Great discussion last week. I hope you have a good appreciation for the many definitions of “new” in new media and some of the foundational pieces in digital thinking. Here’s what we have going on this week. We’re not meeting in San Marcos. You just have online assignments. This week we focus on the titans of the tech industry. Let’s consider a little about innovation and leadership.

• Do the readings, watch the videos on the outline for Sept. 11. Answer the blog question: Discuss the personal computer environment, its history and direction. What role did Jobs and Gates play? How do you feel about Mark Zuckerberg in relation to Gates and Jobs? Where is the technology industry going?
• Make sure you pay attention to the instructions for a good blog post. Engage the materials, make connections. Use links, images, embedded video. Blog posts are worth 35% of your grade.
• I forgot to mention it in class, but you should also go on to at least two other students’ blogs and make a comment. Links to the blogs are on the Blogs page of our website. Do your blog posts by 9pm on Wed night, and do your commenting any time on Thursday. You could use class time to read each other’s posts and craft good comments. These should be substantial comments, more than a sentence or two. Engage each other’s posts with thoughts, opinions, additional resources, suggestions.
• I think everyone is set up on the Facebook group. Each of you should post a news item this week, and you all should make a comment on each. One or two sentences are fine for the FB comments, just something more than “awesome” or “lol.” This way, we can have virtual news conversations.
• We’ll have a Hangout on Sept.18, and Jacqueline will prepare the key points. I’ll provide instructions for the Hangout after next week.
• Join LinkedIn. Make sure your Twitter is public. Use Twitter to also post links to your news items. Use #webpub in these tweets. This way, we can share with students in the other sections.
• Get your score on Klout. Make a note, we’ll discuss, and check again at the end of the semester.

That’s it.

Great job getting started last week. We have a wide range of experiences and interests in the group. Here’s what you need to do for tonight.

• Watch the videos and read all the items on the Outline  for Sept. 4.
• Start your WordPress blog. Make sure you get a theme and play with the general settings. You can add any additional pages that you’d like. We will discuss widgets and other features later. Make your first blog post on this topic:For your first post, write some introductory comments, a short paragraph or two about yourself, and then discuss your definition of new or digital media. Which phrase should we use? In regard to the resources we watched in class and your own observations, what is your impression of the pace of digital change? Be sure to engage the reading, make connections, as well as provide your own opinion. Include relevant links, images, embedded video.

  More details on the Blogs page. Email me the link to your blog when you have done the post.

• Do this post by 9pm the night before class.
• Join the FB group and post a news item. We’ll discuss more in class.
• Join Twitter, if you aren’t already on.

We’ll discuss all of this in class on Wed.

Familiarize yourself with the website, the course outline, the course policies, and let me know if you have any questions.

See you in class.

Cindy