CRIME & PUNISHMENT
Notices

CHECK HERE FOR IMPORTANT COURSE ANNOUNCEMENTS.  THE LATEST ANNOUNCEMENT WILL ALWAYS BE LISTED FIRST.  READ THE FOLLOWING ANNOUNCEMENTS IN NUMERICAL ORDER (REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, STARTING WITH #1 AT  THE BOTTOM.)

#14:  ELIMINATION OF THE GROUP C ONLINE SEMINAR. If you are in GROUP C and are not yet aware that the GROUP C ONLINE SEMINAR has been eliminated, be sure to read about the reason, the merger with GROUPS A and B, and other instructions in the WEEK 9 DISCUSSION folder in Web Crossing. I want to emphasize that the GROUP C DISCUSSION GROUP (for asynchronous posting of critical comments and responses) has not been eliminated. That continues untouched. If you were in the GROUP C ONLINE SEMINAR, you have the option of joining either the GROUP A or GROUP B ONLINE SEMINAR. If you join the GROUP A ONLINE SEMINAR, you will want to make a slight adjustment to the time that you post your critical comment so that you will be prepared for a Monday evening seminar. Further details are in Web Crossing. (Posted 8/20/07)

 

#13:  EVALUATIONS. Some of you have begun to ask questions about evaluation procedures. There is a link to them in Week 10 of the course website where the topics, debates and reading are listed. You can also access that website here. (Posted 8/20/07)

 

#12:  FINAL ESSAYS. As you are aware, as an incentive for students to do do well on the work throughout the summer session, I promised that I would waive the final essay requirement under certain circumstances. You should have received one of two messages that I sent to students: either a message stating that I granted you the waiver or a message stating that I did not grant you the waiver. If you did not receive the e-mail message, it means that you are not checking your Evergreen e-mail account or you have not set up that account to forward messages to your preferrred e-mail account. Don't forget that Evergreen now uses your Evergreen e-mail address for offcial communication. (Posted 8/20/07)

 

#11:  THE GROUP C LEARNING COMMUNITY HAS A NEW MEMBER! This week, Heidi gave birth to a brand new baby girl, Dixie Nicole! To see this beautiful baby, born beside Heidi's laptop as she tried to access our seminar room even as she was in labor, click here. (Posted 7/27/07)

 

#10:  ANOTHER POSSIBLE FIX FOR STUDENTS STILL UNABLE TO ACCESS THE SEMINAR (CHAT) ROOM. This message is only for the few of you (4-5 students) who are still having technical difficulties that prevent you from accessing the seminar (chat) room properly. There is another possible fix suggested by the Computer Center technicians that you should try. It is possible that you have more than one firewall that you need to disable. One of these likely is the Windows firewall. To disable the Windows firewall, go to your Control Panel. Normally you click on the START button, then click on Settings, then click on Control Panel, then on Security Center, then on Windows Firewall. There you will see a choice of radio buttons to click. Make sure the "Off" button is enabled. Now try to see if you can access the chat room properly. Please try this and only this fix to make sure that you/we can ascertain that this is the problem. If this works, make sure to go back to click on the "On" button after each seminar; you don't want any firewall disabled any longer than necessary. If disabling the Windows firewall doesn't fix the problem, try the other troubleshooting fixes previously suggested, in addition to the above, in the following order:

1) Disable your non-Windows Internet security (such as Norton, etc.).

2) Make sure that your Chat Preferences in Web Crossing are set for Java Chat Applet, not HTML/Java Script Chat (in Web Crossing, click on the Preferences button to get there, then click on Chat Preferences.

3) Make sure that Java is on your computer and that it is enabled. For instructions on enabling Java, see Notice #1, below. It may also be necessary for you to downoad the latest version of Java (www.java.com).

4) Download the Opera browser (www.opera.com). There is a misconception among some of you that you may have only one browser on your computer. Not true. You need not, for example, uninstall or disable Internet Explorer if you download Opera or Firefox or other browser. Just use the browser that works.

By the way, it is clear at this time that the problem lies on the user end (either your computer or your ISP). The problem could be due to any number of things due to a particular combination of platforms, operating systems, software, settings, ISP's, and firewalls. The problem is not with Web Crossing or the Evergreen server. Nonetheless, we we are eager to help you find a fix. (Posted 7/2/07)

 

#9:  TECHNICAL PROBLEMS ACCESSING THE SEMINAR (CHAT) ROOM. Some of you continue to have technical probelms of the nature described in Notice #4 below (seeing the greeting "Welcome to our chat room" instead of "Welcome to the Seminar A or B or C chat area," and not being able to see anyone else present or to post anything). The Computer Center staff is working on finding a solution, since the troubleshooting suggestions in Notice #4 do not resolve everyone's problems. You should be aware that some students have found that the problem is resolved when they use the Opera browser. You should give this a try if you are still having problems (www.opera.com). You should also make sure that you have the latest version of Java (www.java.com). And, of course, once you install Opera, make sure you follow the troubleshooting suggestions below, including disabling your Internet security (firewall). Please let me know if this works for you. Also let me know if it does not.

If you are still having problems accessing the chat room, you should post an extra critical commment and an extra three responses for each topic (i.e., a total of two critical comments and six responses). Hopefully we will get to the bottom of this technical problem soon. In the nine years that I have been using Web Crossing for teaching, this is the first time that I have come upon such a tenacious problem. (Posted 7/1/07)

 

#8:  INDEPENDENCE DAY HOLIDAY. Some of you have asked to what extent I will accommodate Independence Day holiday plans. Because some of you have extended plans on Thursday and Friday after July 4 and accessing the chatroom will be a problem, there will be no synchronous activity (real time online seminar) on Thursday and Friday, July 5 and 6. In lieu of the real time seminar, the double asynchronous posting policy will be in effect. This means that you will need to post two critical comments and six responses (but no suggested seminar topics, of course).  Your group's usual deadline for the critical comments will apply.  However, the deadline for posting your six responses will be Sunday, July 8 at 10 p.m.. Of course, you don't have to wait until then. You may post your six responses anytime from your deadline for the critical comment postings up until 10 p.m. on July 8. (Posted 6/29/07)

 

#7: POLICY REGARDING “ATTENDANCE” AT VIRTUAL SEMINAR.  Participation in the online seminars is mandatory unless you have made other arrangements with me.  Of course, a rare absence due to illness or other unforeseen eventuality is understandable.  On such an occasion when you are unable to participate in seminar, you are required to post two (2) critical comments and six (6) responses to other students’ critical comments.  If the absence is due to illness, you will not be required to post the responses by the deadline, but you should post them as soon as possible.  If the absence is due to a reason other than illness and you have reasonable prior notice of the need to be absent, you must post the critical comments and responses by the deadline.  If you have sufficient notice of such circumstances that are unrelated to illness, it would behoove you to plan your reading and posting well in advance to give you sufficient time to meet the deadline. (Posted 6/29/07)

 

#6:  DISCUSSION/SEMINAR GROUPS ARE POSTED. Determining the discussion/seminar groups while trying as much as possible to satisfy everyone's preferences was an arduous task and took longer than I expected. For reasons of student privacy, I've decided to list the groups only in our password-protected Web Crossing site. Go there to see your group assignment as well as the sequence of activity deadlines (schedule). For your convenience, you can also see the schedule in the syllabus. You can get quicky to the schedule section by clicking on the "Schedule" button on the course home page. (Posted 6/27/07)

 

#5:  DID YOU GET MY E-MAIL MESSAGE? On Friday, June 22, I sent an e-mail message to students enrolled in this course. Attached to the message were an important letter and a questionnaire. If you didn't get the message, click on the "letter" and "questionnaire" links in the previous sentence to access the attachments. Just as importantly, find out if there is something wrong with your e-mail. A couple of messages bounced because mailboxes were full, and another two or three bounced because the e-mail address is wrong. Because this is an online class, e-mail is an essential communications tool. Make sure your e-mail in the Gateway (Banner) online course registration system is correct. (Posted 6/22/07)

 

#4:  ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS YOU MAY ENCOUNTER AS YOU TRY TO ENTER THE CHAT ROOM.  If upon entering the chat room everything looks normal (see annoucement #3) except that you don't see your name listed in the right hand bar and you are unable to post anything and you see the words "Welcome to our chat room" [instead of "Welcome to the Seminar A (or B or C) chat area"] at the top, you are only partly in.  If this is the case, the problem is one of two things:

1) You entered the chatroom okay but then left (or got kicked out).  Then, when you re-entered, you clicked on the forward arrow instead of the seminar room link.  Don't do that.  To enter the chat room, always click on the Seminar A or Seminar B or Seminar C link (the one with the dialogue balloon like the one you see in comics).

2) Your firewall settings are too high.  If you still have the problem when you lower the firewall setting, turn off the firewall during your seminar.  How do you do this?  Usually you right-click on the icon of the anti-virus software you have.  That should give you an option for adjusting or disabling the firewall (anti-virus) settings.

For example, on my personal laptop I have Norton Internet Security.  I click on the icon in the task bar at the bottom right-hand corner of my screen (not the icon on my desktop).  Some of you may have that task bar at the top or on one of the sides of the screen.  When I click, I see an option that says "Disable Norton Internet Security".  I click on that option, which then allows me to set the amount of time I want the Norton Internet Security turned off.  I choose 4 hours because the next lowest option is 1 hour.  Then, when I am done with the seminar, I will return and click on "Enable Norton Internet Security" because I don't want it disabled any longer than necessary. Please do not disable your firewall for less than two hours. If you do, your access to the chatroom will be lost when your firewall is re-enabled automatically. That is disruptive for others and an unnecessary waste of time for you.

Another reminder: If you are using a dial-up modem and have the call waiting feature on your telephone, remember to disable it during the seminar.  Otherwise, you will be kicked out of the chatroom everytime someone calls you.  Instructions from the phone book on how to to cancel call waiting per call: "Before making your call, dial *70 on your Touchtone phone.  You will hear three short tones followed by a dial tone.  Place your call to connect via your modem.  Call waiting is automatically restored when you hang up after your chat room session." (Posted 6/21/07)


 #3: TELLING THE RIGHT CHAT ROOM FORMAT FROM THE WRONG ONE. In Web-X, there is a "wrong" chat room format and a "right" one for our live online seminars.  To see how you can tell the right one from the wrong one and what to do if the wrong one loads on your computer , click here and see Announcement #1, below. (Posted 6/21/07)

 

#2: ADVICE.  I have written some advice about how to approach this course.  To read it, click here .  (Posted 6/21/07)

 

#1: ORIENTATION TO THIS COURSE.  As stated in the Evergreen Summer Times, we will have an in-person meeting from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 26, in General Computing Classroom #1 (GCC1), located on the 2nd floor of the  Library Building.  At the meeting on June 26, you will receive an introduction to this online course, including a hands-on orientation to the software we will be using.  That software, Web-X,  resides on the Evergreen server.   You do not download it onto your computer. You may access Web-X from anywhere that you can connect to the internet. After you have registered for this course, you should accomplish two tasks:

 

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