Online-Only Class: The Shortest Lecture You'll Ever Attend

Class,

Welcome. I am about to invite you to the shortest class that you'll probably ever attend. I have been working to produce an interesting interactive experience, or at least an unconventional one based heavily in Web 2.0 tools. I've encountered a few challenges that have been educational for me and I'll discuss those with you in class.

I'll begin by mentioning that I produced about 45 minutes of video content to deliver to you as an online lecture. Doesn't sound short, does it?

In fact, though, it will be very short, because I'm going to deliver less than ten minutes of this information due to encoding limits. I'd like to propose that you download the original 700MB file, but I'm really not so cruel.

LECTURE

So, I'm going to ask you to watch two short videos that were reduced to very low quality to facilitate speedy upload.



The first short upload.



The second short upload.

Once you've watched these videos, I'd like you to register your attendance at class by adding a comment to this blog post. Please include your first name in the comment, so that I know you've been here, and also include the link to your blog (the link that you should have emailed to me by now).

CLASS EXERCISE

The next thing that I'd like you to do is watch the following tutorial video. It contains instructions for how to create a spreadsheet that you'll use to keep track of your list of terminology. Essentially, you are taking the first steps toward building a small relational database. The very first steps. Don't worry, it's not so bad.




NEWS ITEMS

Finally, I'd like you to read the following two news articles about the New York Times website. After reading them, I'd like you to give them some thought and make some short comments about them -- by phone. Yes, I'd like you to call a phone number that I'll be sending you by email and follow the instructions it gives you to leave a short voicemail message.

Times 'Updates' Make Clark Hoyt Want to URL

At Times 'Hack Day,' Geeks Are Invited to Make a Newspaper Work on the Web

In the message, please start by stating your name, then leave a short comment -- no longer than two minutes -- offering a brief response about the articles, or asking any questions that come to mind after reading them. I know this is wide open and unusual, but part of the point is to create some multimedia content.

YOU'RE DONE

Now, just as after a normal class, all you have to do is wait for your homework assignment to come on Friday. If you want to get a jump on other work, know that I will expect you to collect five new words for your terminology list, as well as to add one new article to your blog.

Class dismissed!