Grp logistic info

To project managers:
>Go to dashboard on blogger, create a new blog, then, from dashboard, click on settings, then permissions. From here, you have the option to send out an email to your members to make them an author as well (their email is available on blackboard).
>Comment here with the new blog address to add to the main site.
>Start the first post, summarizes the ideas already on the table, and open it up of other members to write in their ideas. More things you have on the table before monday, faster meetings will go in piecing together the prospectus due next weds.

To the Personal Info Mgmt grp:
Yes, after some thought, yea, email use and image management is cool but probably not cool enough. Personal information in digital age it is (aka privacy). Our information (address, email, phone #, possibly credit card info), are very very hot commodities in the grey market. Once personal information is online, it's cached somewhere, if it has value, it'll get used. There are legal components but the spammers aren't too concerned about it. This sounded like the track you guys want to go on, go for it.

passing thought

I feel really smart at this nano second in time. The whole your project is your new last name thing is opening up new doors in how we could share information we come across while we kill time on the net. Like I just come across an opinion article on college admissions which articulates a perspective on the issue in very persuasive terms. Looking at the class list, I see zachary's working on affirmative action, perfect, I'll go tag his post with the link and 2 lines on why this thing is interesting and may be of use to him.

*on sourcing*
Back to my statement on that you can use any and all sources for this course. However, that also means you are charged with the sole responsibility of using the sources appropriately. Non-authoritative sources can be used as leads to pursue ideas and inspirations, or as practical starts in chasing the lead to new relevant sources. General rule of thumb, use all sources; do not cite non-authoritative sources, unless you have clear purposes in doing so.

This week

Monday we'll be meeting in class, then head over to the Davis Library together. Rita Moss, a Librarian on staff, will be hosting us and give a presentation/tour to start us off the Library section of the course. Bring questions relating to general library use or ones particular to what you might need (think ahead on needs w/ your topic). You'll likely be going back there, for certain indiv. topics, or when the search log assignment starts.

we have to blog about our topic, why not leo

I asked ya'll to blog about your research project, to be fair, I'll chip in my research related thoughts as well. Here's some of my late night thoughts,
============================================
Games and Learning
>The exceptional motivation factor that games can evoke is close to being the holy grail of education. What if we could get students this motivated about learning Shakespear?

Many many dedicated people have been in search of this, but such a scenario have yet to be reached on a sizable scale. Actually, this mirrors a parallel to the use of student blogs for classroom teaching. Blog use in the "wild" is often perceived as highly motivated and exceedingly good for discussion - that's perfect, exactly what most instructors would love to have. The reality, reflected in the current state of my course blog at least, is that the difference in context is quite significant. The students blog because they are asked by their instructor to do so, in contrast to the blogs that are purely voluntary in the "wild." However, there are some very promising nuggets in this comparison, a good number of students are making good use of the blogs to advance their projects and thoughtfully engage in interactions on their peers' work via comments. The format and utility of the blog medium allows such a form of interaction to occur, interactions that would not likely happen in class, or on traditional discussion boards.

In the numerous readings on the topic I've gone through, I have reservations about the optimism that putting games and education together equates to highly motivated learning. Two dissertation studies on using games in traditional classrooms have had mixed successes in teaching. The idea of gaming in class can generate interest in its novelty, but it may be poor fits to the traditional class room model.
Blogging out of interest vs. blogging because it was assigned, gaming out of interest vs. gaming because it was assigned. Maybe there's some aspect to the format of games that could have leads to better means for learning.

The term games is loaded with way too many variations to be all that useful as a descriptor, but thats another chunk of thought for another time.

APA citations
http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/apa/index.html

Today's class

This was sent to the class list this morning,

Today is the 75th Anniversary of SILS' founding. I was planning on holding regular class session since most students in the class are not in SILS.

After some thought, no class today, but I still want you to use that time productively. Instead of class, we'll have a blog day, take some time to read your classmates' blogs and comment on the revised topics. Plus make a post by 6pm on either A or B,

a) attend the event at memorial hall, starts at 3pm today - post a reflection/after thought on the event.

OR

b) conduct a focused session on pursuing your research project work, and post a reflection/after thought on progress.


Yes, this is required, as replacement for today's class.

My thoughts on your topics part 2

Questions
Having spent some time searching on the topic seem to have helped a number of people in asking better questions. As everyone's still formulating their focus, you should actively question your questions as you run across new information that matters. In several cases, it seems like the students sub questions could work better as the main research question. Just keep looking for information, that's the only way to get things to "click" and help you formulate the right questions.

Questions 2
I've asked a number of people to re work their research questions, reasons,

a) Too vague, the question is more of a topic/issue in its current state. - My rec. is to look for more information till something clicks. I don't think I saw a case thats too narrow yet. Lack of confidence on the topic is often associated with lack of information on it, the answer is to keep looking.

b) Topic/issue/question that already has fairly clear set answers, mainly the ones surrounding processes, "how to do/make x y z," descriptive ones, "what is issue x", or the what are pro/con ones. Those are good topics for a short topical paper, but would not fit well with the purpose and activity of the course as we move forward. That said, almost any topic can be researchable, the key is in the questions, and you should see me if you're having trouble with it.