Archive for the ‘housekeeping’ tag
Open Thread
If you are interested, make sure you register in the Zombies vs Robots course!
Also, make sure you read Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” in the course packet for Thursday.
I am very close to being finished with the grading. I’ll update the thread when I am finished.
UPDATE: Info on the Zombie vs Robot course below!
UPDATE 2: Info below for checking your comments!
UPDATE 3: I have finished grading up through comment #182. I wont grade again until Tuesday’s R&L thread, so check your email and make sure I am up to date.
Open Thread
Some announcements:
1) Just to be clear: No R&L Thread for last week. Normally, if you have a post due online, there will not be an R&L thread for that week. This may change, so check the website frequently.
2) There will be a screening this week of Waking Life, on Thursday at 6 pm in the Main Lobby again.
3) Again, read Meditations 3-6. I will go over them rather briefly. Concentrate on his proofs that God exists in Med. 3 and 5, the stuff about clear and distinct ideas and causation in Med. 3, and the way Descartes recovers the external world.
Open Thread
Here’s this week’s open thread. Some quick announcements:
1) I set up the avatar system, so you should be able to upload images so we can recognize who you are. For some brief instructions, go here. I left out a rating system, but I trust you guys to stay reasonably appropriate.
2) We will be discussing Meditation 2 on Thursday, but you probably also want to read Meditation 3 to stay on top of the literature. My current schedule has us discussing Med. 2 on Thursday, and Med. 3-6 on Tuesday of next week, with hopefully enough room left over to have a small informal debate next Thursday. We won’t be going over the rest of the Meditations in as much detail, but I’ll be drawing from the rest of the text, so it might be a good idea to read ahead as much as possible. It is heavy reading, but it goes quickly. Pay particular attention to the proofs of God’s existence given in Med. 3 and 5.
3) Again, post 1 is due this Thursday at 11:59pm. Also, to clear up any confusion, you have a weekly R&L thread due every Tuesday morning before class on the material from the previous week.
4) Finally, I am about to start updating WordPress, so things might be a bit funky for a bit. Hang in there, the system will be back up shortly. When I am done I’ll start in on the grading. I’ll update the thread when I am done.
UPDATE: see comments below
Open Thread
Use this thread to talk about whatever you’d like. Hopefully this open thread will keep other threads (especially the R&L threads) more or less on topic.
A few other issues:
1) I apologize for lecturing all day today. I had planned on doing some group work with the Aristotle reading, and I just got overzealous talking about the Plato stuff. We will start with Aristotle on Thursday, so make sure you are prepared to talk about Aristotle.
2) We are also starting Descartes on Thursday, so read Meditation One.
3) We will be screening David Attenborough’s documentary on the Bowerbirds on Thursday evening from 6:30-8:30. It shouldn’t take the full two hours. I will be bringing drinks and snacks. The screening will take place in the main lobby on the first floor of Allen Hall.
4) Your first full post is due a week from this Thursday, so you should be thinking about what you might want to talk about. Believe it or not, we have covered a LOT of material already. Once we get knee deep in Descartes, I’m sure something will strike your fancy.
5) I’m grading your online work starting… now.
UPDATE: I am now finished grading up through comment#48, which covers everything in the R&L thread. If you didn’t get a grade for something and think you deserve one, send me an email and we’ll talk about it.
housekeeping
Make sure you buy the course packet from Notes and Quotes!
Read the Aristotle article. This will be the main reading for lecture. I reserve the right to quiz you on the reading randomly.
You might also want to take a look at the Nature article on Wikipedia in the course packet. This is not required, but I might discuss this if we have time.
Welcome Unit One
This is your course website. Please spend some time getting familiar with it, because you will be using it a lot during the semester.
I have set up some tutorials to help you get started. The links to the tutorials are on the sidebar to the right, or you can go here:
Please use your full name (NOT your NetID) as your username!
Remember, each student is responsible for making at least 4 posts and at least 40 comments over the course of the semester, so the sooner you learn how to do it, the better. The 4 posts/40 comments is the minimum requirement; however, you are encouraged to engage in more detailed debates and discussions on this board about any issue pertaining to the course material. If some topic interests you, write about it! Its an easy way to get a good participation grade, and you might just earn some extra credit.
If you have any questions, leave me a comment on this post or send me an email: djestrada@gmail.com