Discussion Post: Week 16

Well, that’s a wrap, everyone! It’s been a great semester working with all of you. I enjoyed watching the skills, experience, and confidence that you gained over the course of the semester, and the broad spectrum of ways in which you enhanced your ability to convey even the most complicated of concepts with clarity and precision.

With that said, let’s kick off this last post with the best news headline of the week: Unicorns exist!

…Yeah.

Discussion Post: Week 15

We’re just about done! We’re through half of Presentation IV, and after that, only the web portfolio remains. What did you think about our first few teams on Thursday? How did the presentations go, and what about the added challenge of question-and-answer sessions? What did you discover as those proposals were being delivered?

Please do not forget to send the URL and the rationale for your web portfolio via Blackboard mail no later than this Thursday. We’ve been working on this all semester, but if it’s late, I won’t even be able to grade it. Don’t let that happen — submit it early, not late.

Alright, since we’re winding down, how about we shake things up a bit this week? Let’s start with some sports news for a change.

College football’s regular season came to an end yesterday, with the Alabama Crimson Tide edging out the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship, 32-28, to win a national title shot against the undefeated Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish boast the second-stingiest defense in college football, with approximately 10.33 points allowed per game. Only Alabama itself allows fewer points per game: 10.31.

Discussion Post: Week 14

We’re on the home stretch now! With Presentation IV right around the corner, how is your group doing with its final refinements? Do you have a convincing proposal ready to be delivered? Remember, stellar projects here really ought to be presented to the groups that can actually enact your plan — there’s no reason for this to remain confined to the classroom, after all, especially if you have a proposal that could do some good.

Don’t forget to submit your third and final self-evaluation at the start of Tuesday’s class, and be sure that your group submits its Presentation IV outline via SafeAssign at least 24 hours before your presentation. You’ll also want to bring a paper copy of the outline and rubric on your presentation day, as always.

Anyway, I know it’s tempting to kick off the week with the obvious local Black Friday headlines, but let’s start with a wider gaze, shall we? You probably recall the Arab Spring that began unfolding around two years ago. It’s not clear, however, if the revolution did the region much good.

Discussion Post: Week 12

The presidential election reached its conclusion late Tuesday night, with incumbent Barack Obama earning a second term in the Oval Office over challenger Mitt Romney. The result thrilled Obama’s supporters, who waited well past midnight to hear their candidate proclaim victory under the night sky in Chicago, reviving the inspirational rhetoric that drove voters in 2008. And it was a night of anguish for the Romney camp, with the team searching for an explanation — after all, if Romney had merely received as many votes as John McCain did in 2008, he would have won the election — and with Republicans astonishingly losing ground in the Senate when they hoped to instead overtake the left-wing majority.

Discussion Post: Week 11

NOTE: You can follow my election night coverage, updated minute-by-minute throughout the evening, on our sister blog, which I continued from a previous semester of COM 315.

It’s about time for Presentation III! How has your presentation been coming along? What have you learned from Presentation II that you’re planning to apply here? And how do you expect the challenge to be different than what we’ve faced in our first two presentations?

Well, America’s fateful day is almost upon us. On Tuesday, citizens across the nation will cast their ballots for the next president of the United States. Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney have been hard at work over the final weekend of campaigning, both sides hoping to swipe as many votes as they can in order to pull out what may be a narrow win in two days.

Discussion Post: Week 10

Now that Presentation II is behind us and you’ve been able to watch your presentation video, what do you think of your performance? Did it go how you expected, or were there some surprises in your presentation? How will you adapt to the challenges of Presentation III, when you’ll have to pitch yourself to your audience? And what about Presentation IV, which will come immediately afterward?

It’s worth a quick reminder that your group should be well on its way to finishing Presentation IV by this point, as there won’t be much time left after Presentation III concludes to play catch-up. Don’t forget to submit your topic for Presentation IV before the November 20 deadline, and also remember to send your Presentation III topic over Blackboard before the start of this Tuesday’s class.

Going into the third and final presidential debate on Monday, most major polls had Barack Obama and Mitt Romney effectively tied, with the difference between them within the margin of error. With the momentum swinging toward Romney, though, some analysts argued that Obama needed to completely dominate the last debate in order to stem the tide. But despite Obama’s best efforts, such dominance was nowhere to be found as the two candidates fought to a draw over foreign policy.

Discussion Post: Week 9

We’re almost done with Presentation II! How has the challenge been compared with Presentation I? Did it seem a little easier since you had more time with which to work, or was it harder to juggle your visual aid along with the more complicated content you strove to deliver? What did you learn from watching others’ presentations, and what lessons will you take from Presentation II as you move forward?

After the second presidential debate, only one thing was clear: it was not a repeat of round one. President Barack Obama took the affair seriously, fighting back against Governor Mitt Romney in a stark contrast with the passiveness he displayed in the first debate. Many analysts and polls suggested that Obama a stole the advantage in round two thanks to a few Romney missteps, of which the most egregious was a mistaken claim about Obama's response to the Benghazi embassy attack. However, the reported win was, at the very least, less clear than Romney’s round one triumph, with Romney making several compelling points and imploring voters not “to settle” for the current economy.

With the narrower win in mind, the Obama camp has to be nervous about Romney’s momentum across the nation. While early vote totals have been quite high, suggesting an advantage for Obama in the November election — in recent years, more Democrats than Republicans have filed absentee ballots — the margin by which he leads those early votes is much smaller than the lead he held in 2008. With even major media outlets that supported Obama four years ago openly shifting toward Romney, the presidency may be within reach for the challenger.

Discussion Post: Week 8

At last, Presentation II is underway! What did you learn from watching our first few presenters on Thursday? Did you pick up any strategies that could work well for your own presentations in the future? Or were there any traps that you hope to avoid in your own work?

After the first presidential debate, almost every media outlet declared Mitt Romney the clear winner. He surged in the polls after his victory, moving past Barack Obama in almost every major national survey taken after the skirmish despite having consistently trailed for almost a year. According to RealClearPolitics’ average of nationwide polls, Obama had not trailed since Oct. 11, 2011, but Romney pulled ahead on Tuesday, showing just how decisively the debate changed voters’ impressions of the race.

Thursday’s vice presidential debate, on the other hand, did not have such a clear winner despite the clear contrast in the running mates’ policies and debating styles. Joe Biden was much more active throughout the debate, taking control of almost the entire first half but doing so by repeatedly interrupting both his opponent and the moderator, while Paul Ryan played a more passive role, but kept a cool, composed demeanor throughout the clash. Biden had a number of strong one-liners prepared to combat the Republicans, from attacking Romney’s now-infamous “47%” line to calling Ryan’s claims “a bunch of malarkey.” Ryan didn’t have nearly as many strong retorts, much of which was due to Biden interjecting and getting the last word on the vast majority of debate topics.

Discussion Post: Week 7

I hope you’re enjoying the long break, everyone! In the meantime, with Presentation II right around the corner, how do you feel going into our second round? What changes, if any, do you intend to make to your approach? How will you handle the challenges of giving your demonstration while keeping your attention on your audience, or distilling complicated technical content in a manner that everyone can understand?

Looking ahead, what web portfolio areas have you identified as key trouble spots that you’ll want to work out on our last lab day this semester? And how is your group progressing on its Presentation IV preparations? Remember that there won’t be a lot of time between our next few presentations, so you probably won’t be able to just, say, wait until after Presentation III ends before devising your last presentation. You’ll likely want to front-load your work when possible, instead.

As always, please remember to submit your Presentation II outline via SafeAssign at least 24 hours before your scheduled presentation, and bring a printed copy of your outline and rubric to class on your presentation day. I would also recommend that before your presentation, you test any visual aid that involves the computer — and don’t save the visual aid on your H:\ drive, since logging in and out of everyone’s accounts to access different H:\ drives will take more time than we have for most of our presentation days. Flash drives, CDs, E-mails, or cloud storage are all better ways to make sure that you have the files you need for your presentation.

Discussion Post: Week 6

Well, after a long week of work on our web portfolios, hopefully yours is off to a good start. How do you feel about the progress you’ve made thus far? What work do you expect to have to tackle outside of class? Do you have any lingering concerns about your portfolio? What areas do you expect to be the most challenging in the future?

What about Presentation II? How has your planning gone thus far? Do you feel like you have a clear direction for this presentation, or are you still figuring out how you want to address your topic? What did you learn from the experience of Presentation I that you hope to apply during this round? For that matter, do you think you can apply any of the advice from the textbook or from your peers to further strengthen your presentation?

On a side note, a few people had questions about the “Purpose of Education” blog post I added a few days ago in terms of how it fits into the class. Just to be clear, I’m not adding additional requirements or anything of that nature, as a few of you asked. Remember that for each week of participation on the course blog, you have an eight-day period in which to post, from one Sunday through the Sunday that follows. The “Side Discussion” post I added is just another medium in which you can post, both to earn credit and to discuss that significant issue.