Week Three Day 1

Where did the time go today in the F2F class. I went over some of the links under the Resources tab and spent some time talking about doing one's own research using http://www.surveymonkey.com/. My Creative Composers will be spending this week gathering information, seeing if http://www.polleverywhere.com/ or http://www.surveymonkey.com/ will work for their first research paper around the theme of education.

I emphasized how important it is to write for a real audience and take risks in this course on the writing material. I told them that each paper they would write for me would go to a real audience and not just me. I think they were surprised that their writing was going to be more than an academic exercise.

Since our reading was about 9-11, we explored conspiracy theories as it relates to evaluating web sources. Kudos for today's assignment go to Caitlin, Clay, and Kelles for summarizing the flight remote contol theory. Before checking out their post, check out the pod/remote control non-credible YouTube video.

Here is their post:

Conspiracy Theory # _5_ Debunked Summary:
The Conspiracy Theory states that the planes that hit the world trade towers were remote controlled. The company that manufactured the planes that struck the towers explained that there was no way for the planes to be controlled from any other location other then the flight deck of the actual aircraft. Eyewitness passengers also made phone calls stating that hijackers had taken control of the planes.

Non- Credible: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=76058

It is noncredible because:

- It is “.com” not “.gov” or “.edu”

- It is full of advertisements

- There are no credible credentials to the author or the page.

So, how would I change this activity. As I was searching around for conspiracy theory videos, I found it would have been more educational for the students to view these videos and then find a credible source that debunked the theory. The students could provide evidence and state why the source was credible. The only problem with having groups of students view videos in a F2F computer class is that there is no sound on the computers, so perhaps this approach was the way to go, or save this lesson for an online class.

What surprised me in the submissions was that two groups didn't save the worksheet to the desktop and work on the responses from the desktop, upload the document and submit it. I had assumed that they knew how to do it. I also found out that some students don't know how to use the course management system messaging function.

There were no time for presentations either. Next week, I will delve right into the activity for the day. I felt that since this was the second time I've seen them since January 11th, they needed more orientation to what was in the course.

Good lesson overall. The students were attentive and learned that doing their own research and finding a real audience is a part of the authentic writing experience.

Nick, Mackenzee, and Laura summarized the insider trader theory. They summarized the theory and provided evidence debunking the theory. Their resource person provided them with a non-credible source. Here is an example of a non-credible source on the subject of inside trading.

Here is their post:
Nick, Mackenzee, Laura


This is a conspiracy that states that there was unusual trading in stocks of United and America Airlines just before September 11, 2001 supporting evidence of knowledge prior to the attack. The U.S government debunks this stating that indeed there was trading, but each trade was made for a specific reason.

Non- credible source: http://www.hereinreality.com/  . This is a non-credible source because there is no contact information, or any way to track their information to a source.