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 08
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 continue to practice doing just that.
For this assignment, we're going to continue to practice writing an explanatory story. This explanation will focus on answering our
question, "How does human resistance to malaria occur?" In writing this explanation we will practice writing a good explanation for natural
selection, the very same explanation that you will use in your models.
Please do the following for this discussion assignment:
1)
Your first post must be made by Saturday night at midnight.
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2)
If you don't have a copy already, please download the "Population Dynamics Model Checklist" from our Day-to-Day
schedule.
Using the list that we came up with as a whole class for the important points to include in a good explanation of natural
selection (this list can also be found on your model checklist) write what you think would be a good explanation for natural
selection of human resistance to malaria. Please use complete sentences instead of bullet points.
Here's a helpful hint: Try drawing your story out as a picture first, like we do in class with the Time 0, 1, 2 pictorial
model. Then use your own words to describe what is going on, using our class list as a guide.
Your second, third, and fourth 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 three replies:
o 1) two replies to two different teammates,
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 two fellow teammates with constructive criticism. Make sure you reply to one person who has not had a reply
to their post yet, and then any of your other teammates. 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 concepts in your answer (____________), but I noticed that they
weren't linked together to make a story. Here's is a suggestion, ____________."
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 (including any changes to Parts 1,2 and 3), and post it as a reply to your original post with the key word
"REVISION" in your post title.
On Tuesday we will go over as a class what we think are the necessary parts of a good explanation of natural selection and
wrap up our thinking about HIV drug resistance.
Have fun!!
o
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