Class blog assignment

Ten percent of your final grade in the course will be determined by your contributions to a class weblog on international terrorism and counter-terrorism. The weblog is hosted by Blogger, located at: http://byu379r3w08.blogspot.com. All students should have received an email invitation to join this blog as an author– please notify the instructor if this is not the case.

Students may wish to post anonymously, and this desire is understandable. In order to protect your privacy from the general public, you may use a pseudonym for your contributions. However, your pseudonym must be known to the instructor and to the other members of the class. For the sake of simplicity and relative transparency, please consider using your first name and the initial of your last name as a quick and easy blog handle.

Each week, students will be judged on their participation. At the end of the semester, students will be graded based on their best ten weeks’ contributions. Students may contribute to the class blog in two basic ways: by posting, or by commenting. For any given week, a good contribution to the blog would be one good post, or two good comments.

Blog posts will generally consist of a link to one or more news stories concerning international terrorism or counter-terrorism, with some remarks. Explain why this story interests you. Does it raise a question which you had not considered before? Does it answer a question previously raised by the instructor, or one of the students in class? Does this story illustrate a principle discussed in class or in the required readings? Is this a new threat, or an aspect of the terrorism problem that you had not considered before? What in this story do you find to be new, enlightening, or problematic? A good blog post does not need to be long– one or two paragraphs will often suffice– but some students will find that they enjoy the chance to write longer essays.

Comments likewise do not need to be lengthy, but they should contain some new insight or idea. Simply agreeing that the link is interesting is not sufficient, although it is a good beginning. Ideally, the class blog should be a place for students to have conversations about the ideas presented in the course, outside of our regular class room. A good comment is a part of this conversation.

Remember always that the same standards of decorum for the classroom should guide your behavior in blog posts, and especially in blog comments. Be responsible. Do not give in to the temptation to be rude, offensive, or abrasive. Students who abuse this forum will find that their grade will suffer.

Lastly, some students may wish to help improve the look and design of the blog. Perhaps you have an original artistic contribution, or would like to nominate a website for a place on our list of permanent links. Feel free to post about your ideas, although the instructor will have the final say. This is an option available to all, but mandatory for none. Art and design contributions will also get students credit, but should be a minor portion of your efforts for this assignment.

Good luck, and remember that this is in some ways an experiment. If you are experiencing a problem with this assignment, please notify the instructor as soon as possible so that corrections can be made.