Daily Update: Jan 05

I spent this morning marking Ex 1.  If you submitted it before 3:45 today, it's already been marked.  Look for the red apple in Turnitn.com, and click it... you should see a screen with my comments and your score.

I enjoyed reading them all... if you haven't yet participated in the GriffinGate forum devoted to discussing your gaming anecdotes, please do that.

Part 3 of the opening lecture is uploading now... it ends a bit abruptly, but that's because I realized I needed to make a Part 4.  (I won't post it as Part 4 -- it will appear tomorrow morning as a separate lecture on the nature of theory.)

Now that we've had our formal introduction to the blogs, I'm asking that we move some of the in-depth reactions to the readings from the course blog, onto your own individual blogs.

So, after you watch Part 3 of the opening lecture

1. Create a new entry on your own blog, and post a response.
2. Then, go the page I created for Part 3, and leave a brief comment with a URL that points to the new page you created. You can either include a quotation you thought was worth reflecting on, a question that you want to explore, or some other very specific reaction.  Work that specific detail into your comment, and leave the URL so that your classmates will know  what you wrote about.
3. From your own blog, include a link that points to the page devoted ot the readings. Now people can get from your blog entry to the assignment page, and from the assignment page to all the other assignment pages posted by your classmates. (Trust me, the extra 30 seconds you put into creating this two-way link will really help the online conversation.)
   
4. After you have posted your initial reaction, visit the blog entries that 2-4 of your peers wrote, and contribute to the discussion they chose to start.
1. You'll get bonus points for being the first person to post on a classmate's blog entry, for starting a thread on your own blog that attracts a lot of comments, and for linking from your blog to something a classmate posted on his or her blog.
   
2. Keep track of where you left your comments, and return over the next couple of days, in order to keep the conversation going.

I'm asking you to follow these steps for every assigned text from now on.

If you already posted your reaction here on the course blog, it's not necessary to re-post that material on your own blog.

From now on, I will be looking on your own blog first, for evidence that you are contributing to the online discussion. 

• I've heard from students who say they thought an online class would be lonely, but they feel encouraged by the level of interaction the blogs promise.  I'm very glad to hear that.
• Since our blogs are our main tool for interaction, I am asking you to follow this same procedure -- post a response on your blog, then link to it 

Deadlines

• Tomorrow, I will close the online conversations that I started on the first day of classes.
• Note that an upcoming assignment asks you to write a game review.  While I was flexible the first few days of the course, all assignments are due at 10am on the day they are assigned... so if you wait until the middle of the day to start the readings that are due on that day, that could be a problem.
• We're about to shift from watching a lot of media clips to reading textbook chapters. While I think you'll find Koster's book is very readable, most people find reading a book requires a different kind of concentration, so be sure you leave room for it.
• I am working on a GriffinGate quiz for the Williams and Smith introduction.  I'll announce it when it's ready, and you'll have a window of about two days to complete it.