Welcome – Please read course information, assignments, schedule and announcements on the blackboard module. All other class based discussion will happen via the blogs, in secondlife and other online venues in addition to face-to-face discussion when we meet offline in the classroom in Olscamp.

As you blog -it is important to remember that your audience is anyone who can access the Internet and is interested in digitally mediated identities, communication, secondlife, blogs, web 2.0 based learning and research online. So even though you will need to keep in mind that your blog audience will not always have the same context as our class. Therefore when you post, elaborate on the context. Also remember that anything you blog now will be “google-able” in the long run and be read by others in later years – so audience across time, space, place – geography, culture, politics, generations and more must be kept in mind as much as possible when you blog. You should focus on posting about things that can help you work on and think about your class readings and projects in addition to the required amount of posting that will be explained to you on blackboard announcements and in class regularly.

Commenting on posts by your classmates is important for dialogue. This will give you a chance to explore the ideas and resources suggested by others in the class. The key idea here is that we want to share our expertise as well as explore new areas. Thus a post or comment may be as long like but will not be evaluated on number of words; rather, I will look at the value of the posts and comments for the class and subject matter at hand.

You may post as often and as much as you like, but you will be required to post and comment each week – the minimum should not be what you aim for if you expect an A in class – however I will periodically announce the weekly minimum of posts and comments based on what we do in class on Secondlife and in Olscamp. The idea is that we want to have ongoing community interactions. If you miss posting one week because of travel or illness, we will have a makeup week in November.

This blog has pages, categories, tags and a blog roll with links as well. I will help you navigate the structure visually in class so you know where to look for what.