HyperNews Is Good News
Values in Religion and Culture--Fall 2004
HyperNews provides a bulletin-board forum in which participants can have a tag-team dialogue on important issues. Click one of the following links and you can begin the interaction. Add your message. Post your comments. Unleash your wit. Simply enter your email address, name, and title for your message, scroll down and enter your message, preview, post, and, voila, you are in the public eye). It is a good idea to write your message first in a word-processing format, copy, and then paste it into the HyperNews forum message box. That way you will have a backup copy in case something happens to your message between the preview and posting steps. Just try it. It is much easier than it sounds.
Make sure you read the directions well. At any rate, welcome aboard. We are off on an important and exciting journey together.
Shall we begin?
Week Two
Welcome to the second week of our course. This week we will have two HyperNews forums, one of which involves some reading, and a second which requires a thought field trip. You have a week and one day (I am not going to require you to work on Labor Day). Here we go!
Weeks Four and Five
Welcome to the fourth week of our course. This week we will have two HyperNews forums, one of which involves some reading, and a second which requires some pondering. Has everyone recovered from the horrible ordeal I put you through? Not yet, not quite? Oh well, buck up and get ready for more adventures in HyperSpace. We now need to start some reading. Be sure to read all your fellow classmates' postings, and, if you so incline, respond where you feel moved to do so. We will be proceeding to the first section in Religion and Popular Culture in America, and read the first chapter of The Sacred Quest. By the way, I have been very impressed by the postings so far!
Week Six
Catch Up! Respond to this posting by October 3.
Weeks Seven, Eight, and Nine Congratulations to all of you who endured and profited from our exercises so far. Those of you lagging behind: Catch Up! The good news is that I will not put you through anything so torturous as the "Methods and Madness" exercise for at least a couple of weeks. The bad news is...hey, there is no bad news. We are now continuing through our leisurely perusal and consideration of Religion and Popular Culture. In the next three weeks we will be finishing the last two sections of Religion and Popular Culture as well as The Sacred Quest and, of course, posting your comments.
Hey! Ha lloween is just around the corner...hmm...
Weeks Ten and ElevenThe only thing you really have to do for this course around Halloween is to watch a "Scary" film which is explained in the HyperNews Forum and then proceed to a more in-depth study of World Religions. So, in the next couple of weeks I want to direct your attention to a website with some supplemental information on World Religions (see the HyperNews Forum). In the meantime, enjoy a "Scary" film (if you can) and have a great Halloween. (You might want to get a headstart on reading Bluejean Buddha.)
The Countdown to the EndIt is time to start thinking about getting your research papers to me. In the meantime, however, read Blue Jean Buddha : Voices of Young Buddhists, view the film "Little Buddha," and then respond to the following HyperNews forums:
1.Finish up HyperNews postings (the motto is: better late than never).
2. Write a cool research paper. The Research Papers will be due Monday Dec. 13th (giving you an extra weekend past finals week in order to give you time to perfect them). Email them as attached files in MS Word (or make other arrangements to get them to me).
3. I have posted the final and you will have till midnight Friday, December 10th to post it. (The final is absolutely nothing to worry about: It will simply involve a couple of questions about what you learned and enjoyed in the class, and will include a self-evaluation concerning what grade you deserve ).
4. I will most likely turn in grades Wednesday afternoon December 15, which should serve as the absolute deadline for any extenuating circumstances (such as the dog eating your floppy disk), so any issues must be fully resolved by then. Good luck. Email me if you have any questions.