This is my first ever compulsory blog post. I am taking a 'psychology of the internet' class at college that compels us to write a blog post about something Internet related each week.
The class policy is such that if you say anything offensive or untoward you automatically fail the class without warning or chance for appeal. This is a bit upsetting since the way things work, if I fail the class and drop below 12 credits (a full-time student) I am no longer covered by my family's health insurance. So if I, say, link to that JWZ post about sex or the Wikipedia article about DeCSS then potentially I don't have healthcare anymore.
For historical comparison, last semester at Cornell there were two classes with about 50-75 students total who were forced into compulsory blogging. This semester it is somewhere between 300-500. So this seems to be a trend that is taking off. Now instead of people writing about their cats out of love, they'll write about their cats out of fear :-)
But anyway, this is the reason why the post contains a slight non-sequitur toward the end. I ran up against the hard word limit and there was really no way around it. If I were blogging for myself then I would have simply finished up the post the next day. As it were, it was 3am so I really had no choice but to post. Hopefully it kind of makes sense though. heh.
> The class policy is such that if you say anything offensive or untoward you automatically fail the class without warning or chance for appeal. [...] if I, say, link to that JWZ post about sex or the Wikipedia article about DeCSS then potentially I don't have healthcare anymore.
Make sure you remember to sing the praises of the Professor and salute Great Leader Chairman Mao at least once per blog post! Actually, hmm, this would be a great way to poke fun at their policy. Don't say anything actually untoward, but I would just praise the infinite wisdom of the school, the class and the professor in a ridiculous over-the-top manner in your posts. Maybe even a throw in a straight-faced comparison to the wondrous insights of Chairman Mao at a place where it almost looks like it makes sense.
I haven't heard of compulsory blogging before. The link to your class page is kind of funny because there's so many "Hi!" and "First assignment" posts. It's an interesting alternative to normal essays because usually no one reads the assignment besides the TA. Now everyone can read your homework. Thanks for the context.
The class policy is such that if you say anything offensive or untoward you automatically fail the class without warning or chance for appeal. This is a bit upsetting since the way things work, if I fail the class and drop below 12 credits (a full-time student) I am no longer covered by my family's health insurance. So if I, say, link to that JWZ post about sex or the Wikipedia article about DeCSS then potentially I don't have healthcare anymore.
For historical comparison, last semester at Cornell there were two classes with about 50-75 students total who were forced into compulsory blogging. This semester it is somewhere between 300-500. So this seems to be a trend that is taking off. Now instead of people writing about their cats out of love, they'll write about their cats out of fear :-)
But anyway, this is the reason why the post contains a slight non-sequitur toward the end. I ran up against the hard word limit and there was really no way around it. If I were blogging for myself then I would have simply finished up the post the next day. As it were, it was 3am so I really had no choice but to post. Hopefully it kind of makes sense though. heh.
For reference, you can see what everyone else wrote here: http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/