Cryptography

Okay, this is it: your final required blog post. For this assignment, write a 200 to 400 word post that responds to the question below that matches your role in the class debate scheduled for Monday, December 2nd. Note that we’ll be debating this statement:

The US government should be given wide latitude to use electronic surveillance in the interests of national security, even if that means citizens’ privacy is not always respected.

Here are the questions:

• Pro – You’ll argue in favor of this statement, so what are two or three reasons you find compelling to support the statement?
• Con – You’ll argue against this statement, so what are two or three reasons you find compelling to counter the statement?
• Jury – You’ll evaluate the arguments made by the Pro team and the Con team, so what criteria are you planning to use to evaluate those arguments?
• Notetakers – You’ll take notes during the debate, so what are two or three aspects of this debate (issues, arguments, examples) that you feel are essential to the debate?

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, December 2nd.

For your next blog assignment, listen to this interview with Chris Gilliard, professor of English at Macomb Community College, that I conducted for Leading Lines, the educational technology podcast I host. Then write a 200 to 4o0 word post in which you respond to a statement, argument, or example shared in the podcast that caught your attention.

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Friday, November 22nd.

For your next blog assignment, write a post between 200 and 400 words in which you first quote, then react to a statement (a sentence or two) in Chapter 2 of danah boyd’s book It’s Complicated that caught your attention.  You might address how the statement affects your understanding of privacy, connections you see between the statement and other ideas we’ve discussed this semester, or your own opinions on the statement.

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, November 11th.

Note: If you’d rather leave a 200-400 word response on a peer’s post than start your own post, that’s fine!

For your next blog assignment, write a post between 200 and 400 words that responds to one of the reading questions for Singh Chapter 7.

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Friday, November 1st.

For your nextblog assignment, write a post between 200 and 400 words that responds to one of the reading questions for Singh Chapter 6.

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 23rd.

For your next blog assignment, write a post between 200 and 400 words that responds to one of the following questions about your assigned reading in Code Girls by Liza Mundy:

1. What roles did gender play in the life and work of American codebreakers during World War Two? (This is a broad question, so feel free to use one of the reading questions on pages 379-380 in the book to guide your response.)
2. How important was codebreaking to the success of the Allies in World War Two? What elements led to American success in this arena?

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Friday, October 11th.

In preparation for your upcoming podcast assignment, I want you to listen to some audio.

First, listen to this introduction to Vanderbilt English major Anna Butrico’s senior thesis on the rhetoric of podcasting. It’s 13 minutes long, and it provides a useful introduction to the medium of podcasting.

Then, listen to a few podcast episodes that deal with cryptography. Listen to at least three episodes from the lists below, including at least one episode from List A and at least one episode from List B.

List A:

• Vox Ex Machina, 99% Invisible episode 208
• Numbers Stations, 99% Invisible episode 97
• Cipher, or Greenhow Girls, The Memory Palace episode 111

List B:

• A Killer on the Loose: The Zodiac Ciphers, One-Time Pod episode 1
• The VIC Cipher, One-Time Pod episode 14
• The Panizzardi Telegram, One-Time Pod episode 24

For your blog post, select one of the podcast episodes above and respond to one or more of the following questions:

• What did you find most interesting about the episode?
• What did the podcast producer do to make the material interesting?
• What did the producer do to make technical aspects of the material accessible?
• Based on this episode, what ideas do you have for the podcast episode you will produce? (Consider both topic and format.)

Your blog post should be between 200 and 400 words and is due by 9 a.m. on Monday, October 7th.

For your sixth blog assignment, write a post between 200 and 400 words that responds to one of the reading questions for Singh Chapter 3.

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, September 30th.

For your fourth blog assignment, write a post between 200 and 400 words that responds to one of the reading questions for Singh Chapter 2.

Please (1) give your post a descriptive title, (2) assign it to the “Student Posts” category, and (3) give it at least three useful tags. Your post is due by 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 19th.