Interesting or provocative links (or both)

From time to time, I'll post links that address some of the issues our class addresses. These are here for your consideration and perhaps, later in the semester, for our discussion. Feel free to post your own links as you come across them. Just post as a comment on this post. Enjoy!

Regular Blog Posts

Your blog for this class is a place where you can explore the aspects of class that appeal most to you. Maybe you know more about a topic than we dealt with in class. Maybe you have some questions and you want to work them out as a blog entry. Maybe you want to relate something we talked about with something you learned on the job or in another class. Maybe--well, you get the idea. The blog is your space. You get to set the agenda.

So start a blot asap. Blogger is easy and convenient, but really any platform will do. Lots of people use Wordpress or other sites. That's cool. Once you have your blog up an running--do it this week!--then email me the URL so I can list it on this class blog. Watch the right margin and you'll be able to read and respond to your classmates' thoughts about each day's discussions.

Each class member will post one blog entry each day there are assigned readings and each day there is an Expert Group presentation or a class discussion without an assigned reading.

For assigned readings, each class member will post a blog entry of at least one page (400 words) that responds to the readings for that day’s class, before class time.
For Expert Group presentations, book review panels, and class sessions with discussions without assigned readings, each class member will post a blog entry that responds to the class presentation and activities on that day. These posts will appear no later than 24 hours after the class in which the presentation was made.
Responses do not have to encompass the entire reading assignment or presentation. Instead, pick an issue, develop an insight, add your own knowledge, or frame a question about the day’s reading or presentation and post that as your blog entry.
Each week, I will choose some your entries and link them to the course blog for general response. You will earn points for each blog entry, each entry selected for the class blog, and responses to entries chosen for the class blog.

Points are awarded for all entries that are on time and done in good faith (see syllabus).

Welcome!

Nothing is more exciting than beginning a new semester with DTC 375. OK, that was a little over the top. I can think of some things that are more exciting, and I'll bet you can too. But it is pretty exciting! We'll look hard at the cycle of technologies: People want to do something (say, write), so they invent tools to allow that to happen. And once we have a tool (say, clay tablets), we want a better, easier, more convenient tool. So we invent paper and figure out how to put ink on it. And after a couple of millennia, we have WYSIWYG word processors. In the meantime, our writing technologies have changed us drastically from the ways our non-writing ancestors thought and lived. Those differences are the grist for our 375 mill. And I am very happy to be sharing this quest with all of you.

Enjoy! I know I will.