[efh] Project presentations, and other stuff

[Allucquére Rosanne Stone]

Folks,

I want to review the responsibilities you agreed to when you signed 
on to the Extreme Freestyle Hacking class.

ACTLab students work with a good deal of freedom in return for a 
promise to fulfill certain responsibilities.  Something I've 
particularly emphasized is the importance of attending presentations, 
because you are not only presenters, but also the audience for those 
presentations and the source of feedback and encouragement for your 
fellow presenters.  At Tuesday's presentations I was delighted that 
most people in the class understood that commitment.  Not too many 
had projects ready, but they were still willing to show up and offer 
support and suggestions to those that did.  That means a lot to me.

But too many people seemed to be unable to meet their minimum 
commitment to simply show up.  That's unfair to your classmates and 
to me and Joe.  And with a very few exceptions, no one cared enough 
to provide us with an explanation.  I found that disappointing.  So 
we need to restructure the course to take this problem into 
consideration.

Effective immediately, the people who failed to attend Tuesday's 
class will be subject to course requirements reflecting the fact that 
they are unable or unwilling to carry out the contract implied in 
Syllabus Version 1.0.  For that group, failure to attend next 
Tuesday's class will result in an immediate grade of F for the 
course.  The people who were absent without excuse this Tuesday will 
be assigned specific additional readings.  The reading list will be 
provided in hardcopy next week, posted on the class list, and 
incorporated into Version 1.1 of the Syllabus, which will be 
distributed no later than April 10.  The readings will approximate in 
difficulty and length those you would receive in a normal RTF studies 
class.  Students in that group will be responsible for acquiring the 
assigned texts.  On Tuesday, May 1, they will take a written test 
based on those readings.  The test will require approximately two 
hours to complete and will consist of multiple-choice questions, 
short-answer questions, and long-form essay questions.  For this 
group the total grade for the course will be based on the grade on 
this test (25% of the final grade, replacing the 25% for attendance 
and discussion), plus grades on the three projects, the grade on 
Project Two being deprecated to reflect unexcused absence on a 
project presentation day.

If you are unsure whether you are in the group defined above, you may 
contact me or Joe for clarification.  Some of those in the group may 
elect to drop the course.  We'll be sorry to see you go, but by 
deciding not to participate you weren't in the course anyway.  I hope 
to see everyone else at next week's presentations, and I'm looking 
forward to more lively discussions.

Best wishes,
Sandy