Taboo Topics

I generally don't like to censor student writing and would rather rely on the student's own good judgment to follow the guidelines as presented below.  There are only three of them. 

1. Please don't be nasty in writing about some other student in the non-course or in writing about me.  That applies to both your own blog posts and to comments you might write on the blog posts of others.  You are free to disagree with the author and sometimes such disagreement helps the author to understand the need to refine the argument or drop it entirely.  But being disagreeable in doing so is not necessary and will actually weaken how others regard the points you are trying to make.  
2. Please refrain from discussing national politics in your non-course blog and in your comments.  If you want to discuss politics, do it elsewhere.  I sometimes write about national politics in my Lanny on Learning blog.  But I won't write about it here.  This guideline is there to help us be collegial as a group and not breed antagonism for one another.  
3. Please refrain from talking about your romantic interests (boyfriend or girlfriend or lack thereof).  If you feel a need to write about that I suggest keeping a journal that is private - your eyes only. In contrast, if you get to be friends with others in the non-course in a Platonic way, writing about that is fine.  You may very well learn from each other more than you'll learn from me. So those interactions are consistent with the goals of the non-course and they are fair game to talk about.