Hi Everyone:

Firstly, I'm so sorry about this Monday post being so late! I had trouble traveling back to Michigan (as the result of the midwest storms).

Secondly, I want to give you a bit of explanation about the work for the week (yours and mine). This week you will be reading a bunch of stuff on online dating. The reason behind this week's readings is to think about a topic in the way you'll be thinking about the topics you choose to research. So I've collected a sample of different kinds of text for you to read/view, and I'd like you to think about how these different sources might add to your knowledge about this topic (if, for example, it was one you were interested in studying). You can also think about what kind of "research" project you might want to do -- a movie? A sound essay? A traditional research project (with interviews or a case study)?

My Work

Tonight and tomorrow I will be looking at all the following work you have done so far, including the following:

(1) Discussion Posts
(2) Weekly proof-of-learning report on the blogs
(3) Lab notes

I'll be posting grades (with comments) for all the these for everyone who has done them. Keep in mind that these grades can change from week to week -- they can go up (with hard work) and they can go down (if your work becomes less rigorous).


Your Work

You all have the following jobs:

(1) Your job this week will be to check your grades and ask me any questions you have -- and make sure that your are clear about what you need to do if you want to improve your grades.
(2) Read the article/texts I've posted below and respond in the discussion group.
(3) Use the Project Discussion Board to post your ideas about your projects. (I will be posting a "genre description" about the project tomorrow -- so don't worry too much about this assignment until then!


Readings

For Tuesday: BBC article on online dating scams:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12442415

Pew Internet Study on Online dating
You can find this yourself on the web: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2006/Online-Dating.aspx


For Wednesday:

(1) Print Story from ABC news:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/online-dating-work/story?id=12896317

(2) Homemade documentary on Online dating: http://vimeo.com/1713756


For Thursday:

Scholarly article (I will send as .pdf):
Baker, A. J. (2008). Down the rabbit hole: The role of place in the initiation and development of online relationships. In A. Barak (Ed.), Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications (pp. 163-184). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

For Friday:

Scholarly article (I will send as a .pdf):
Houran, J. & Lange Rense (2004). Expectations of Finding a Soul Mate with Online Dating. North American Journal of Psychology. Vol 6, No. 2, 297-308.