Da Class . . .

Thursday, May 1st

Today, groups # 5 and # 6 will be presenting their group case studies.

That’s alllll folksssssssssss!

Tuesday, April 29th

Today, groups #3 and # 4 will be presenting their group case studies. For those who are not, please continue to work with your group on your upcoming presentation.

Thursday, April 24th

Today, groups # 1 and # 2 will be presenting their group case studies. For those who are not, please continue to work with your group on your upcoming presentation.

For Thursday, April 17th

This coming Thursday is a research/library or group meeting day — to continue working with your groups on your upcoming group presentations. While we will not be having a formal class, several groups will be meeting in the classroom or library to begin or continue working on their presentations.

For those who were in class, you all know what you are doing. For those who were not, I suggest you immediately get in touch with your group members via your group blog page to see if you are meeting to discuss your presentation or using the time to do individual or group research. Please go to the group tabs at the top of this page.

Since, with the exception of ONE person (Kyle G.), Group #4 was NOT present yesterday, you are REQUIRED to meet in class on Thursday with Kyle, who will meet with you to begin working on your group’s project.

You must ALL then blog over the weekend (before Tuesday) to discuss how you think your cultural artifact or phenomenon either informs or reflects popular culture and discuss your role in your group’s presentation. This is a required part of your presentation, and I will take it into consideration with the final group presentation grade.

Email me with questions or concerns.

Assignment for Thursday, April 17th

By now, each of your groups should have decided on a topic for presentation. Your assignment for Thursday is to go to your group blog site (all listed above in tabs) and write at least a paragraph or two about how you think your topic either informs or reflects popular culture. Additionally, you will want to use that space for discussion with one another about who will be responsible for which pieces of the presentation.

Follow up on class discussion

Hi folks — reading assignment is below this post. Here’s a short article in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled, “U. of Southern California Student Recreates Guantánamo Camp, Shackles and All,” with an accompanying YouTube video that I thought you might find interesting.

Reading Assignment for Tuesday, April 15th

REMINDER: Case Study Revisions are due on Tuesday, April 22nd!

For the next class, please read/view the following:

• Read: Kornblum, Janet. “Meet my 5,000 new best pals,” USA Today, 9/20/2006.
• Read: Hughes, J. “From Virtual Sex to No Sex?”Ethical Technology, February 28th, 2007.
• View: The Second Life Sex Bed Case, UK TV.

There is no written assignment, though I do expect to see some activity on the group blogs. You should, by Tuesday, April 15th, have at least decided on what popular cultural artifact or phenomenon your group will be discussing and presenting to the class.

GROUP PRESENTATION Guidelines & Schedule

* Please see your current blog assignment below this post. This post is to give you information on the upcoming group presentations & schedule.

Below are the six groups with their corresponding presentation date:

GROUP # 1: Rotimi, Lakendra, Bionka, Rigo, Keevy for APRIL 24th

GROUP # 2: Trisha, Monica, Jeanette, Socrates, Mookie for APRIL 24th

GROUP # 3: Alex, Jose G., Ashley, Jacqueline, Jenny to for APRIL 29th

GROUP # 4: Lucrezia, Kyle G., Sara M., Miriam, Kiely for APRIL 29th

GROUP # 5: Sara D., Erica, Brittney N., Noga, Shaunta to for May 1st

GROUP # 6: Kyle F., Marlena, Jose O., Daniel U., Ying Liu to for May 1st

Guidelines for Group Presentations:

To see the guidelines, please click on YOUR group # at the top of this blog (very top — yes, there!).

Reading Assignment for April 10th

For this Thurdsday, please read the following:

• Read: Jenkins, Henry. “Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked” PBS.
• Read: Friedman, Emily. “Does Virtual Cheating Still Count?” ABC NEWS, August 13, 2007.

Be prepared to discuss both articles in class!