Assignment for Virtual Friday

Due Friday, February 6 at Midnight

 

Overview: Read Huff Post Guide. Put up Blog.  Comment: Post URL correctly; justify your title and profile.

 

  1. Read Huff Post Guide pp. 44-49 and pp. 53-56 on the Anatomy of a Blog and on Posting.
  2. Get your real blog up and running with title, profile, and first post.
  3. Comment: Post your blog’s URL to Comments (copy and paste to make sure it’s correct).
  4. Justify your choice of title and profile. This means argue the case for why your profile and title and first post are helpful in establishing your blog.

 

Note: If you don’t post your blog’s URL correctly and by Friday  midnight, imagine the chaos . . .  No one will be able to comment on your blog; no one will get points; no one will. People will be very mad at you.

Note: you’ll be posting twice a week from now on (at the very least) and commenting on all group-mate’s blogs.

 

 

 

Assignment to prepare for Face-to-Face Tuesday

Due Tuesday, February 10, at the beginning of class

 

Overview: Post again (post # 2); Comment on all group members’ blogs; read about ethics and work on ethical statement.

 

 

  1. Post to your blog (post 2 . . . or more).
  2. Make a MEATY AND WORTHWHILE comment on all group member blogs. What’s a meaty and worthwhile comment? Try your hand and we’ll talk about it when we see what you’ve done. This is an inductive approach to good writing. Commenting is part of your weekly grade so take it seriously.
  3. Read Huff Post Guide pp. 50-52 on copyright ethics.
  4. Read the following FAQs and information on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-students.php  on student blogging. Pertains mostly to non college students but some points are relevant.

http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-defamation.php  on character defamation

http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-ip.php  on intellectual property

http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-adult.php  on adult content

http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/  = EFF home page

     5.    Read the freedom of expression guidelines in the UNM student handbook Pathfinder:

            http://pathfinder.unm.edu/policies.htm#freedomexpression

 

  1. BEFORE coming to class, begin crafting ethical standards for blogging that you and your groupmates will agree to abide by. Your university community includes students (graduate and undergraduate), professors, staff, and administrators. The broader UNM community includes residents/tax payers who fund your education. So you’re looking to uphold the good name of all of these people with your writing. I will be collecting your preparatory contributions to this collective effort as part of your weekly grade.

 

To make this task easier, I’ve constructed a template that you may use to write your document. You’ll read the pages in Huff Post, on the EFF website, and in the Pathfinder looking for clear definitions of the terms that are italicized below.  You may change the wording of the agreement if you wish; this version simply gives you a way to organize your reading and gathering of information. You may certainly add sentences and guidelines that you think useful. For example, there’s nothing below about protecting yourselves from self-destructive blogging behavior.

 

TEMPLATE

 

1.     Free Speech.  Although legal precedent favors students’ rights to free speech on and off campus, material disruption is not legal.  We understand material disruption  to mean __________________________ and pledge not to engage in material disruption on our blogs.

2.     Character defamation. We understand defamation of character to mean _______________________________and pledge not to engage in character defamation on our blogs.  We understand slander to mean____________________________and pledge not to post slanderous materials on our blogs.

3.     We understand the definition of obscenity to be_____________________________ and pledge not to post obscenity on our blogs. We understand community standards to mean _________________________ and pledge to abide by community standards. We understand child pornography to mean _____________________ and pledge not to post child pornography on our blogs.

4.     Producing and Transmitting. We understand that transmitting or reproducing illegal or inappropriate material has the same legal consequences as does originating such material.

5.     Intellectual property. We understand that fair use is defined as __________________________ and that transformative use means ­­­­­_____________________________. We understand that fair and transformative uses of copyrighted material are acceptable blogging practice and these terms apply to both images and text. We understand that ______________________________would not count as fair or transformative use.

6.     The term Creative Commons means ____________________. Share remix, and reuse means _______________________. Our stance on the Creative Commons is __________________________.