GEOGRAPHY 1014: WORLD REGIONS

SYLLABUSGEOGRAPHY 1014: WORLD REGIONS

FALL 2014: The On-Line O MIGHTY ISIS Semester!

Standard Stats:World Regions GEOG 1014CRN 86672Lecture: Live interactions TBA, but 99% will be on-line when they happen

Hot-linked quick reference outline:

1. STAFF

2. RESOURCES

3. ASSIGNMENT OPTIONS/GRADING

3.1 Weekly READING quizzes

3.2 Lecture Video quizzes

3.3 Current Events Flash Quizzes

3.4 International Films

3.5 Non-class events paper!

3.6 Twitter Assignment

3.7 World Leader Geo-Bio

APPENDIX A: Schedule for Weekly Book Reading Quizzes

APPENDIX B: Tentative Schedule for Weekly Video Lectures & Quizzes

4. COURSE OBJECTIVES

5. IMPORTANT CLASS POLICIES

1.STAFFInstructor: John Boyeremail: joboyer@vt.eduOffice Hours: All on-line at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/prof.-boyer%27s-office-hours Monday evenings at 8PM

Since this is a digital class, STAY CONNECTED to the Professor in a variety of ways:

-Subscribe to John Boyer on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joboyer

-Follow Plaid Avenger pics on Instagram: http://instagram.com/plaidavenger

-Subscribe to Plaidcast on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Plaidcast

-Follow the Plaid Avenger on Twitter: https://twitter.com/plaidavenger

-Use the class Twitter hashtag #wrvt to interact with fellow students, ask questions, and get info

ALL questions about grades and assignments go through the TAs:

TA for last names beginning with letters A to LDan MooreEmail: dmoorewr@gmail.comOffice: 112 Major Williams HallOffice Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 1-2PM, or by appointment

TA for last names beginning with letters M to ZAshley LewisEmail: geog1014TA@gmail.comOffice: 112 Major Williams HallOffice Hours: Thursdays 1-3PM, or by appointment

Contact for all questions about Twitter assignmentPlaid Twitter MasterMatt RudaEmail: mruda5@vt.eduOffice Hour: Holla at him anytime for tweet tips and questions...but you would likelytweet him about that, no? He is at @AgentMulder5

2.RESOURCESTexts: Required: The Plaid Avenger's World, 7th edition, 2014

ITS THE FREAKIN' 7thEDITION! The Resurgent Russia: Ukrainian Unraveling edition to be exact!ISBN: 978-1-4652-4890-9 ....this travesty of a book is like $100 bucks. Damn the man making us pay! Of course, its still probably a lot cheaper than all those serious rip-off chemistry and/or personal health textbooks you buy for those regular classes.

And yes, you have to get a brand new copy of the new edition in order to keep up with tons of new current events and world leaders. Old editions from previous semesters will contain all sorts of out-of-date info that will be wrong for current quizzes and tests....and will serve to confuse you and screw you up.

More importantly, you MUST HAVE A BRAND NEW ONE - 7th EDITION in order to get an unused passcode (in the inside front cover) which you must have to access the class website where all the course materials and grades are managed. Please don't bother with any attempted scams to use old passcodes, or old editions, or a 'shared' passcode....none will work, and I've already heard all the BS stories that you could possibly come up with to get out of buying a book. But I don't blame you for trying!

By the way, you should know that there are about a million copies of this book floating around town, many of which are owned by your friends and roommates. These copies may be brand new, still in the shrink wrap plastic, but they DO NOT have the access codes in them! They are unusable! And please don't attempt to scam the bookstores by trying to return these shrink-wrapped copies for credit...I'm pretty sure they will just have you arrested on the spot, and I can't cover bail for all of you.

How to access and enroll in the class course management system (Moodle)1. Go to moodle.plaidavenger.com2. Sign in with your PID and password3. Most likely you'll be redirect to vt.edu central authentication service to re-enter your

PID and password (if not youll jump straight to step 4)4. When you get back to Moodle you'll see your profile page. This is the info you MUST

enter: First and last name as listed in Hokie Spa (if these are already filled out leave it

as is) Email address (I prefer you use your VT email, but as long as its an email

address you check daily thats fine) Scroll down to the bottom to enter your PID (part before your VT email) and

your Student ID # (example: 905012345, NO dashes) Those are the required field for this class, but feel free to upload a photo so I

know what you look like.5. When you're done click "Update profile"6. You'll now see a message that you need to confirm your email. Please go to your

email and click the link to confirm. Make sure to check your SPAM box! If you do not receive an email in 30 minutes please contact admin@plaidavenger.com

7. After you click on the link in your email and go back to Moodle click "continue" then "home" in the top left column.

8. Click on "World Regions Fall 2014" and enter the 8 character key located on the inside cover of your new 7th edition of the Plaid Avenger's World.

9. Then click "enroll me" and you're now in the course!10. If you run into any issues contact admin@plaidavenger.com

www.plaidavenger.com is also required reading for the course. Content derived from the current event exploits of the Avenger and the Global Leaders pages will be part of the weekly quizzes, as well as into the midterm and final exams. It has a weekly updates on current events that are pertinent for this class, content which also may turn up as weekly quiz material, or flash quiz material.

Other Web Resources Often referenced and utilized international news sources of the instructor:World Press Review www.worldpress.org/wprw.htmThis site has a daily update on global news--and an exhaustive list of linked news sources from around the globe, from news sources around the globe, reported from the countries themselves....you can pretty much go straight to any on-line news site in the world from here, organized by country.The International Herald Tribune on-line edition ttp://global.nytimes.com/?ihhtBBC www.bbc.com Click on the NEWS section.Al Jazeera http://english.aljazeera.net/Asia Times Online www.atimes.com/RT News from Russia. http://rt.com/The Economist www.economist.com/Foreign Affairs www.foreignaffairs.com/CIA World Factbook http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html 10 X 10 www.tenbyten.org/10x10.html

Christian Science Monitor http://www.csmonitor.com/LINK TV for news stories, video, recorded programs, and music: http://www.linktv.org/3.ASSIGNMENT OPTIONS/GRADING(aka..How to earn your grade)This is a radical, experimental course when it comes to grading, and I hope you embrace and enjoy this change. If you don't, then you should bail out now, not later. Instead of having a set amount of mandatory activities that you are required to do and then assessing your grade from your performance, I am going to provide a host of opportunities for you to earn points towards your grade. This allows some flexibility in your schedule for reading and watching the material at your own pace, while providing more than enough point opportunities for you to get the grade you want.

It's a 'create your fate' grade: you choose want you want to work on, and keep earning points doing different activities until you achieve the grade you desire. There are enough point opportunities to allow you to actually exceed the amount needed even for a full on A! So you dont have to feel like you have to do every single thing, every single day.

BUT BUYER BEWARE! You can't wait until the last minute to make this happen! The one way you can screw this up is to keep putting off things until the end of the semester, living under the delusion that you can do a whole bunch of stuff in the last weeks of class to make up for slacking all semester. THIS WON'T WORK! Almost all of these assignments consist of watching/reading/testing/tweeting that happens every week all semester long...so if there were 4 different quizzes in week 3 worth 150 points and you didnt do them, they are gone!

AND THERE ARE NO 'MAKE-UPS' or 'EXTRA CREDIT' or any other additional opportunities offered at the end of the semester to earn points. So choose and plan your semester wisely!!!

Please note that the point totals shown for each activity are the maximum points possible; you don't simply get all the points simply for participating. In other words, you can earn up to 390 points for doing the weekly reading quizzes, but if you only get half the questions right (a 50% conventional grade) than you would only receive 195 points towards your final grade (50% of 200 points = 100 points earned). This of course applies to all quizzes/tests as well as the Twitter assignment and leader bios...participation alone does not get the full points; it has to be good quality stuff to get the max!

So here are the activities you can do to earn points towards your final grade, followed by the grading scale:

Assignment !! ! ! ! Maximum points POSSIBLE1)Weekly reading quizzes! ! ! =390 (13 weeks x 30 points)2)Weekly video lecture quizzes! ! =500, roughly (variable credit per vid)3)Flash Quizzes ! ! ! =??? UNKNOWN!!!4)International Films ! ! ! =200 (50 each x 4 maximum)5)Non-class events paper! ! ! =100 (50 each x 2 maximum) 6)Twitter Assignment ! ! ! =2007)World Leader Geo-Biography ! ! =75! ! ! ! ! Total! 1200-1600+++ ???

Final Grade Breakdown:1050 points = A1000 points = A-970 points = B+930 points = B900 points = B-870 points = C+830 points = C800 points = C-770 points = D+730 points = D (Minimum passing grade for P/F)less than 729 = LOSE

My advice: DEFINITELY do the weekly quizzes, and plan on taking as many as the weekly video lecture quizzes as possible. That alone will pretty much get you a strong C, if you stay on top of things and keep up with your weekly quiz assignments in a timely manner. If you are really smart and really want to ensure an A or high B, you will completely lock in a high grade by staying connected and tagging those flash quizzes every time they pop up as well.

Really super motivated and/or like writing or tweeting? Then add on EITHER the Twitter project OR the World Leader bio stuff. Then add in some films and event papers when you can squeeze them in. Hell, if you do enough work early enough, you may finish the course well before the semesters end! Go for it! But that is up to you and your work ethic!

**Statute of limitations: Please be aware that you must contest a grade that you believe is in error within two weeks after its due date! More details on this policy are available in the Important Class Policies section of this syllabus. Bottom line for now: you cant wait until the last week of class to contact me or the TA and say you are missing grades from week 4. Its too late at that point. And that would make you a sad, sad panda. And likely, a panda with an F.

Here is an explanation of each possible assignment:

3.1 WEEKLY BOOK READING QUIZZES

Each week, an on-line quiz will be posted on Moodle (the class website you will get to by using your access code located in the front of the textbook). The quiz will consist of questions from 2 selected chapters of the textbook. These quizzes are open-notes, open-book, open-website and can be taken as many times as you like. In other words, you can keep taking the damn thing until you get a 100% on it!!! Take it early, take it often, but just dont forget to take it! Its worth 390 possible points towards your freakin grade!

Again, take the quizzes as many times as you want! Only your highest grade will be recorded! You should earn all 390 points towards your final grade by semester's end. Every week you will get a class email (likely will be on Friday night) telling you which chapters you need to read for the

upcoming week, and the name of each of the quiz to take. You will have an entire week of time, every week, to read the selected 2 chapters and take the quiz for that week...or take it a hundred times if you like!

But here is the sad and bad news: the weekly deadline for the textbook quiz is every Friday at 5PM. Dayum. Yep. Friday at 5PM it is, every week. Does having to work until Friday at 5PM really piss you off? THEN DONT WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY TO DO IT!!!! Do it on Monday, or Sunday, or Wednesday morning. Hell, do it at 3AM on Tuesday if it turns you on! Just do it before Friday at 5PM!

READ IT Word to the wise: former students always tell me that if they had one piece of advice to pass on to the next generation of students, that it would be to JUST READ THE DAMN CHAPTERS. Too many of them tried to just take the quizzes over and over and over again until they figured out what the right answers are to click on, without having to read the book. Thats cool with me, because you will spend way more time doing it that way. Im all for you taking the quiz 20 times, instead of just reading the chapters and taking it twice. Cheat to your hearts content. #fail

Its every week. Its open book. Its open notes. Its unlimited attempts. If you dont get all 390 point on this assignment, who is to blame? Personally, I blame the Canadians! They are always up to no good up there! But seriously, it will be your own fault.

APPENDIX A: Schedule for Weekly Book Reading Quizzes is attached to this syllabus as, and will be entered into the course calendar.

3.2 WEEKLY VIDEO LECTURE QUIZZES

Much like the weekly Book Reading Quizzes, I am setting up a calendar of pre-recorded video lectures for you to watch every week, and then you can take some quizzes on those for points too! Sweet! Does the point-generating fun ever end? And lets keep the party going by making them also due on Friday night! Can you feel the Friday night love yet? Yeah....I didnt think so. But again, Friday at 5 is just the deadline for you to take the quizzes: you can actually take them whenever you want to 24/7 the week of. Get it? Got it? Good. But it does get tougher....

There are some important distinctions to be made with this assignment versus the book reading quizzes, namely:

1) ONE SHOT Video lecture quizzes can only be taken ONE TIME! What time that will be is entirely up to you, but you only have one crack at it!

2)

specifically set up for the scammers who are intent on doing none of the video watching, with the idea that they will Google all the answers. Good luck with that one too: you have limited time, and many questions are specifically crafted from the video itself, and are thus un-Google-able. Is that even a word?

4) There may be more than one video lecture quiz a week...indeed, there will almost always be at least 2 of them. You will be alerted accordingly.

Speaking of which, let me explain how it will work: Every week you will get a class email (likely will be on Friday night) telling you which video lectures you need to watch for the upcoming week, and the names of each of the quizzes that will be active for that week. Even if there are 8 different videos to watch for that week, and three different quizzes on them for that week, you will have the entire week to complete them all. All the quizzes will be active that Friday night, and all will stay active until the next Friday at 5PM. But again, remember: YOU CAN ONLY TAKE EACH QUIZ ONE TIME! One shot at the gold! Winner take all, baby!

The first half the video lectures we are using for the course are already up, and active, and on-line at: http://www.plaidavenger.com/worldregions/

Clicking on any of those hot-linked topics will take you to a page with a whole lecture outline, and when you click on each sub-section of that lecture, a video window will pop up and play. You can also download these on iTunes if you like that way better.

EXAMPLE For instance, I can already tell you what you will be doing the very first week of class: If you go to the page http://www.plaidavenger.com/lecture/intro/, you will see the whole outline of the Intro lecture. You need to watch all of it the first week of class, but specifically for your quizzes to earn points in Week #1: You will watch:

Going Global: The Story of Globalization (16:43 minutes)

A Plan for Making Sense of the Planet (29:07 minutes)

for a total of 45:50 minutes, and there will be a quiz names INTRO #1 on those two vids, and also in that same week, you will watch....

Know Your News & the Left vs. the Right (29:31 minutes)

Course Mechanics (25:05 minutes)

for a total of 54:36 minutes, and there will be a quiz names INTRO #2 on those two vids.

Both of those quizzes will be active and open for you to take all week up until Friday evening at 5PM. But you can only take each of them a single time. Most peeps will watch the first 2 vids, then go take the quiz on them, and then maybe the next day go watch the other two, and take the second quiz. Others will try to desperately watch 2 hours of video and slam thru both quizzes on Friday afternoon. I call them goobers. But whatever floats your boat, on whatever schedule works best for you.

Make sense? Cool. Holla at me if not. Because it can be a lot of video to watch at times, and also just because I want you to do well, here are some tips:

-NOTE IT Treat watching the videos as if you were watching live lecture.that is, take notes! You will be tested on this stuff, and you can use your notes while taking the quizzes! But having open notes does not help you if you have no notes!

-Another reason to take good notes: It is quite easy to reference a good set of notes while taking the quiz in order to find the answerit is quite impossible to reference 90 minutes of raw videoso take the damn notes!

-PACE IT Pace them out. Dont feel like you have to watch 3 hours of video in a single sitting, and then jam through the quizzes. Treat it like a T/Th or M/W/F class: do a bit a few times a week.

-There will be about 26 video lecture quizzes in all, for a total of ~500 points possible. But they are all not equal: most quizzes will be 20 points each, but of course some will be worth only 10, others worth 25 or 30 depending on the amount of information they cover and the length of the videos. So plan accordingly and pay attention to the announcements when it is released every Friday night.

-Seriously, just watch the damn vids. Like the readings, so many slackers will try to scam it out by not reading or watching anything, and will go straight to the quiz without knowing what is up. And on these, there is no do-over, so you get screwed if you dont get lucky enough on your guesses. Its the same reason people lose all their money in Vegas: getting into a game you dont understand, thinking that somehow you will get lucky. And a fool and his money are soon parted. Or in this case, the fool and his grade are soon parted.

-The quizzes are worth upwards of 500 points! That is a solid chunk of change for this course! Keep up with your class announcements on these, and keep you head in the game while you watch my talking head on the screen in these video lectures! And if you have requests for different topics for the video lectures you want to see this semester, hit me up. Im just slamming you with the ones I already have ready to go, but will create more content for you if there is enough demand.

APPENDIX B Tentative Schedule for Weekly Video Lectures & Quizzes is attached to this syllabus, and will be entered into the course calendar.

3.3 CURRENT EVENT FLASH QUIZZESAt random times throughout the semester, I will create some video podcast lessons, and then suddenly post a quiz and then social-network the hell out of announcing it to you, as well as emailing you an announcement.

Much like the video lecture quizzes, from the point it is posted until it is de-activated, you will have just one single attempt at the quiz...hopefully after you have actually viewed the material....because also like the video lecture quizzes, you must score a

MINIMUM of 50% correct on the quiz in order to receive any points at all.

3.4 INTERNATIONAL FILM ASSIGNMENTSTHIS IS ALL NEW! TOTALLY EXPERIMENTAL!!!!But what the hell, lets try something cool! I love introducing students to awesome international cinema, and most students in the past have also loved it and routinely watch at least a couple of films they end up loving....even despite having to read subtitles!

I also like the idea of building a film watching community on-line, which is likely to replace the dynamic of viewing films with other peeps and strangers in a dark theater. Watching cinema in a group is definitely the best case scenario, and I love the classic big screen experience, but it does appear to be a fading cultural phenomenon for all but the biggest of action blockbuster films. So lets be the first peeps to build a digital film viewing community! So how are we going to do that?

Well, like I said, this is an experiment and Ive never tried it before....so we will schedule a few films for now and if it works and you like it, we can always add in more later. For now, I have so far scheduled 4 different films for 4 nights throughout the semester, all slotted on Sunday evenings 8PM. Look at the class calendar on Moodle to see the list of film titles and dates. How are we going to watch a film on-line together on those dates? Here is where it gets experimental and new....

Since we cant fit 2000 of us in a theater around here, we will all come together in the digital world at the same time to share a viewing experience. Seriously? Yep. We will all be watching it and experiencing it together, in real time, and that is the only way you can earn points for doing it. Here is how we will technically do this:

STEP #1: Join Netflix (http://www.netflix.com) I actually assume most of you are already on Netflix, or can access your family account, or a friends account, or at the very minimum have a friend with an account that you can hang out with for this exercise!!! If not, its like $8.99 per month for access I think, and you likely get the first month free. Dont want to have to pay money for a class activity? Then dont do this class activity! I actually dont want anyone

to have to pay for this! Share with friends! View the movie with groups of friends or classmates! Hell, I dont care, just have access to Netflix, because they have the server power to stream this movie to all 3000 of us simultaneously, and I do not!

STEP #2: On the night of the film, have the scheduled film queued up on your computer before our 8PM start time. As suggested above, I want to encourage you all to watch with friend and fellow classmates, in common rooms on campus or party rooms at your private domiciles. I may even give extra credit to peeps who photo document and post the most creative pics of your group theater experiences. Of course you can watch it solo on your personal computer too, but films are way more fun in groups...and you can help each other with the quiz that happens later, but more on that in a second....

STEP #3: Just before 8PM, open another browser window on your computer, and go to the site where we have our weekly On-line Office Hour. It is on a service called Ustream, and the full link is: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/prof.-boyer%27s-office-hours. Precisely at 8PM, I will appear and give you a brief (10-12 minute) introduction to the film by placing it in geographic context, with historical background, and other pertinent details of production and/or its basis in reality. Some quiz questions will actually come from this introduction, so dont miss it!!!! Leave this browser window open even after I finish the introduction.

STEP #4: After my film introduction, I will give you the countdown for when to start the film. On my mark, click back to your Netflix window, and start the film!

STEP #5: Actually watch the film. I know: should be self-evident, but scammers will actually not watch the film, and then be angry that they failed the quiz, and will demand points for simply having the film playing in the background while they played video games or porn or Pokemon. And they will hate me for trying to make them actually watch a film, which is of course a really difficult task. Oh well. Haters gonna hate. If you are in this to win this, then actually watch the film. Most quiz questions will come from the film.

(SECRET OPTIONAL STEP #5A: To further experiment and encourage erudite educational interactions, you can keep the ustream chat box open and I will sporadically be posting facts or comments about the film in real time. Is that freakin cool or what? Ive never tried anything like this before, but think it might totally kick ass! Like a Pop-Up Video for films!!! BOOM! FYI if you click pop out on the chat box it will make it a separate small window (as shown in the image)).

STEP #6: After the film finishes, go back to Ustream at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/prof.-boyer%27s-office-hours and I will be live once again to give you some closing remarks and answer any questions you may have had about the content of the film. And yes, some quiz

questions may come from that material as well!!! But I mostly hope that we can have a dialogue about the film afterwards, which is the whole point of this education thing! But some of you also want points for this dealio, so....

STEP #7: At a time announced during the film closing remarks, a flash quiz will be active for the film. It will likely be within 30 minutes of the closing time of the film. The link to this quiz will be given in the Ustream chatroom during the closing remarks, so do tune in to the finishing chat! And that sucker is worth 50 freakin points, so I aint going to make it easy! If you havent figured this out yet, the quiz will pull material from the intro I give, the film itself, and the outro I give....oh, and did I mention it will be tough?

You will have to score a MINIMUM of 50% correct on the quiz in order to receive any points at all. Like the other flash quizzes:

classes and sharing that work with their fellow scumbags. There will be some of you that watch the film and then share all the answers with your classless cohort of cheaters who have not watched the film. I will tell you straight up that there is no way for me to catch you cheating in this way, and I will also tell you that I have no interest in catching you cheating in this way...because I have too much class and self-respect for such shenanigans, and all I can do is ask you to try and have them same for yourself by taking your education seriously enough to not scam it.

Final note: You DO NOT have to attend ALL of the films--in fact, don't come to any if you don't like international cinema! And dont participate if you are going to whine about having to get a Netflix account! And dont do this assignment with the intent on cheating, and then whining about failing the quiz after your cheating fails!

But for those interested, lets try this total experimental shizzle! Bring popcorn and friends! Watch in groups! Take the quizzes as a team! Its all open and all casual and all cool! Of course, that quiz at the end is worth a possible 50 points, so it will be tough! Pay attention to all aspects of this assignment as it is unfolding on the big screen....or in this case, a small screen, depending on where you are watching it!

As for you scammers and cheaters? Well, you peeps think that watching a film is so hard you need to cheat on it, so you may want to go ahead and prepare yourself for a satisfying career in any of the many food service industry jobs that await you in the future. Good luck with that, future fry cook.

Here are just a few international film selections I have used in past semesters: From India: OutsourcedFrom Israel: Waltz with BashirFrom Brazil: City of GodFrom Australia: Rabbit Proof FenceFrom South Africa: TsotsiFrom Bolivia: Even the RainFrom China: AftershockFrom Japan: Jiro Dreams of SushiFrom Russia: Putins KissFrom Kurdistan: A Time for Drunken Horses

Your recommendations for great international films are heartily encouraged! Hit me up!

3.5 OUT-OF-CLASS TALKS/ACTIVITIESTo encourage you to attend outside internationally-focused events outside the classroom, (of which there are many every semester) I will allow you to earn points towards your grade by writing up a short paper of pre-approved activities.

The outside events may be films, live performances, public lectures, art exhibits, or community/ethnic/religious festivals that relate to anything international in scope, and occur outside your scheduled class times.

The papers for these events should be at least 3 page long (12-point font, double-spaced, 1 margins). Not 2 pages. Not 2.5 pages. Not even 2.9 pages. But a full 3 to 3.5 pages. In the paper, you should briefly describe the event and then link it to the material of the course to the best of your ability. You may hand in the reports at any time beginning with the second week of class, BUT YOU CAN ONLY TURN IN ONE A WEEK, MAXIMUM. You may turn in 2 during the course of the entire semester.

Each of these event papers is worth up to 50 points. The papers will also be due withinthe week they are assigned, with the specific date specified in the announcement aboutthe events. LAST DAY TO TURN IN THIS ASSIGNMENT IS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28.

Please keep in mind that the event must be pre-approved by me. No paper will be accepted on any event that has not been run past me first. In fact, I encourage you all send me any events that you think are applicable and that you may even want to advertise in class. I will select one or two events per week based upon your recommendations and post them on the course calendar and announce them in class.

Please submit all papers via the assignment listed on Moodle. Your TA should have the grade posted within a week.

WARNING: The most consistent issue we have had with this assignment in the past is that students do not put forth much effort in linking the event to the class content. This paper is mostly about what you learned from the event, and how it relates or reinforces themes from the lectures and/or the readings and/or the videos you have learned from in this course. Summary of the event itself should be around 20% of the paper, with the remaining 80% being the assessment and ties back to class material. A rough guide to the grading rubric used by the TAs looks something like this:

30-35 points for linkage to class10-15 points for solid summary5-10 points for format and grammar

These papers are strictly graded, so before you even attempt one, you should review an example of a great paper that received full points, as well as an example a a crappy paper which did not. Those examples can be found on Moodle, in a folder, that will have a link entitled Outside Event Papers. And do feel free to ask your TA or me any

questions you have about the assignment BEFORE you actually do it! And remember: the event itself has to be cleared in advance of you attending is and writing about it!

3.6 The Plaid Shadow Cabinet aka World Leaders Twitter AssignmentThis is a radical experiment too, combining social networking with following international events...specifically in the case by following the actual people who shape those events: the world leaders!

Let's get this experiment underway! What we are trying to do is to get folks more interested and engaged with these major world movers and shakers via having you guys report on their daily activities and opinions (and maybe even their prejudices and negative press). Not only will your tweets show up on Twitter, but also on each leaders page at http://www.plaidavenger.com/leaders/ which will have a constant feed of all your tweets. It may end up getting some attention if we all kick ass at it...in fact, it already has!

MOST IMPORTANT: Only our master list of the 200 most influential leaders are to be used, and you MUST contact Matt (mruda5@vt.edu) to be assigned the leader of your choice. We already have the Twitter accounts in place, so DO NOT create an account yourself...you will not get credit if it has not been cleared by Matt.

Brief points:1) YOUR FIRST TWEET OF THE DAY is on location of your leader. Please include thiswith a news story or more details. Most of the time they should be in their home state,so you tweet something like In DC working today. I see I'm up in the polls, it's going tobe a good election.....but if they are traveling abroad, be sure to say when, where, andwho they are meeting with. Like: "Traveling to China this week. Looking forward tohaving bilateral talks with President @Plaid_Xi about economics." Do not just put InAustralia working. you need to say what you are working on or who you are meetingwith.2) Your second tweet of the day should concern what they are working on, or meeting with. If its just boring domestic affairs, tweet that and add more on what happening in the country. Nothing going on should NEVER be a tweet. There is always something happening in your leaders country.3) Twice a week you must mention and interact with another plaid world leaders. This can be about meeting recently, or news between your countries, or just tweeting about how you are buddies or enemies. You can view all the leaders here: https://twitter.com/#!/plaidavenger/world-leaders/members4) Focus more on any international shit they are doing. Meeting with a foreign leader?Working on greenhouse gas emission legislation? Buying weapons from Russia? Hitthat stuff up hard.5) You can make judgment calls to put in what the world leader may be thinking about, ifyou are confident in your knowledge. But don't overstate anything too radically.6) You can tweet funny shit too, if you spot something of interest, or have insider info ortheir particular culture....like maybe say for David Cameron: 'Just had a jolly good spotof tea and some fish n chips' or 'Just met with the @Plaid_Queen. Her knickers were ina bunch' (if he actually did meet with the Queen, that is)7) When Twittering - look on Google news for stories on your person and use that as abasis for your tweet. Direct quotes as the leader is encouraged. If you talk about another leader please mention them (@). For example- Plaid_Barack: At the UN conference meeting with @Plaid_Xi about how the US and China can work together.You can even set up a Google alert where it will email you a daily summary of news stories mentioning your leader. I highly recommend settings this up as it also reminds you to tweet! Where it says create an alert about... type in your leaders name and then click show options change the sources to news and then click create alert.8) Don't get overwhelmed by all this though....just do AT LEAST a couple tweets a day...but as many more as you want depending on how into you get!9) VERY IMPORTANT: Remember to LOG OUT after tweeting. We do not want you toby accident start tweeting updates as yourself to the world leader or start followingothers.10) Please DO NOT mention, reply to, or retweet other users except the Plaid Leaders. Weve had accounts been suspended in the past by replying to random users acting as the leader which is against Twitters parody account rules. 11) These accounts are for information on the specific leader. The goal is NOT to followeveryone and try to get followers back. We want true dedicated follows who areinterested. The only accounts these people will be following is the other plaid leadersand @plaidavenger or the actual leaders twitter. For instance @Plaid_Obama is

following the actual @BarackObama. For your leader if you find the actual persontwittering you can follow them, BUT THAT IS IT. The real trick here is to be interestingenough that others start to follow you WITHOUT having to reciprocate!12) BE CIVIL! While the occasional curse word is fun, please no mean-spirited at-tacksor F-bomb dropping...even if you have a leader that might be prone to such behavior!13) Write in proper sentences with capitals. You will lose points for not capitalizingpeoples names and places or not writing complete thoughts.

If you are up for this, pick your top 3 leaders and contact Matt (mruda5@vt.edu) as soonas possible to 'sign-up' for the leader that is available and to get the password to theirtwitter account. Do not share that password with anyone else. Be sure I get your info,because we will be throwing you up to 200 points for the semester based upon yourperformance. Extra points can be earned by helping me write-up and update yourleaders' bio on the Plaid Avenger's site at: http://www.plaidavenger.com/leaders/

Contact me for more details on that front. Also, if you have a world leader not on my listthat you would like added, contact me to make the case for their inclusion. Thisassignment MUST be started by the 1st week of classes in order to earn credit.

**These are graded twice a semester (roughly by Week 7 and at the end). If you havetwittered less than 30 times from the start to midterm you will receive a zero for thatpart, same if youve twittered less than 30 times between the midterm and the final. **

3.7 World Leader Geo-Biographies

Another great research project that just happens to be an awesome educational experience worth some extra points (up to 75 points) can also be earned by helping me craft and write-up and update the World Leaders' bio on the Plaid Avenger's site at: http://www.plaidavenger.com/leaders/ Must have this cemented with me by the second week of classes.

If anyone likes to write and wants some serious points for helping me make a kick-ass bio of each world leader to go on the site, hit me up, stat. The real challenge of the exercise is not so much writing the bio itself, but continuing to bug the hell out of me until I edit and post the bio for that leader you have written. If you can pull that off, you kick ass and will be rewarded appropriately.

We can chat in more detail later, but in essence, here is what you have to do:

A) Pick a leader you are interested in at http://www.plaidavenger.com/leaders/ that does not currently have a bio, or whose bio is wildly outdated, and get approval from me personally before you do anything else. Only one student can do a bio on each person, and it is first-come first-serve. You must hit me up about this before the deadline of SEPTEMBER 5.

B) Please be sure to read as many existing bios on the site so you can get a feel for the type of stuff I cover, and the style of writing. I would suggest the Vladimir Putin one or Bashar al-Assad as good examples.

C) Read as many bios on the leader from other sites, and possibly start cutting-and-pasting sections that you think are important or worthy of inclusion into a document. At a minimum, read the Wikipedia page on the leader, and search the BBC and other big news sources for a bio page on the leader, and at least a handful of current event stories that involve that leader.

D) Schedule a meeting with me on Skype or Google Hangout to discuss the direction of the bio, and get my comments and important background facts to cover.

E) Write a polished 1.5 to 2 page (single-spaced) bio on the leader. Brief background if applicable, their political views, opinions, major initiatives, stuff like that. Why they are important to know, etc. And interject humor if you like. It IS NOT supposed to be a

summary of their boring ass life; it IS supposed to focus on why the peep is important, what they affect, how they behave, who the like, who they hate, how they shape state/regional/world events.

Contact me for more details on that front. Also, if you have a world leader not on my list that you would like added, contact me to make the case for their inclusion. Hit me up for details and to choose what leader you want, asap. You Twitter peeps have an advantage in that you should know the leader you are representing well enough by the first month of class to understand them inside and out, and a bio should be no problemo. Make it happen fast. I'm just sayin'. So holla if interested

Again, you must contact me and have this cleared with me by the second week of classes. If you contact me the last week of classes desperate for points and ask me if you can do this assignment, I will deduct 75 points from your grade, and I will personally call your 3rd grade teacher and scold them for not teaching you to read.

AND THAT IS PRETTY MUCH IT.....

Just keep reading, watching, quizzing, Tweeting, and writing your way to an A in this course! In summary:-Weekly book reading quizzes on 2 chapters a week, due on Friday (will start 2nd week of classes).-Video lecture quizzes on material to be announced each week, due on Friday (will start very FIRST week of classes).-Flash quizzes are sporadic, and could pop up at any time.-If you want to do Twitter, you need to hit up the contact in the first week of class, assignment starts second week of class.-World bios need to be set up in first two weeks of class.-Films will be listed on the course calendar.

So how can you get the "Easy A"? Do the damn work, and do it diligently!!! That's just a fancy word for "do it on a regular basis! Yes, its due every Friday, and that really sucksbut that's life, and that is what you will soon be doing in your 'career' workplace, so get hip to it now. If you do your work over the weekend or during the week, then the Friday deadline is of no consequence to you. And you are a winner.

How to fail? And some of you will. You will start strong; take the first couple weeks seriously; then start to slack; then slack more...and the entire time you will keep telling yourself that you will get a bunch of points at the end of the semester. No can do in this course. Its kind of like being in shape: you have to go to the gym every week in order to maintain that hot bod: there is no such thing as getting in awesome shape by sitting on your ass all semester eating Doritos and playing video games, and then suddenly going to the gym every day during the last week of classes. You will still be a cheese-dust covered, Pokemon-shirt-wearing, gut-protruding goober...but now you also smell like sweat from your 5 days straight of working out. Ew. And you will still fail.

So don't do that!!!! I want you all to get engaged with this global material, get globally literate, and get fired up about your great global lives! Are you ready to do this? Then global game on! Let's go!

Finally, I do want to let you know that I have every intention on interacting with you all as much as possible in the on-line environment. To do this, we use a free on-line service named Ustream for our Office Hours, and I heartily encourage all of you to jump in the digital room with me on-line as much as possible. I think it would be wicked cool to have digital conversations with you all from on location when I travel too...and possibly I will make really great office hours sessions into FLASH quizzes for points too!

***Ustream has ads that pop up every 10 minutes or so that will block out the live stream of office hours or films. To avoid those annoying ads and NOT miss part of the stream please install Adblock Plus www.adblockplus.org/ for your browser.***

IN BRIEF The office hours entail the instructor launching a live interactive online broadcast (see Ustream.tv) that is available to anyone connected to the web students, alumni, and random visitors. The online office hours involve students using Google chat to send the instructor questions that he then responds to live; simultaneously, the instructors technical assistant is monitoring the student chat room, answering course-related questions and forwarding current event questions to the instructor to be answer on air. The online office hours provide individualized feedback and instruction in an ultra-large class by leveraging the power of interactive digital technologies. If you miss

the live stream, they are all recorded and available to watch anytime at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/prof.-boyer%27s-office-hours on the right hand side.

As with all else in the course, you will get an email and tweet alerting you to when the office hour will be happening each week. The message will look something like this:

Live online OFFICE HOUR for World Regions is about to begin. Join the conversation, or at least pop in to see how it works. We can chat about anything from the course mechanics to current events...all questions or comments are fair game.

Here's how it works: Go to:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/prof.-boyer's-office-hours

And you will see me LIVE answering questions that you have sent to me through Google chat.

My Google chat name is: joboyer@vt.edu

And that is it! Looking forward to a bizarre and interesting on-line semester! Party on!

4. Course Objectives:The overall objective of the course is to broaden and strengthen the individual's interest in the world at large; to consider how/where/why physical and cultural forces shape and define the earth we live on. Geography 1014 is a world regional survey designed to acquaint undergraduate students with a variety of geographic, historic, environmental, demographic, religious and economic characteristics of various areas of the world. The world is a big place, filled with trillions of facts and figures, billions of people, hundreds of thousands of places, and lifetimes of experience: we can only cover so much. Readings, lectures, slides, and films will be employed to promote interest and highlight geographic themes, but are not intended as exhaustive regional surveys. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

Skill or ability-To evaluate the causes of major historical events and their impact on the contemporary world.-To critically analyze the media coverage of a foreign country or event from a variety of different news sources and ideological perspectives.-To understand and interpret global current events and international issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.- To describe current major regional/global issues and make predictions of how these issues will impact the future.

Knowledge -To describe the historical, economic, cultural, social and physical characteristics of the major world regions the various state that comprise these regions; both in terms of their uniqueness and their similarities, as well as how they interact with each other in the modern world.-To understand fundamental issues in international relations including world interdependence and of the global nature of contemporary issues.-To comprehend and analyze relations between nations, international government and non-governmental organizations, and major global actors in historic and contemporary debate.

Beliefs and attitudes-To possess a broad individual interest in the world at large.-To maintain a sense of on-going engagement toward current national and international affairs. -To empathize with diverse perspectives on global issues and events; that is, to be able and willing to see things from a different perspective while maintaining ones own.-To develop an appreciation for the great variety of cultural forms and ways of thinking throughout the world, and to formulate a world view that uses this appreciation to become responsible global citizens-To possess confidence to converse with others on global topics and pressing issues of our day.

5. Important Class Policies(aka..other stuff you NEED to know!)

Email Response From Your TAIf you email your TA, please allow up to two business days (thats Monday to Friday) for a response. If your TA does not respond within two business days, then you may feel free to email again. Although your TA will make all attempts to respond to emails quickly, circumstances may prohibit a quick response.

Missed Quizzes & ExcusesIt is likely that at some point in the semester you will fall ill or have a personal emergency that may leave you unable to complete a quiz. In order to make up the quiz, you must (1) contact your TA or the departmental secretary (540-231-6886) prior to the exam, and (2) provide credible of your personal emergency. For medical emergencies, we accept excuses from Schiffert Health Center, Cooke Counseling Center, hospitals, or your personal physician. For all non-medical personal issues (for example, death in the family), the dean of students can supply you with an excuse.

Important Contacts: Schiffert Health Center: 540-231-6444 Cooke Counseling Center: 540-231-6557 Office of the Dean of Students: 540-231-3787

Please Note: Weekly quizzes can only be made up if your excuse covers the entire week of the quiz. Flash quizzes can only be made up if your excuse covers all times it was available.

Posting Grades and Missing/Incorrect GradesStatute of LimitationsWe will try to have grades posted within one week of the assessment. Please do not emails us before that time, or your email will be ignored. If your grade is missing or incorrect, you must contact your TA within two weeks of the quiz, movie, etc. After two weeks, no changes will be made. Although we try our best to make sure all grades are posted properly, it is the students responsibility to ensure their grades are posted correctly. This policy is meant to prevent a huge influx of emails at the end of the semester.

Technical Issues on Weekly QuizzesWe do not accept technical issues as an excuse for missed weekly quizzes. In a course that relies heavily on online quizzes, technical issues should be expected. If your computer is experiencing problems or your WIFI is being flaky, there are many computers available to you around campus, such as in Newman Library, Torgerson Hall, or the Math Emporium that you are free to use. Our advice is to take the quizzes early, and take them often (if you care to), because if your computer or your connection dies 10 minutes before the quiz is due, we cannot help you.

APPENDIX A Schedule for Weekly Book Reading QuizzesBook readings start second week of classes, and continue to end of semester.

WEEK #1 (FIRST WEEK OF CLASS!)No quiz due this week, but you should start reading chapters 1 & 2 of you want to get ahead.___________________________________________WEEK #2 [Quiz active from 7PM August 29 TO Friday 5PM September 5]Chapters 1 & 2; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #3 [Quiz active from 7PM September 5 TO Friday 5PM September 12]Chapters 3 & 4; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #4 [Quiz active from 7PM September 12 TO Friday 5PM September 19]Chapters 5 & 6; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #5 [Quiz active from 7PM September 19TO Friday 5PM September 26]Chapters 7 & 8; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #6 [Quiz active from 7PM September 26 TO Friday 5PM October 3]Chapters 9 & 10; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #7 [Quiz active from 7PM October 3 TO Friday 5PM October 10]Chapters 11 & 12; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #8 [Quiz active from 7PM October 10 TO Friday 5PM October 17]Chapters 13 & 14; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #9 [Quiz active from 7PM October 17 TO Friday 5PM October 24]Chapters 15 & 16; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #10 [Quiz active from 7PM October 24 TO Friday 5PM October 31]Chapters 17 & 18 & 18A; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #11 [Quiz active from 7PM October 31 TO Friday 5PM November 7]Chapters 19 & 20; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #12 [Quiz active from 7PM November 7 TO Friday 5PM November 14]Chapters 21 & 22; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #13 [Quiz active from 7PM November 14 TO Friday 5PM November 21]Chapters 23 & 24; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________

WEEK #14 [November 22 TO November 30]No nada anything: Thanksgiving Break from Saturday November 22 to Sunday November 30. Party on! Gobble, gobble! Week #15 Quiz will be active and open if you want to take them though....deadline is not until December 5th either way.___________________________________________WEEK #15 [Quiz active from 7PM November 21 TO Friday 5PM December 5] Chapters 25 & 26 & 27; quiz active until Friday at 5PM___________________________________________WEEK #16 [December 5 TO December 12]What, you want more?___________________________________________Wednesday!Dec 10: Classes EndThursday! Dec 11: Reading DayFriday! Dec 12: Exams BeginThursday! Dec 18: Exams EndFriday! Dec 19: University and Graduate Ceremonies

APPENDIX B Tentative Schedule for Weekly Video Lectures & QuizzesIndividual video times are shown after video title in ( ), and total time of all videos for that particular quiz are listed underneath each video cluster block.

WEEK #1 [Quizzes active from 8AM August 22 TO 5PM Friday August 29](FIRST WEEK OF CLASS!)

QUIZ NAME: INTRO #1 ! Going Global: The Story of Globalization (16:43)! A Plan for Making Sense of the Planet (29:07)45:50

QUIZ NAME: INTRO #2! Know Your News & the Left vs. the Right (29:31)! Course Mechanics (13:48)42.79

QUIZ NAME: STATES #1! Intro: A World of States (1:37)! The State of States (17:40)! Sovereignty: What is it? How do you get it? (19:04)! Sovereignty Stopper: Genocide (17:33)55.11__________________________________________________________________WEEK #2 [Quizzes active from 7PM August 29 TO Friday 5PM September 5]

QUIZ NAME: STATES #2! Modern Day Sovereignty Issues (22:22)! State or Not a State Game (7:33)! The Political Left and Right (9:52)39:07

QUIZ NAME: STATE #3! Types of Government (26:23)! Global Patterns of Governance (12:27)! World of States Summary (1:49)40:39

QUIZ NAME: STATE #4! Know Your Heads of State (1:34:41)94.41

____________________________________________________________________

WEEK #3 [Quizzes active from 7PM September 5 TO Friday 5PM September 12]

QUIZ NAME: ORGS #1! Intro to Conflict/Cooperation (4:19)! The Changing Nature of Cooperation. (16:19)! Why Work Together: Economics (20:18)40.56

QUIZ NAME: ORGS #2! NAFTA (15:16)! MERCOSUR (11:56)! USAN (ALL NEW!)! APEC (8:28)! ASEAN (13:38)! TPP (ALL NEW!)48.38

QUIZ NAME: ORGS #3! EU: European Union (15:51)! Eurasian Union (ALL NEW!)! Economic blocks etc. (22:41)! Why We Work Together: Security & Defense (6:11)44:03____________________________________________________________________WEEK #4 [Quizzes active from 7PM September 12 TO Friday 5PM September 19]

QUIZ NAME: ORGS #4! UN: Mission & Structure (16:42)! UN: Security Council (16:22)! UN: P5 Playas & Haters (23:47)56:11

QUIZ NAME: ORGS #5! NATO Intro (2:12)! NATO Basic Training (11:36)! NATO Grows (18:23)32:11

QUIZ NAME: ORGS #6! Future of NATO (14:45)! SCO (19:45)! The Nuke Group (28:35)63:05____________________________________________________________________

WEEK #5 [Quizzes active from 7PM September 19 TO Friday 5PM September 26]

QUIZ NAME: ECON #1Economics #1: Money! through Economic Examples! Money! Intro to Economics (3:43)! The Systems (34:42)38:25

QUIZ NAME: ECON #2! Nationalization vs Privatization (25:17)! Examples (11:06)36:23

QUIZ NAME: ECON #3! Fab 4 Economic Sectors (16:07)! Economic Sector Smackdown (10:29)! Economic Exceptions (9:05)35:41

QUIZ NAME: ECON #4! Measuring Wealth: GDP et al (21:33)! Other Monetary Matters (19:47)! Sold! Wrap it up! (3:42)44:22____________________________________________________________________WEEK #6 [Quizzes active from 7PM September 26 TO Friday 5PM October 3]

QUIZ NAME: JAPAN #1! Konnichiwa! Intro to Japan (3:36)! Physical World of Japan (14:45)! Laggards to Loners: Early History (16:14)34:35

QUIZ NAME: JAPAN #2! Meiji Makeover (10:24)! Imperial Rise of Rising Sun (11:59)22:23

QUIZ NAME: JAPAN #3! Bad Blood of War (18:04)! Post-War Economic Miracle (12:08)30:12

QUIZ NAME: JAPAN #4! Shinto Slump (17:23)!! Japan Now (14:02) ! Japan Current Issues (ALL NEW!)! Sayanora! Conclusion (1:34)32:59

____________________________________________________________________WEEK #7 [Quizzes active from 7PM October 3 TO Friday 5PM October 10]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #8 [Quizzes active from 7PM October 10 TO Friday 5PM October 17]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #9 [Quizzes active from 7PM October 17 TO Friday 5PM October 24]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #10 [Quizzes active from 7PM October 24 TO Friday 5PM October 31]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #11 [Quizzes active from 7PM October 31 TO Friday 5PM November 7]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #12 [Quizzes active from 7PM November 7 TO Friday 5PM November 14]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #13 [Quizzes active from 7PM November 14 TO Friday 5PM November 21]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey___________________________________________________________________WEEK #14 [November 22 TO November 30]No nada anything: Thanksgiving Break from Saturday November 23 to Sunday November 30. Party on! Gobble, gobble! Week #15 Quiz will be active and open if you want to take them though....deadline is not until December 5th either way.____________________________________________________________________WEEK #15 [November 21 TO December 5]

TBA: Regional lecture will be picked and produced based upon the class survey____________________________________________________________________WEEK #16 [December 5 TO December 12]TBA: do you want more lecture video and more quizzes?____________________________________________________________________Wednesday! Dec 10: Classes EndThursday! Dec 11: Reading DayFriday!! Dec 12: Exams BeginThursday! Dec 18: Exams EndFriday!! Dec 19: University and Graduate Ceremonies