Daily Archives: September 4, 2014

Reflections

Introduction: Kasrah Ghobadi

Leave a comment

Kasrah Ghobadi is a first-year student at the Gallatin School for Individualized Study at NYU. Kas, Kasrah’s preferred nickname, is from Vienna, Virginia; a small suburb outside of Washington D.C. This year Kas graduated from George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Virginia where he ran for his schools cross-country team. Competing in races during grades 10 and 11, Kas ran 6 races for George C. Marshall.

Screenshot 2014-09-04 14.27.34

Kas, a man with many interests, has liked 213 pages on Facebook ranging from animal conservation pages to pages about NYU.

Screenshot 2014-09-04 14.38.06

This summer Kas was nominated for the ALS ice bucket challenge but never posted a video to confirm that he did indeed dump a bucket of ice water over his head. We can only hope that Kas has chosen to only share this video with a select few… The rest of Kas’ summer was spent at Burke Lake Park in Fairfax County and celebrating his birthday on June 20th by liking his friends Facebook wall posts.

Kas is a popular guy as he lets his friends post pictures about him on his wall. Kas rarely updates his Facebook status, or creates Facebook albums.

Since arriving at NYU Kas has had a seemingly great time! A fan of Maroon 5, Kas camped outside of NBC Studios to see Adam Levine play at the Today Show. In addition, Kas has enjoyed the scenic views of Washington Square Park at night with a friend.

 Screenshot 2014-09-04 15.06.56

 This semester Kas is a part of the Gallatin First Year Writing Seminar Thinking and Writing Through New Media where he, along with his classmates, will seek to find out more about the technology that surrounds us. Want to learn more about Kas? Keep checking this blog for the duration of the fall semester for more postings from the man himself.

Reflections

Introduction: Varsha Prem

Leave a comment

Varsha Prem is a first-year student at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. On August 29, 2014, she turned eighteen years old. This year she graduated from West-Windsor Plainsboro High School South, where she was a member of the debate team. In her senior year she was a semifinalist for National Merit and a U.S. Presidential Scholars candidate. During her high school career she took an honors physics class, for which she contributed to this project about holograms:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJPdWz63I8U[/youtube]

This summer Varsha’s family moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Mount Laurel, New Jersey. On July 18, 2014, she and her mother found free parking in New York City.

Varsha listens to Michael Jackson and Paramore. She also enjoys the movies Toy Story, Batman: The Dark Knight, Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Inception. Some of her favorite television shows are Air Gear, The Nonsence Box, and Katekyo. She is a fan of the manga pop-culture genre.

Varsha has 192 Facebook friends. She likes three different Facebook pages related to the Harry Potter series character Bellatrix Lestrange. She has not made public posts since 2011, but her public profile still hosts some mysterious topics. On April 23, 2011 she asked the people of Facebook, with no context, to promote a very specific lifestyle:

On August 10, 2011 she wrote a public, cryptic goodbye to an unknown target audience:

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 12.23.52 PM

The mysteries of Varsha continue in the fact that one cannot find any photographs of her on the Internet. The blue, black, and white piece she uses to represent herself on Facebook is mystifying:

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 12.24.17 PM

Varsha Prem is a student of the Thinking and Writing Through New Media first-year writing seminar at Gallatin. She will be posting to this website throughout this semester. Until then, the web will be left wondering what she looks like, what exactly cactus love is, and who or what Varsha said goodbye to in April 2011.

Assignments

Blog post rubric

Leave a comment

As you will notice from the syllabus, you will be posting to this course blog regularly throughout the semester. While I encourage you to post short reflections and items of interest for the class whenever you come across something worth of sharing, there are specific, directed posts you must make as a part of this course. For the “provocations” noted in the syllabus, you will be providing a close reading of a small section of text including your initial analysis and posing questions you would like to discuss further with the class.

These writing assignments are broken down into groups (3 groups, 5 students per group), which rotate roles. On the week you are not posting a provocation you must respond to at least two of your peers through the comment feature.

Here is a breakdown of how these posts will be graded:

Rating Characteristics
4 Exceptional. The blog post is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. The post demonstrates awareness of its own limitations or implications, and it considers multiple perspectives when appropriate. The entry reflects in-depth engagement with the topic.
3 Satisfactory. The blog post is reasonably focused, and explanations or analysis are mostly based on examples or other evidence. Fewer connections are made between ideas, and though new insights are offered, they are not fully developed. The post reflects moderate engagement with the topic.
2 Underdeveloped. The blog post is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and few connections are made between ideas. The post reflects passing engagement with the topic.
1 Limited. The blog post is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments, and displays no evidence of student engagement with the topic.
0 No Credit. The blog post is missing or consists of one or two disconnected sentences.

(Adapted from Mark Sample)