Weekly Reviews

You will need to choose one of the readings assigned each week to review on your class blog. You will also need to find and review at least one additional reading on one of the topics for that week. The second reading can be, but does not have to be, from a peer-reviewed journal or conference. It could also be an online essay or blog post, a book or book chapter, or even an in-depth newspaper article. However, it should have some analytical content--a short news item describing a new software package, for example, would not be appropriate. When in doubt, ask me. I will assign grades for these at the end of week 4, week 7, and week 10--but I will also comment on the entries on an ongoing basis.

The review of the assigned article for a given week should be posted no later than the beginning of Thursday's class that week. The review of the additional article for the week should be posted no later than the following Saturday at noon.

Midterm Exam

The midterm will be a take-home essay question exam, which you will have one week to complete. I will post the exam here at the end of week 5.

Final Project

Your final project for the class will be a design document outlining an online community with a specific target audience, and a storyboard prototype for that site. It could be a community site to support an online game, a neighborhood site, a political action site, or any number of other possible community implementations. I would prefer that you work in teams of 2 or 3, but if you would prefer to work independently that is also acceptable.

Configuring Your Class Weblog

I have set up individual weblogs for each student, as well, which is where I will expect you post your weekly assignments, and the login information for your personal blog was emailed to you before the first week of class. (If you did not receive that email, please contact me.)

I have done most of the configuration of your blogs for you. However, you may wish to go into the settings for your blog and under "New Entry Defaults" change the post status option from "Unpublished" to "Published".

To create an entry in your blog, use the "New Entry" link at the top of the left menubar. Create an introductory post, telling me and your classmates a little bit about yourself and why you're taking this class. When you're done, save the post.

Now click on "View Site" at the bottom of the left menubar. Does your blog, with the introductory post, appear? If so, you're done. If not, let me know in class or via email.