Subject:  Week Five Discussion Assignment -- Please read in detail

Greetings!  This week, you were asked to read three reports from the Pew Internet Project (PIP) that deal with how Americans are accessing the Internet:  Why We Don't Know Enough About Broadband in the U.S., Why It Will Be Hard to Close the Broadband Divide, and Home Broadband Adoption 2007.

Your assignment for the "student-led discussion" this week is to moderate your own threaded discussion on a topic covered in one of the Pew reports.  Select a topic, pose your question related to this topic by Wednesday evening, and then moderate the ensuing discussion.  In moderating your own discussion, I assume that you will respond to most, if not all, students who post a meaningful message in your threaded discussion.

Remember, writing a good discussion question requires careful thought!

Always remember the Two Cardinal Rules that apply to our online discussions.

Also remember that you should participate in at least 3 other "student-led discussions" every week.  In your responses, you should try to bring in data from the Pew Internet Reports, in addition to your own personal experiences.  Remember that the best responses will promote additional discussion.

What would be a good question for this week?  The basic topic this week is broadband, which is the term applied to high-speed data transmission, such as cable and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), providing faster connections to the Internet than traditional dial-up services.  Here are a couple of sample questions that would lead to some good discussions:

• Do you have broadband in your home?  If you do, what type of service do you have?  What is your bandwidth (see link in syllabus)?  Do you find your connection to be adequate or lacking?  Why?
• Broadband access to the Internet is not yet ubiquitous in the US.  There many rural expanses where broadband terrestrial access is not available - only expensive satellite access offers reliable service.  New solutions are under development such as WiMax and BPL (broadband over power line).  Research one of these two technologies and comment on how it will impact our access to the Internet.

The syllabus also has a link to "Bandwidth - Connection Speed Checker" -- I hope you will take the time to check your bandwidth at home and share the results with the class.

Good luck!

-- Burks