each student's journal several times during the semester. At the end, I will translate the impressions into letter grades, and the overall letter grade will count for 15% of the final grade.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me via e-mail. Here's how..
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