PLEASE READ ALL OF THE FOLLOWING BEFORE GETTING STARTED ON YOUR POSTS.
Netiquette and Privacy
Words can mean many things and what we intend to say is not always what others hear. This is especially true of "online communication"
during which other students do not have the opportunity to see your "body language" and therefore have a greater possibility of
misunderstanding what you truly mean.
Please, follow these guidelines in all your online responses
and discussion groups.
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RESPECT. We would like to suggest respectful exchanges as a basic ground rule. We feel that informational errors should be
pointed out- respectfully (even if stated strongly...). Disagreements that honor the viewpoints of the various contributors are
productive and can lead to new learning and understanding.
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PRIVACY. Keep in mind not only your own privacy rights but others as well. Do not reveal any information that you deem private.
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BE SUPPORTIVE. We are all still learning. Our job is not to judge or condemn or even praise, although genuine encouragement is a
necessary ingredient. We are here to provide information, to address topics in a discussion forum, and to provide assistance in
helping each participant use her/his own unique learning style. Reflection generally precedes growth. So reflect upon what is said,
provide sincere comments, and hopefully, we will all grow.
BE CONSIDERATE of grammatical/spelling errors.
REMEMBER that humor and satire are often misinterpreted online. Communication is more than words. So, be prepared for some
misunderstanding and requests for clarification.
One good way to avoid problems is to reread your postings before sending them. Something written in haste may be misread.
Created by Val Donato, Sandra Looper, Diane Hostetler and Tom Braziunas
Assignment for Discussion 02
Remember, this Discussion Forum is set up so that in order to see anyone else's post, YOU MUST POST YOUR RESPONSE FIRST. Once
you have posted your response to the Discussion assignment/question, you will be able to see other team members' posts, even if they were
posted before yours. This is meant to help you to understand what you think you know before being persuaded by others' thoughts. I want
to challenge you to really take risks in your thinking about how a problem might be solved, and this means opening your thoughts up to the
constructive criticism of others. This also means that in response to one of your teammate's post, you must take care in how you phrase
your constructive criticism. In this assignment we will get more practice doing just that.
For this assignment, we'll now get to put our knowledge of biology to work to solve some sample quiz questions that deal with real biological
phenomena.
Please do the following for our first discussion assignment:
1)
Your first post must be made by Saturday night at midnight.
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2)
Please download the "Sample Quiz Questions" from our Day-to-Day schedule (found in the Handout column of week 2,
Wed).
Answer both questions as best you can and post your answers to the Discussion forum.
Make sure that in your answers you include every key word in the question.
A hint is that I often list the key words in the order that they would appear if you were telling a story of how this biological
phenomenon might work.
Make sure that your answer makes clear what each of the key words actually means.
Your second and third posts must be made by Monday night at midnight.
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This part of the assignment will require you to make at least two replies:
o 1) to a fellow teammate,
o 2) to your first post that includes a revision of your ideas.
Make sure that you have read through all of your teammates' posts.
First reply to a fellow teammate with constructive criticism. Choose one or more (!) from the following list of suggestions or
make up your own, keeping in mind our Netiquette policy of being supportive to each other's learning:
1) Ask a clarifying question: "I really like what you say here ____________, but I wonder if you could clarify for
me what you meant about this here______________."
o 2) Offer a different perspective: "I think that what you are trying to say here is ___________, but I thought about it
happening this way ____________."
o 3) Make suggestions: "I see that you used these key words in your answer (____________), but I noticed that other
key words (__________) are missing. Here's is how I used them in my answer, ____________."
o 4) Agree with constructive comments: "I really liked how you thought about the problem in this specific way
_____________! I thought about it that way too and talked about it this way, ______________."
Second, after reading any constructive comments that your teammates had, make any needed revisions to your first posted
answer, and post it as a reply to your original post with the key word "REVISION" in your post title.
I will make my suggested version of the answers available to you on Tuesday before our quiz on Wednesday.
Have fun!!
o
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