this is it

Hey everyone,
The parking lots and stands are full of proud parents carrying flowers and stuffed animals.  People who don't normally wear socks are wearing ties.  The opening strains of "Pomp & Circumstance" are wafting up from the field.  This is the last official post to the 2011-2012 course blog.

It's hard to express-- especially for a wordy guy who's been talking your ears off all year-- how proud I am of you.  Thank you for all your contributions.  I wish each and every single one of you great success and I look forward to seeing you on in the alumni forum (you'll receive an invitation at the email address you listed on the course evaluation).

Sapere Aude.  
Dr. Preston 

need laptops for period 2 & 3 final presentations

If we're going to make the "open house" approach work tomorrow, we're going to need at least five laptops in periods 2 and 3.  Please plan on bringing yours, or, if you'd like, please sign up in advance by commenting to this post.  Period 2 had the idea-- thanks again, Jake!-- but only Ryan signed up.

last assignmnent: your course blog analytics

Please post a comment to this post with the following information from your course blog (available on your blogger overview):

• number of page views
• number of posts
• number of comments

June 4: happy finals week

Good luck to everyone on your finals-- looking forward to period 6 project presentations today!

love for the lurkers

I was just looking something up on the course blog when I noticed--to my great surprise, at nearly 1 AM Sunday morning-- there are nine other visitors.  On the odd chance those visitors are students, you have a chance to claim 100 points of Project Infinity credit by commenting to this post before 10 AM PDT Sunday (6.3) with a brief explanation of your favorite literary quote of all time.  If you're a visitor but not a student, comment with a quote anyway.  You'll receive double the credit; of course, it won't do you any direct good, but it will give students a reason to comment in an effort to impress you--and if they do, you can reward them with a portion or all of your points.

June 1

JOURNAL TOPIC: [extra credit--last chance this year-- for everyone if you can agree on a song, hum it in unison, capture the video and post it to someone's course blog.  If you pull it off, email projectinfinity@gmail.com or log into project infinity to claim your credit.]

I just did a search on duckduckgo for "famous last lines of novels"-- and smiled at the first result, because you've read every book on the list! (quotes after the jump)  On this, the auspicious last day of your journal*, what are YOUR famous last words?

[*If you are not on campus today, please stop by to complete your journal on Monday 6.4]

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Finishing touches on presentations-- and remember to sign up for tech support and food!  (sign-up sheets are taped to the left side of the white board)

LIFEWORK:
1. Fine-tune your presentations with love.
2. Prepare your food with love.

See you next week.

May 31

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: Gorillas, Gorillaz, and Guerillas]

I sat down to write a topic just now about what I've read in your journals over the last week-- many of you have feelings about parting ways with friends, family and the community structure you've known for a long time-- but then I signed into blogger and noticed that the course blog now has >86,000 page views.  This reminded me of Howard Rheingold's book Virtual Community; the term is now common and defined by Wikipedia as, "A social network of individuals who interact through specific media, potentially crossing geographical and political boundaries in order to pursue mutual interests or goals."  This year we've created a learning community that transcends traditional limitations and stereotypes, and I'm creating an alumni/"friends of the course" platform so that all of us can stay connected to whatever extent we choose.  Alumni networks are extremely common and effective for universities-- I found this job through a contact on the UCLA alumni network-- and a resource like this can be just as effective for you.  All you'll have to do is register for access to author talks, collegiate/professional forums, and...?  This is my question: what other features/benefits do you think this virtual community should include?  How do you imagine using such a tool to take some very important next steps in your lives?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Projects & fascinating conversation

HW/Mission/Coursework/DFTYRBD (Diversion From Things You'd Rather Be Doing):
If you feel like you're finished with your project, your project is probably mediocre.  Ask at least three of your colleagues for suggestions on how to make it better.  Summarize the conversation and post to your blog, however you choose to act on their advice.