Online Discussions

Types of Discussions. Although we will not be meeting as a class, we will be having several forms of interactive discussions. Discussions are an integral part of the course. For this purpose we have a Dialogues Page that will have the links to four different kinds of discussion. Some discussions will have questions posted on the section page, and some will be posted directly on the particular discussion page itself. You should look for the Questions posed by the teacher on dates from the assigned Course Time Schedule. These are the five discussion areas:

Discussion Area # 1: Visuals Based Discussions
These discussions are based on visuals presented in the course. You will have specific questions on the content pages and this discussion area is to be used for analyzing the meaning of these pictures. Please refer to the Schedule for the assigned time periods.

Discussion Area # 2: Reading Based Discussions
These discussions are based on essay assignments in the course. Specific questions will be posted on this page during the time periods stipulated in the Schedule.

Discussion Area # 3: General Discussion Zone for Students
This area is the General Discussion Zone [GDZ] for students in Social Science 150. This is a place to ask each other questions outside the assigned discussions. You can ask questions here or discuss the material and the course.

Film Discussion for Unit 6

This will take you to the General Discussion Zone. The teacher will be posting the discussion questions at the time assigned in the Schedule.

How do I post a dicussion item? Your responses will be posted, with the newest response on top, and each response to your comment will be posted under the respondent's name in an Indented line under your original comment. New comments will appear without the indentation. You will receive a confirmation of each post.

There are 2 navigation bars for the discussion:

[ Home | Contents | Search | Post ] (not-linked here)

The Home button allows you to reach the dialogues page; Contents will send you to the Discussion contents where you can access all responses; Search is a search engine which allows you to focus on a keyword, without having to look at the comments numerous times; Post is for you to give your own comment.

This navigation bar is for when you look at a comment that is already made. In addition to home, contents and search (discussed above), you can post an original message or reply to the comment you are reading. You can also view a different part of that response with the next response, previous response or up to another comment.

Take a moment now and practice posting a comment at the General Discussion Zone [GZD]. The discussion question is:

National elections occur on the same day but there are time differences in the United States. Because of current polling practices, we learn about exit polls before all the polls close. Should we not allow the announcement of election results and analyses until all the polls close? Why or why not?

There are several links to the various dialogues and Dialogues Page, including the Directory, Help, the Syllabus, Discussions and Interactive Exercises Map, and the Navigation Bar.

A final comment on visuality and content ~
This course is not a series of scanned-in lectures. The content therefore not only includes the written text but communication of the material also includes the pictures. The principle of this is that we are now on the Web. This is not a lecture or text that you are seeing/hearing. I believe we should use the medium as the medium. Therefore, we will be developing the idea of the Visuals Based Questions throughout the course. Use the pictures to reflect on the broader meaning of the definitions and ideas given.