Welcome to LAST100! It’s good to have you in the course, and I’m looking forward to what should be a productive and fun semester.
Here’s a reminder of what you have to do in preparation for next week. Note that it may seem like a lot, but this is just while we’re getting established. In following weeks, you will find yourself in a routine.
Before this Saturday, September 12 (i.e. almost immediately)….
- Set up a blog. (Details about how to do that are here)
- Write a brief introductory post, telling us who you are, where you are coming from, why you are taking this course, what you hope to get out of it.
- Publish and send me the address of your blog.
Then over the weekend, i.e. before Monday, September 14…
You may also want to listen to Alec Dawson’s introductory podcast.
Then before next class, i.e. by 11:59pm on Monday, September 14…:
- Do the reading for week two (Columbus and Guaman Poma)
- Watch the accompanying video.
- Write a blog post (at least 400 words) in reaction/response to the readings and/or the video.
- This blog post should also include one question that you want us to discuss collectively.
- The “category” for this post should be “week two.”
- Add whatever tags you think are appropriate.
Finally, before our second discussion, i.e. by 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 16…
- Write comments on two of your classmates’ blog posts
So, yes, that’s three blog posts in the first week. But the first couple are simply to get ourselves oriented. After this first week, you will be regularly writing only one post a week.
One more thing…
Comment moderation
It will make everything immeasurably easier if you remove comment moderation from your blog, so that you do not have to manually approve each comment as it arrives.
On WordPress blogs (wordpress.com or blogs.ubc.ca), this is how you do it:
a) go to your Dashboard
b) go to Settings > Discussion
c) click “E-mail me whenever Anyone posts a comment”
c) unclick “Before a comment appears Comment must be manually approved”
d) unclick “Before a comment appears Comment author must have a previously approved comment”
That’s it! Good luck!