last day of class

hey folks......today is the last day. i don't have any incredibly profound words to say, other than i hope you enjoyed your immersion into the world of blogs. this form of media will definitely influence your life through the foreseeable future, and now you have experience with them and are comfortable, and can hopefully use this format to stake your own presence on the internet.

in other news, please keep in touch with me. i am easy to contact through email and can be a resource for you as you finish your college careers and decide what move to make after you finish at OSU.

i hope you had a good quarter and good luck on the remainder of your blogging and your final exams, blob

ps. don't forget to do the online course evaluation...and also, please send me some feedback directly [eckhart.5@osu.edu] so i can make some useful changes to this course if i teach it again next quarter...

blogging is so cool

check this out, a story on CNN.com about how "blog" is the number one word of the year. [a ridiculous title i guess, but it should still illustrate to you guys that your english teacher picked a hip new topic to focus this quarter's class on. ha!]

here is a link to the story and here are the first few paragraphs:

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.
Merriam-Webster Inc. said on Tuesday that blog, defined as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks," was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year.
Eight entries on the publisher's top-10 list related to major news events, from the presidential election -- represented by words such as incumbent and partisan -- to natural phenomena such as hurricane and cicada.
Springfield, Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster compiles the list each year by taking the most researched words on its Web sites and then excluding perennials such as affect/effect and profanity.

final exam

your final exam will be very straight-forward: analyze your Blog #2 based on the 4-part criteria you used to analyze all the other blogs this quarter. however, instead of the "what i learned about america section," please comment on what you tried to teach the reader about in your blog.

therefore, you should keep this 4-part criteria in mind when you are creating your blog. for instance, make sure there is adequate info about the blogger....make sure there is an exciting format to the blog [and describe it in detail in that section: "there are x number of posts, almost all of which are 100 words at least..." etc]

this is worth 10% of your grade. each of the other blogs analysis papers were worth 5%...they were 500 words [roughly 2 pages] long, so since this is worth twice as much, i would like it to be 1000 words long. these will be due at 5 o'clock on tuesday of finals week. i would like you to post them to your Blog #1, then send a Comment to this post with the URL for that.

blob

last week of the quarter

hey class......please spend this week focusing on your Blog #2, the big blog. in case you were wondering, i have decided how i will grade them. it is worth 30% of your grade, so i think i will grade it based on a 30-point scale.

15 points will be assigned for having 30 links [a half-point each, obviously]. if you have at least 30 links to other useful sites, you will get full-credit for this category. i will make sure they work and count them, that's all.

5 points will be based on having at least 10 posts of 100 words [with at least 1 link each].

5 points will be assigned depending on the quality of your content

5 points will be for grammar/puncuation/clarity of thought/writing style

i will grade these blogs on tuesday of finals week...you will let me know you are done by replying to this message with a comment...and posting your blog URL once more.

good luck and keep up the good work. i have looked at many of your blogs over the holiday and they are very impressive. take care, blob