To receive some specifications for how I'd like you to record your progress throughout the semester.

Journal

Education includes activities that promote learning and obtaining knowledge, and is a gradual process of acquiring knowledge. Especially when studying wthin a discipline, we don't just set out to do us some learnin' and then arrive at a conclusion and stop. Education is a never-ending process. We can never learn everything, and there is always something more to learn.

We are here in an environment that presents us with 16 weeks to undergo an exploration of a set of topics. Each of us will be participating in this activity, with the intended goal of coming out of the adventure with new experiences and knowledge that we've added to our mental reperatoires.

As such, it is important that we ensure we take some time to focus on the process, look at the progress (or resistance) we face, contemplate options and variations, and evaluate the status of our activities. For the duration of this course, at an adequate frequency to record your activities and related analysis, I would like for you to maintain a journal of your pursuits.

The journal will take the form of a web page under your Lab46 web space, and be updated on at least a weekly basis. It should incorporate the following specifications:

• Located under ~/public_html/spring2009/journal/,
• In that location, have an index.php file,
• Reference http://lab46.corning-cc.edu/haas/journal.html for information on how to establish your journal,
• that file will present the viewer with your journal (a centralized page containing all your entries),
• your index.php file will use PHP include statements to incorporate your journal entries (in units of weeks),
• your weekly journal file should take the name week1.php for the first week, week 2 entries in week2.php, etc. etc. in the same directory as your index.php file,
• As it is a journal, include some form of date-stamping,
• Incorporate entry titles, and use anchor tags to allow per-entry navigation from a table of contents,
• Aim for convenience and accessibility of information,
• Make sure that all journal-related files are set to permissions 644 (chmod 644 journalfile(s)),
• Record your activities in this journal- comments, problems experienced, ideas, notes to yourself, useful pointers to save work in the future, general status, etc.,
• Each week needs to include new content of at least 250 words (be sure to include a measured word count for each entry),
• Content should be appropriate for the audience reading the page (you, me, other classmembers; but also be aware entries can potentially be read by random visitors from the internet),
• Occasionally send me URLs to entries you feel are particularly thought-provoking or engaging (even if it involves unsolved problems).

At random intervals throughout the semester I will be checking your journals, and regardless of when I check them, I want to see up-to-date activity up through the week prior (assume a week starts on a Monday- so if I check that following Tuesday, I would expect to see AT LEAST one entry per week from the start of the semester up through the previous Monday-Sunday period).

Some suggestions and other things to keep in mind:

• Don't wait until the end of the week to make an entry. Try to make entries as you go along.
• Especially if you haven't solved a problem: expound on the problem; things you have tried, lament about it not working, postulate on why that may be.
• Pose yourself questions that, at that moment, still need answers pertaining to the work you are doing. Feel free to answer them in later entries.
• Even if it seems trivial, if you looked something up, record a URL or quickly jot down a summary of information you obtained.
• Adequately document work that you have done. Explain how things work, provide instructions for how to accomplish some task. Try to keep the intended audience in mind.
• I don't care about proper english essays. Run-on sentences and fragments are welcome. So is humor. Make sure it is readable though.
• Make sure you know that I know that you know that I've read over your journal, seeking occasional clarification or acknowledgement of lingering questions/problems.

If you do that, you may find that content comes more easily, and the overall specifications start happening naturally.

If you need additional "entry starters", take a look at the Course Objectives on the syllabus, and comment on how you've made some progress against a particular one, or what you could do to better associate with any of them, or anything that touches upon them.

Your journal will play a significant role in this course. I want it to be a reflection of the work you'll be doing during the semester.