Welcome to Fall 2009

Posted by Lance Gravlee on August 16, 2009 
Filed Under Announcements

Roger Hock, Human Sexuality (Second Edition)Welcome to the course web site for ANT 2301, Human Sexuality and Culture, at the University of Florida. This course is one of the largest at the University, enrolling some 650 students each term. The size of the course makes it difficult for me to get to know many of you personally. This semester, for the third time, we will use this course blog as a new way to communicate with each other. We’re also going to experiment with some new ways to communicate—like Twitter.

This website will be an important part of the course. Some materials—including the syllabus, announcements, and details on assignments—will only be available here. The website will also host a blog for the course in order to encourage discussion on relevant news or events around campus, to share thoughts about how the themes of the course relate to current events as well as to share thoughts on the themes themselves, and to stimulate thinking about assigned readings and course material. I strongly encourage you to post comments on the blog to share your point of view or to pose questions that you’d like to raise for discussion with other students, the TAs, and me. You’re also welcome to write your own blog post, if you’re interested. Follow the link at the bottom of this page to register for an account. Then let me know you’d like to write a post, and I’ll give you access to do so.

The easiest way to keep up with the web site is to subscribe to the course RSS feed. Just click on the link to “All Posts” on the right-hand side of the page. You’ll have the option of adding the course feed to your favorite feed reader (if you use one) or of receiving a daily email any time there’s new content on the site. Judging by last semester’s experience, most of you will probably want to subscribe by email.

(Some of you may be receiving this post by email because you’re still subscribed from a previous semester. You’re welcome to follow along—we’re still talking about sex!—but if you’d rather not receive any more updates, just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email you received.)

You can also click on the subscribe to “Comments” using the link on the right. When you subscribe to comments, you’ll be notified any time someone adds a comment to a post on the blog. I hope this feature will encourage you to participate in the discussion with other students and with your instructors.

We look forward to a great semester and hope you do, too. What do you hope to learn about in this course? Leave a comment below to let us know.

Comments

12 Responses to “Welcome to Fall 2009”

  1. Jamie on August 18th, 2009 5:10 pm

    I’ve read your blog article about incorporating Twitter into the classroom, and I have to admit that as a student in your Fall semester I _probably_ wouldn’t use Twitter. I’m just not a fan of the service itself. However, for people who are really into Twitter it is probably a good idea to increase professor-TA-student connectivity.

    I am looking forward to hearing about the diversity of experiences/attitudes among all the students in the class. I’ve never used the response clicker before, but I am looking forward to being able to see where my attitudes/experiences rank among other UF students’.

    Looking forward to the course!

  2. Lance Gravlee on August 19th, 2009 7:52 am

    @Jamie: Thanks for your feedback on my blog post about incorporating Twitter into the class. In your view, are many students really into Twitter? I expect not but hope that many will try it out at least in a limited way for class discussions.

    Glad you’re looking forward to the course! What are you most hoping to learn about?

  3. Jamie on August 19th, 2009 1:51 pm

    I don’t know how many people really use it. I know most of my friends have one, but never actually update it – and it seems like this is a common problem, considering Twitter has only a 40% retention rate for its users.

    On the other hand, there has been a bunch of buzz in the media about Twitter, with ads for cell phone services with unlimited texting so you can Tweet whenever you like, or the iPhone Twittering apps… So it’s possible that my friends and I are just behind the times.

    Perhaps posting a poll in the first week of class would really be the easiest way to figure out how many people would really use or be interested in using Twitter in the classroom?

    I am very interested in both the psychological aspect of sexual development, as well as historical views on subjects such as masturbation – it makes me wonder what taboos of today will become commonly accepted practice within the next century.

  4. Lance Gravlee on August 22nd, 2009 10:38 am

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jamie. It’s encouraging to hear that a lot of your friends have a Twitter account, even if they don’t regularly update it. I’m not interested in turning people into heavy Twitter users. I just hope it opens up another way for students to interact with me and with each other around the issues we discuss in class.

    I noticed your blog post about how Twitter may further endanger people’s attention span. Interesting thoughts. But the potential value of Twitter, in my experience, is that it can point you to other places where longer, more in-depth conversations happen. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in class this semester.

    The topics you’re interested in learning about are definitely ones we will cover this semester. You’ll also have a chance to explore them more on your own through the writing assignments.

  5. Sina on August 22nd, 2009 11:43 am

    Hey Dr. Gravlee,
    I was just wondering if there is any assigned reading that I could start already in the human sexuality book that is required for your class.
    Are there any specific chapters that we start with this coming up week?
    Thank you :)

  6. Lance Gravlee on August 22nd, 2009 11:58 am

    @Sina: If you’re looking to get a head start, see the schedule for a week-by-week list of readings for the course. The links to the two assigned readings for this week (Haviland et al. and Tiefer) will take you to the UF Libraries’ online course reserves. See this post from a previous semester for more information about how to access assigned readings on course reserves.

    Let me know if you have any questions.

  7. Stephen Young on August 23rd, 2009 7:34 pm

    Hello Dr. Gravlee,
    I was curious and this is probably a simple question to answer, but where can I find the syllabus. I have searched everywhere for it but I cant seem to find it. I got to the schedule but not the syllabus. Please let me know or toss me a link. Much appreciated.
    -Steve

  8. Stephen Young on August 23rd, 2009 7:37 pm

    Scratch my last question. I found the answer as I fully scrolled all the way to the top ;)

  9. Jordan on August 25th, 2009 10:48 am

    i’m having a hard time getting the link to the readings to work. i signed into the library website but then i cant find the article. how do we access the material??

  10. Lance Gravlee on August 25th, 2009 10:52 am

    @Jordan: Check out the post I added to the blog earlier today about accessing readings. If you continue to have any problems, please leave a comment on that post and we’ll try to help.

  11. Sergio on August 25th, 2009 7:44 pm

    I just wanted to mention that the syllabus that is posted under the “Course Content” on the homepage for the course when accessed through e-learning is from Spring 2008 and it might be a good idea to remove it or simply update it so as to not confuse anybody (I know I was).

  12. Lance Gravlee on August 25th, 2009 11:34 pm

    @Sergio: I apologize for the confusion. We’ve taken down the old version of the syllabus from E-Learning. We will only use E-Learning for exams and posting grades; this website is the main web portal for the class. Thanks for bringing the issue with the old syllabus to my attention.

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