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

Greetings!  This week, you are asked to read three reports from the Pew Internet Project:  Spyware, Spam and Phishing, and Spam 2007.  Your assignment for the "student-led discussion" this week is to moderate your own threaded discussion on a topic covered in either of these reports.  Select a topic and pose your question related to this topic by Wednesday, and then moderate the ensuing discussion.

You also need to participate in at least 3 other students' 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.  You certainly don't have to participate in every discussion.  In fact, with 25 students in the class, I think it will be overwhelming to all of us if you try to engage in each and every discussion.

Remember that an excellent message is accurate, original, relevant, and well-written, it teaches something new, and promotes additional discussion.  This means you should not just post short messages that don't contribute anything meaningful to the discussion.  It is better to post one thoughtful message than five or ten frivolous or trivial messages.  Think before you post -- will others in the class learn anything from your posting?

Also, your subject line must be a sentence that conveys the main point of your message or it will not be acceptable.  If you can't determine the main point of your message to put in your Subject line, you probably shouldn't post it.

What would be a good question for this week?  The basic topics this week are spam, spyware, and phishing.  Here are a couple of sample questions that would lead to some good discussions:

• Spyware has changed the way in which we use the Internet.   Have you installed any anti-spyware software on your computer?  If so, what software do you use and how often do you use it? Have you ever been afflicted with spyware (or adware)?  How are you coping with these hassles?
• Spam seems to seep through nearly all filters.  How much spam do you see in your mailbox each day (or week)?  How do you deal with spam?  Do you have multiple e-mail addresses to try to get around spam?
• "Pharming" is another term with which many are less familiar.  Please read this brief article http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,66853,00.html and comment on the practices of hijacking web site URLs.

-- Burks