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This is a dynamic document. Any printed copy may be obsolete. Check the online version regularly.
Weekly Assignments
- Everyone will spend the first week of the course establishing a web page (It's like a Table of Contents page). It must be posted by February 10th. This initial web page will be the portal for all your future chapters .
- After posting the Initial Web page, you must proceed to create Chapter #1 thru #6 over the coursse of the semester. Collaborative Observations is the last requuirement.
- You are required to upload a chapter ( see - What Makes Up a Chapter?) or modified chapter ( 500 to 1000 words and links - cited sources) approximately once every two weeks. See due dates. Of course this is a minimum. You are certainly permitted to move along at a faster pace and change or modify anything you have already done if you are so inclined. The material does become infectious. Everything must be completed by May 16th.
- After posting a chapter you are to go to the roster page and select a name of a course member who has not been reviewed and offer a numeric anonymous review:
- Anonymous Rating - Peer Review
- You will randomly read one Chapter for each round ( selected from the entire class and one not previously reviewed ) - 6 all together. You must not read the same author twice. Send me an e-mail with your name, the Chapter you reviewed and the anonymous rating i.e. Mary Jones - Chapter #1 - rating = 1.
- Here the rating system is from the gut and anonymous to the author of the essay. You read the Chapter and give it a rating from 1-5. That rating, along with the title of the selection, is e-mailed to me. Yes, you lose your anonymity ( I'll know who you are) but I can't think of any other any of doing it. I will post the rating, maintaining your anonymity, to the roster page. The goal here is not to destroy a writer but to allow for an uncensored reality check.
- This review is on a scale of 1- 5.
- Boring and deadly. Snoozville
- Barely managed to stay awake
- Average - Ho - hum. OK, but nothing really comes alive
- A few worthwhile eye-openers
- Exceptional - Wow! Blew my socks off!
As an example of a webfolio, you might want to visit this site to see what some students have done in terms of creating a web site (Webfolio) around the Victorian time period. This is another site of interest for its organization of Cyberspace and Hypertext.
- SLN - Questions/Discussion - This section attempts to mirror or replacate a classroom discussion. You must be responsive on a weekly basis to the questions posted on SLN. These are a series of 7 questions that must be followed in sequence. Each question category requires two responses with one response each week: one initial response - the first week - to the question and one - the second week - to an already posted response. Thus it requires at least two visits for each question, one visit each week. Each question has an open and closing date (see below) . Of course you may go ahead, but you cannot return once the particular question portal is closed; once closed, it will not be re-opened.
- SLN Question Portal - Opening and Closing Dates:
- Question #1 - What has been your sports experience, i.e., Did you once participate in sports or do you now? If so what were the sports you were involved with? How would you rate you sports acumen? Do you watch sports on TV or have you gone to live sporting events ( Professional or amateur)? Can you make any observations about your experiences?
- Question #2 - What role do you think sports plays in American culture?
- Question #3 - Obviously sports have changed over time how do you think sports will evolve from today on?
- Question #4 - Do you think children's participation in sports is beneficial or a detriment to one's development? Provide an explanation for your answer.
- Question #5 - Years ago women's participation in sports werer as watchers or cheerleaders for men's sports. Obviously this has changed considerably. Reflect on that change and assess the benefits and or downsides of that movement.
- Question #6 - Clearly, professional sports have become much more of a business. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this for both the fan and the participants?
- Question #7 - Competition and winning are essential components of our preoccupation with sports. Has our culture bercome so preoccupied with winning that we have lost the fun component of sports?
Chapter #1 is on The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandelbaum, the required text of the course.
Chapters #2, #3 and #4 are to be selected from three separate sports in the Non-Fiction column of the reading list.
Chapter #5 is to be selected from the Fiction column on the reading list.
Chapter #6 is to be selected from the Other column on the reading list.
The last chapter is called Collaborative Observations and will be selected from a list to be provided later .
That's a total of seven (7 ) chapters.
Collaborative Observations
Collaborative Observations is mandatory. This will be completed collaboratively. Each active class member is randomly placed on a team. The content of Collaborative Obserevations is to be determined by the team, but essentially, it should be a summation of your findings over the course of your research. This chapter will be written by the team. How you break up the content and distribute responsibility is determined by each individual team. (See Teams)
Content of Chapters 1 - 6
The goal here is not simply to parrot or summarize what you read. Explore the issues. The subtext of this course is connections. What connections can you make? In life nothing happens independently of anything else. Much of what evolves is interrelated; everything is part of a system. The world, after all, is made up of dynamic systems. I want you to explore different ways to build the capacity to think systematically and to ask the kinds of questions that lead to greater understanding.
Move from being a passive receptacle of what you read to being an active learner. Unleash your curiosity; allow it to wander; seek out observations, solutions and explanations.
Systems thinking is the ability to understand (and sometimes predict) interactions and relationships in complex, dynamic systems: the kinds of systems that surrounded and were embedded in the sport you are studying. Systems thinking enables you to see the big picture, the minute details that make it up and the way parts interact over time. The ocean does not exist in isolation It is part of a larger system. Rainfall, temperature wind and the earth's rotation all affect the ocean.
Analyze and understand the interdependencies among parts of a system, the conditions that create those interdependencies, and the effects of those over time and space.
Trace the cause and effect relationships to see how an event evolved. What are the possible everyday unintended consequences of some discoveries?
Essentially, in each of these chapters, you are to build a network of interrealtionships ( use graphs or maps if you want ) that illustrate what you have learned.
In an attempt to assure that you do not initially fall behind, I have reluctantly incorporated the following into the course requirements:
The initial web page must be posted by (January 29th) at midnight. There are two voluntary workshops: February 1st (11:00 a.m.) at the Eastern Campus and February 2nd (9:30 a.m.) at the Ammerman Campus for those unfamiliar with the process of creating and posting web pages. You must, however, register for one or the other if you plan to attend. Failure to post the initial web page and /or failure to participate in the workshop may result in your being dropped from the course.
Chapter # 1 - The Meaning of Sports (Required Text) by Michael Mandelbaum
see sample review
Due - February 12th.
Due - February 26th
Due - March 19th
Due April 2nd
Due - April 16th
Due - April 30th
Topic Due - April 1st.
Due - May 16th