• Each student should sign up for two blog posts of your own topic related to ICTD by Monday 2/10, although you can change your topic later . You can choose to blog about the topic for that week for class OR a topic of your choice. You can check out, for example, the World Bank's ICTD blogs, to get a sense of the type of posts in industry. 
• I want you to think of this not as a dreaded assignment but as a 'You' piece, where you are posting something of interest to you that you want to share with the ICT4D practice community, much like people like ourselves or our FB group. I can assure you that if you write a thoughtful piece, it will be useful to most if not all of us! ICT4D is a very diverse field, so we are always learning! If I can get my cake and eat it too, I would love for this to be accepted into cross posting to prominent blogs, and to have you be able to list this in your resume. 
• Blog Posts are Due before class on Monday, please share it with me (allowing me to edit) as a Google Doc, or email them to me in some kind of searchable text based format (like MS Word) as I will be using Google Docs to open and post. I will post them on the (temporary) blog platform and give you the url. 
• Students posting the post will then market the post to at least three separate sources (email lists and/or social networks)
• Blog posters will be graded on content and the ability to generate and moderate discussion. Criterion include: 
• Your ability to share a topic close to heart with other students and practitioners in a way that informs them or is helpful to them (ie, keep your audience in mind, which is a basic principle of many social ICTD projects)
• The logic AND creativity in your a. setting out a topic/thesis, b. explaining the theory, c. the application, d. the critiques and e. your recommendations (ie be smart, AND not boring!)
• Your ability to generate quality discussions (again, another principle of ICT4D online community practice)- ie respond to the comments, be positive, managing conflict (if any), etc.
• Length is not as important as the above criterion, but as a general guideline, 500-1000 words (1-2 page single spaced, diagrams not included) is generally acceptable for a blog post of this nature. 
• Blog comments and discussions by the non-posting students, as part of the class participation grade, are due within a week from the date of blog posting
• There is an expectation that classmates in our F2F class will comment at least once thoughtfully (if not more) on your classmates' posts for the week. 

Consulting Projects

• Students will choose a class project and preferably work in teams
• Select a project that is useful, important and fun for You. Possible projects as of 18th Feb are: 
•    See proposed projects with details (within class project sign up sheet)
• A brief project proposal is due before class on Monday (see deadline in Assignment document, below). Please share it with me (allowing me to edit) as a Google Doc, or email it to me in some kind of searchable text based format (like MS Word) as I will be using Google Docs to open.
• Project Invoices with time sheets are due the first Monday after the end of each month, one invoice per team/project. Please share via Google Docs or email them to me.
• Detailed instructions on proposals and time sheets (with samples) are within the announcement here. 
• Final presentations and papers are due to the clients at the end of the course. Papers will be approximately 8 pages single spaced PER team member (diagrams and appendices excluded) and with a presentation of about 10-20 minutes per project depending on group size (Q&A to follow).
• All group members will receive the same grade for the group component, unless there are rare, extenuating circumstances.
• Students will be able to list their projects in their resume, with the instructor and clients as references if needed.

Assignment Sign Up Sheet and Due Dates