I got a question by mail this afternoon. A student who had been to last week's lecture and had read the text (I'm not sure if this refers to the assignment, the course readings or both) still did not understand exactly what was expected when it came to the assignment.
I have two problems with this question:
1) I'm not sure what is unclear about the instructions. I think, or at least hoped that I had managed to explain adequately what was expected in the assignment text. It's difficult for me to know if also other students have had the same problem as noone else has asked this question and I'm thus not sure exactly what is unclear about the task. Still, I made an attempt to explain again/in another way:
What I'm looking for in the assignment is the connection between "technical characteristics" of networks (lecture 3) and "social effects" of those technical characteristics. I think both Benkler and Shirky do a good job of making that connection, thereby giving concrete examples of how it's done. One example is Shirky's text where he explains the mathematical function/characteristics of power laws and then shows how these can explain why some blogs have an audience that is 100 times larger than other blogs despite not being 100 times "better", or perhaps not neccessarily being better at all in terms of quality content.
So my first question is if other students think the assignment was unclear and if so, in what way? Please answer by commenting to this blog post.
2). There are at least 58 students taking this course (more if someone is still not allocated to a seminar group). And 58 pair of eyes see more/better than one (mine). So, if you have a question like this, the place to pose it is right here, in this blog. You can choose to leave a comment to the "seminar 3 assignment" blog post (from Nov 12) or just grab the last blog text (posted earlier today) - or why not in both places - and see what happens. By posting your question in public, you invite other students to become peers in a process of social production of information and knowledge.
Perhaps someone else will explain it to you - problem solved! Or perhaps someone else will confess to having the same problem. If several persons have the same problem and start to discuss it, it will be easier for me to remedy the problem and give additional, better instructions that can be of use for all students, not just the one student who posed the question when I go online and see the discussion.
That's how you should use this blog! All questions that might be of public interest should be posted here - not sent to me by e-mail. Sending private mail to me is sooo 20th century - a perfect example the industrial information economy with me as an information processor bottleneck. Posting the question to this blog is the 21st century habits we all should strive to acquire - everyone can see it and everyone can chip in and comment/answer it!
I mentioned this at the first lecture but it is a message well worth repeating here! Hopefully we can learn about social media also by doing social media here...
I think the question is difficult to interpret and require much greater effort than the time given to accomplish it. Will I get a lower grade now?
SvaraRadera"I think the question is difficult to interpret"
SvaraRaderaWell, the question was not meant to have to be "interpreted" - only answered. My question is if other students also had problems understanding the question and had to "interpret" it. It would also be relevant to then know if you attended lecture 3. My guess would be that it was easier to understand the question if you were, and that the the question needed more "interpretation" (for example by talking to classmates who were there) if you weren't.
"require much greater effort than the time given to accomplish it"
You should regard the assignment as a question on the exam that you have the possibility to do in advance. You can actually skip doing a specific assignment - that would equal to not answering a question on the exam.
In my opinion, beyond reading the texts (which you should do anyway), it "should" not take several days to write these text. And reading and writing them can ideally be seen as an "investment" - less preparation to do later, for the exam.
The pace of the course is half-time (50%). I will as lecturer not have a bad conscience about burdening you with too much work as long as I don't work you harder than 20 hours/week. You have lectures/seminars for 4 hours/week. You have 16 hours/week to read the texts and write the assignment. Does it take more time than than? I personally don't think that you should spend more than perhaps half a day or an absolute maximum of one day (e.g. 4-8 hours) on writing the assignment. Do you (plural - not directed only at alexz)?
"Will I get a lower grade now?"
Don't be silly. You don't get a lower grade for posing a question at a lecture or a seminar either. Admitting you don't know everything is the first step towards learning.
Its true that the writing doesn't take more than half a day, (4-8 hours). However, the reading and thinking take up 3 days, or more!
SvaraRaderaIt would save time if we get the assignment earlier, since it will be possible to mark useful sequences when reading. Otherwise, it will take time to relocate them.
SvaraRadera