Moodle Forum Oops

Maybe giving my class Tuesday "off" over Thanksgiving break was not the best plan, but I was trying to be generous. I assigned instead mandatory participation in a Moodle forum. I even extended the assignment by a few days. Still, only about half the class participated, which means a drop in points for the rest. The students that did participate had a strong discussion after reading "My Crowd Experience: The Mob Project" by Bill Wasik. I set up two question sets for consideration and reply:

1. In answering the following questions, bring in at least one quote from the text that supports your point of view.

How does social media enable phenomena like flash mobs? Use the Dunbar number (Limits of Friendship, p. 236) to examine the ways in which social media allows memes to spread. How does the rule of three enable viral ideas? Do the limitations of the Dunbar number represent a limitation on viral culture as well?

and

2.  Again, please use at least one quote from the text to support your point of view.

What role does emotion play in our use of technology? Does social media support or hinder our emotional development?What impact do memes or the bandwagon effect have on the ways in which we use technology? Do you turn to social media when you are bored? Does our ability to connect to others rely on emotions?

I did get some very thoughtful discussion, which I much appreciated. I just wish the whole class had participated.

On that note, I have two students I am very concerned about, the same two that failed to turn in essay three. One has missed many classes, but participated in the Moodle forum this week. The other had good attendance, and fairly good participation, at first, but now seems unconcerned with the class entirely. I need to speak with them after the holiday break. I plan to offer them a chance to make up a little of the credit for essay three, and a way to circumvent essay four. They won't earn full credit, but anything is better than nothing, and I hate the idea of failing any of them. Here's my offer, which I emailed to them and will follow up on next week:

Instead of two 2-3 page essays arguing opposite sides of one issue, please write a 4-6 page essay, arguing one side of an issue,  but clearly addressing the counter-argument. You must use at least two of the readings we did for class, as well as at least two outside sources to provide greater support for your argument. You can earn up to 75% of the score for the two final drafts (essays three and four) in doing this, but will receive no credit for rough drafts. I still encourage rough drafts so that I can assist you in making corrections, etc.