The Class Email Discussion List
The class discussion list is a place to discuss the readings and ideas from the course. It will be graded, and it is an important place for you to really think about the material. You are required to post at least once about the assigned readings for every class (beginning Jan. 23) by the midnight before that class. You can skip up to eight postings without penalty. Postings can be a comment, a question, or a response to someone else's posting.
How to first sign on to the list: Before posting for the first time, you must sign on to the list. (If you join the class after the first week, it is your responsibility to make up your postings to the list.) If you have technical problems with the list, contact me or computer tech support immediately; I'll be happy to help you as soon as I can. Technical problems are not an excuse for missed or late postings. PLEASE do not come to me in the sixth week of classes and say you haven't posted because it didn't work.
The way you register is this: I will sign up all students that are on the roster. (If you sign up for the class after the first day, please remind me to put you on the list. You still have to set a password, however. So, using any computer on campus with a browser to go to http://list.uvm.edu/archives/soc250.html, and you will see something like this:
Click on the "archives" for the
current month
(circled in red above). You will see a list of recent postings. Click
on the underlined subject of one of the postings to read it, and then
click on the "reply" button, which looks like this: 
. If you
haven't registered a password yet, you should see a screen something
like this:
The first time you do this, click on the link that says "get a new LISTSERV password first (marked with a red arrow above). Then carefully follow all the instructions. When it asks you for your email address, be sure to use your formal or "alias" UVM email address (e.g., thomas.streeter@uvm.edu -- not tstreete@zoo.uvm.edu). Next it asks for a password; select any that you can be sure to remember. Next the listserver will email you a link, and go to your email program, open the email, and click on the link; this basically lets the listserv know that you are really you, so that you will be fully registered. You can then go back to the class list, select the most recent month's "archive" and read the postings, and then post your own. (When you do post, check your own postings on the list via the web to make sure what you wrote actually gets posted.)
How to Post: Read the latest postings, and then sign on (using your regular "zoo" email name and password) and post your own message or two. Always double-check the website to make sure your posting was recorded. (It's generally a good idea to compose your messages in a text-editor or word processor and save them to a disk before pasting them into the web email form.)
When
posting, DO NOT START A
NEW SUBJECT LINE (unless you are the first in your group
to post on a given reading), USE
THE REPLY BUTTON (not the
compose button) so that
multiple threads on the same topic do not get started.
The idea is that you will continue the conversation, with each other and with me, as your interests dictate. Use the discussion lists to help sharpen your understandings by interacting with the other students. So do not be afraid to post questions, reactions, disagreements, thoughts. Make it fun and enlightening.
Your postings will be graded as a whole. The postings generally should focus on the readings. Sometimes a specific reading may be assigned for discussion on the list. Your messages do not have to be perfectly written; some typing mistakes and the like are OK. Your comments can be a question about something you don't understand, a comment about something you agree or disagree with, or perhaps a clarification or reflection. They should be at least three or four sentences long. It's good if they respond directly to another student's posting, though they don't have to. In general, you should quote directly from the reading (or readings) you are discussing. Personal experience is sometimes useful, but make sure that you explain why it's relevant to the reading or issue under discussion. Avoid simply stating likes and dislikes about things without any connection to the readings.
Examples: Here's an example of a pretty good posting (in response to the question, "Is Mobile Privatization Good or Bad?"). Note that it quotes the reading, and makes a thoughtful, original point involving the theory:
Mobile
privatization
has its positives and negatives like anything else but I
believe that it has allowed society to grow and become
more
flexible.
For example, the article states, "For mobility was only in part the
impulse
of an independent curiosity: the wish to go out and see new places. It
was
essentially an impulse formed in the breakdown and dissolution of older
and
smaller kinds of settlement and productive labour. The new and larger
settlements
and industrial organizations required major internal mobility, at a
primary
level, and this was joined by secondary consequences in the dispersal
of
extended families and in the needs of new kinds of social
organization."
I think this type of mobile privatization is good for a society to grow
and
become more adaptable. It might have seemed hard at first, for my
parents
generation, but the more familar you become with it teh easier it is
and
it becomes more of a way of life.
Here's an example of a mediocre posting. Note that it does not quote the reading and it does not make a very original or insightful point:
I think that today mobile privitization has both pros and cons. Today it is so easy to communicate with friends and family over the internet, through email and also through instant messenger. This also saves alot of money, compared to having to talk on the phone for long hours to people who are far away. Email is a great source of communication. On the other hand, you can say that people spend their whole days on the computer, isolating themsleves behind a computer screen.