Blog Assignments.
Blog Assignments
You will have four blogging assignments requiring you to find online articles about social and ethical topics touching the lives of computer users in ways that are often not black and white. In addition to the blog, we will discuss these issues in class and some will appear on your exams. Submit your blogs on time, as late blogs cannot be submitted (Blackboard will keep you from posting once the deadline has passed).
To blog, log into your Blackboard account, enter into your course, click the blogs link, and click on the topic on which you would like to blog. For each topic you will need to:
1 – Find 1 article on each topic. Wikipedia, Webopedia, abstracts, and general websites are not allowed. The article must include an author and a date. Feel free to use the Google news search engine to locate your articles. I provided a link to the search engine in the External Links section of Blackboard. Articles must be published within the past 12 months and include the name of the author.
2 – Your blog title in Blackboard must be:
“Blog Topic – Your Name” – Of course, you should remove the quotes, put in the actual topic and add your real name.
3 – To start your blog, type in the name of the article. Only 2 students per article, so make sure you do not blog about an article that was already taken by 2 classmates. Use search within the blog to make sure it was not taken. An article is taken once a student types in the article title and saves the blog. The student can finish the blog later, but typing and saving the article title is all you need to save that article for yourself.
Skip a couple of lines and summarize each article with a minimum of 3 paragraphs (1- introduction to and background of the topic, 2 – complete overview of the article you chose, and 3 – your conclusion). The conclusion paragraph must wrap up the blog and include your views on the article/topic. You will use the Blackboard blogging tool to post your blogs. Information on how to use the blogging tool can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/ys8fhe
4 – After your minimum 3 paragraphs, you will cite your source using proper APA format. Use http://www.citationmachine.net to make your life easier. APA citation will include the URL (but do not hyperlink the URL – for the hyperlink, go to step 5)
5 – Under your APA citation, you will set up a working hyperlink to the online article (separate from the citation). The text for the link must read “link to online article”. You will highlight those words and create the link so that your instructor and classmates can view your article.
Topic 1: Digital Divide – due by 7:15 AM on September 14, 2016
Point values – Each blog is worth 10 points: .50 point for the blog title and article title, 1 point for the APA citation, .50 point for the working hyperlink, 2 points for intro paragraph, 3 points for the explanation paragraph, and 3 points for the conclusion. See the next page for an example and grade explanation.
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Digital Piracy- Student Name
Print Books Are Target of Pirates on the Web
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Digital Piracy is a growing problem word wide. It is the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials. Specifically, digital piracy is the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials using digital technologies, such as the internet. The unethical issue here is that the media providers are not paying for the rights to use or distribute the materials. Many young adults are guilty of using programs and web sites such as Limewire and Napster to illegally download music, movies and games. However, a new trend has led to increased piracy of books.
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According to the article, authors have different views surrounding the topic. Since the pirates do not have permission to post books online, they are not likely to tell the authors whose works they are stealing. Since authors do not know where or whether their work is being reproduced illegally, some have hired full time workers to track down and remove these copies. Most sites claim ignorance and take down the copyrighted material immediately, but authors still ask the question, why do it in the first place? The sites know that they do not have permission to reproduce many of the titles, and yet, they publish them anyway, and hope not to get caught. Other authors see this as an opportunity to raise awareness about their publications. But mostly, authors have no objection to their books being available online. They just want to be paid for it.
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I, like many others, have downloaded media from the internet and made copies of CDs to save money. I also realize that by doing so, I am cheating a musician, a record company, and a retailer. I have not downloaded any books for free, but the same concept applies. By taking advantage of an authors’ work for free, the author, publisher, and intermediaries are losing money that they should have received on sales. I know these things, and I know it is wrong. But it is impossible to police all digital pirates. It would be much simpler, in my opinion, to sell limited distribution rights to the pirating sites.
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Rich, M. (2009, May 11). Print books are target of pirates on the web. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12digital.html
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