Reading and Writing in a Digital Age

Your presentations will be judged based on how well they adhere to the following criteria, which we developed in class a on Nov. 19 and which I’ve added to a little:

• The presentation does no got longer than 10 minutes (I’ve reduced the max. time from 12 to 10 minutes)
• The presentation provides a clear central purpose, theme, or message
• The presentation is well-organized
• The presentation is educational (it attempts to relay useful and interesting information)
• The presenter appears knowledgable about his/her material
• The presenter effectively engages the audience
• The presenter has made an effort to be creative and original
• The presenter provides useful visual/audio aids and a handout that help the listeners follow along

I’m looking for presentations that reveal to the class the importance, diversity, and value of the materials you’ve been researching over the last few weeks. I’m looking for presentations that are both educational and entertaining. Try to pick aspects of your research and developing essays that you think 1) will be of particular interest to the class and 2) you can meaningfully and effectively communicate within the time constraints.

Here’s the Schedule of Presentations on your Final Essays

Dec. 5

Zara

Christopher

Chaya

Nomi

Luke

Jackie B.

Ari

Yolanda

Dec. 10

Ben

Jackie L.

Veronica

Pessia

Aaron

Brian

Damla

Kunal

Dec. 12

Gen

Polina

Joe

Jacky D.

Michelle

Daniel

I have intermittent power and sketchy Internet access. When I can, I’ll keep up with the blog, posting links to your individual blogs as you send them to me–so, if you have the capacity, please send them on. You can see the links to your classmates’ blogs in the top of the sidebar, under “Links.”

CUNY remains closed through Wednesday. I’m going to wait to hear from Baruch administration regarding how/if they plan to extend the semester/schedule make-up classes. Once I know what the administration mandate will be about recouping lost time, I will update our class schedule.

Until then, keep reading The Shallows (assuming you have an old-fashioned copy and/or power to charge your kindle) and doing The Shallows-related assignments. Try to keep up with the original reading schedule of the book, as indicated on the syllabus. We’ll do our best to get back on track next week!

I can’t imagine I won’t be seeing (most of) you on Monday.  Hoping for the best for all of you.  I haven’t heard back form everyone, but I know many of you are without power. I hope you find warmth and a good meal.  Stay safe!

Please stay tuned for news on Wednesday’s class. We might try to meet if school is in session–we’ll see! (I doubt classes will be on, however, given the power and transportation disruptions.)

In the meantime, if you have power and solid Internet access, would you take a moment to set up your own Blogs at Baruch site for our final project? Here’s how:

Go the Blogs at Baruch main page (the one that comes up when you first sign on).

In the upper right corner, under your name, you’ll see a button that says, “Create a Whole New Site.”

Click that button and proceed to set up your site. For the site URL, you can use your full name, your first name, your name and Eng2150h, “Chaya’sEnglishBlog,” and so on and so on. Anything is possible, assuming it’s not already taken. The URL you choose will be permanent; you can not change it later. Our class blog URL is “eng2150h.”

Your site title should reflect the overall topic of your final project, to the extent that you know it at this time. Your title can be changed later. Our class blog title is “Reading and Writing in the Digital Age.”

You can choose to make your blog public or private. This setting can be changed down the line.  No worries.

Your blog will have a default style theme. If you know how or you want to play, you can adjust your blog’s appearance.  In class, we’ll go over how to adjust your theme, add pages, adjust privacy settings, etc.

Once you set up your blog, please email me a link to your blog address. I will create a link to everyone’s blog from our class blog, so we can visit one another.

If your power is out and your Internet access is limited, don’t worry about this project! But if you happen to have power and things are fairly normal with you, try to take care of it so we can focus on getting our less fortunate classmates up and running when things get back to normal.

I’ve posted an assignment sheet on the Assignments page of the blog.

Please print it out, read it over before class next Monday, and begin thinking about what you will do for your Audio-Essay. Proposals are due by next week, Tuesday (Oct 2).

Pose your questions here by commenting on this post–that way we can all benefit from the conversation.

Hey Everyone, Please take a moment to update your profile on Blogs@Baruch:

• login, then rollover the “Welcome, your name” link on the top right
• click “Edit”
• fill in as much as you can, including a profile picture (if you’re comfortable with that)
• Please update your name so your actual name is attached to your posts

Please remember to categosize your blog posts, as appropriate. When you’re writing your post, you’ll see the available categories to the right.