GNED 101 SPECIAL FIRST WEEK STUDY MATERIALS

Important
This page provides a bunch of media and links to help you with the first week of GNED 101, especially if you missed the first lecture. We will not be providing you with this much stuff for future lessons; it is important to attend the class on Tuesdays, to pay attention and perhaps take a few notes, and study whatever review materials we provide.

How this class will work + the first week's exercise

Each week there will be a lesson on Tuesday tied to a reading, followed by an exercise related to that week's lesson. The exercise is to be completed by you at whatever time you choose, and will usually be due in Blackboard by midnight Monday on the following week.

More details on how the class works will be found in the video below.

For this first week only, because things are just getting started and some people will be joining the class late, you will have two weeks to complete the exercise, until Monday (Sept. 18), but we recommend that you complete it as soon as possible.

The exercise this week (due in Blackboard no later than 11:59pm on Monday Sept 18) will be to watch the How this class will work video below, study the lesson on Plato, and then take a multiple choice test on Blackboard to check your knowledge and understanding of how the class will work and the Plato lesson. Again, for this lesson only there will be no time limit on the multiple choice test. The goal is for you to get 5/5 on it and to have understood how the class works and learned something about Plato.

How this class will work
You should watch this video and review it before taking the quiz. The video is about a half an hour long, but you will only be tested on stuff talked about in the first 14 minutes, so feel free to skip the rest if you aren't interested.

 

This Week's Lesson: Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

The first week's lesson introduces the class to a famous text from Ancient Greek philosophy, Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," from The Republic. The links and embedded videos below can help you learn about this material.

Written version of the lesson
This written version provides all the information presented in the lecture in a written format. It also includes within it the full text of the Plato reading, in the modernized version we are using for this term.

Plato, The Allegory of the Cave, adapted and slightly modernized by Dr Jim
This is the text for this week's reading on its own (handed out in the first class). It is also included in the written lesson above.

The Allegory of the Cave, read by Dr Jim
It might help you to watch a video where Jim reads the text to you while you read along.

Recording of a 2022 synchronous online version of Jim's lecture
Useful for those who missed the first lecture (or would like to see it again! ,-) and don't want to read the written version above.