Another way you can participate in this course outside of class is to contribute to discussions about the readings here on the blog. (If you’re still fuzzy about the course blog, please see my earlier post introducing the course blog.) Here’s a quick introduction.

How Will Online Discussions Work?

Most weeks during the semester you’ll be assigned a selection from our textbook, The Code Book by Simon Singh, to read before class. For each reading, I’ll post a few open-ended discussion questions about the reading on the course blog, and you’re invited to respond to these questions in writing by leaving comments on the blog. For example, here are the questions for the first reading, to be discussed in class on Tuesday, August 31st.

You’re encouraged to use your real name when leaving comments. If you feel uncomfortable doing so (because the course blog is open to public access, perhaps), you’re welcome to use a pseudonym. If you use a pseudonym, please let me know what it is so I can give you credit for your contributions to the online discussions.

Why Online Discussions about the Reading?

The key here is that I’m asking you to respond to questions about the reading before you come to class and discuss the reading with your peers and me. These questions are designed to help you make a little more sense out of the reading so that you come to class better prepared to contribute to class discussions. This will mean our in-class discussions will be the third time you think about a reading: once while you read it, a second time when you respond to the online questions, and a third time during class. By cycling back through the material multiple times, you’ll understand it better.

And by having you respond here on the blog to the reading questions, you’ll also get to see what your peers are thinking about regarding the course material. You’re likely to learn a thing or two from hearing their perspectives–and they’ll learn from hearing yours. Again, this will help to make our class discussions even more fruitful.

Many of the reading questions will generate ideas and perspectives useful for your final essay assignment in the course, the “Big Questions” paper. So as you respond to the reading questions and read your peers’ responses, be looking for “Big Questions” you might like to tackle in your final paper, as well as perspectives on those questions you might integrate into your paper. (Please note that if you use one of your peers’ ideas in your paper, you’ll need to cite it, just as you would cite ideas you use from journal articles and books.)