Week 10 Day Two

Blog Post 3 dealt with the subject of stereotypes and restricted definitions. The directions to the post were as follows:



William Rasberry in his essay The Handicap of Definition makes a plea for providing the younger generation with a more postive, more expansive definition of black.

Answer the two questions below:

1. Do research on another ethnic group which carries with it a limited definition of that group (e.g., Australian, German, Arab, Chinese, etc). How is that group stereotypically defined? What can teachers, parents, and society at large do to impart to the younger generation positive and more expansive definitions of ethnic groups?

2. Like most people, you or someone you know had had a "defining" term applied to you at one time or another. Perhaps you've been called "shy" or "stubborn" or "the class clown" or "the athlete of the family." Focusing on one such label that's been applied to you, explain the effects that this labeling has had on your life.

Don't forget to comment on at least two of your peers' posts.

Even though not all the posts are in, I liked Nick M's post on Greek stereotypes and his personal reflection on being looked down because he was a golfer.

1. The Greek culture interests me because that is the majority of my background, but being Greek in times like these is not very easy. As many know who watch the news, they know that in Athens, the capital of Greece, there is absolute chaos going on. You can start to see stereotypes being thrown around because the economy in Greece is terrible. I have heard many people say that Greeks have olive oil skin, or are too cocky because they think that they invented everything. Many people are laughing at the Greeks now saying that they are ignorant and can't even support their own economy, but yet look at the economy of the U.S. People everywhere are always going to look down on people of different cultures, but in reality everyone is the same.

I think that the best thing that teachers could do would be to show students the positive parts of every culture. Then the students can associate their classmates with positive thinking. If students are taught young to associate good thoughts with other cultures, then maybe there will be more acceptance in our future society and racism will be cut down to a minimum.

2. My entire life I have loved the game of golf. Many people saw this sport as a easy sport, or something that required no athleticism. I always used to be ashamed to tell my friends that I was going golfing, or going to practice. I decided once I got to high school that I wanted to do something with the game I love, so I gave up on what people thought. All my true friends didn't bother me about it, and I took my game to a whole new level. Now that I have a pro card, I look back at all the kids that made fun of me and smile knowing that I am a pro athlete.

Week 10 Day One

We discussed the subject of surveys and Gen Nexters (born in the 1980s)from the reading by Ann Hulbert called Beyond the Pleasure Principle . The activity was to replicate a Pew Research Center study done in 2006 on values, behaviors and issues of Gen Nexters.

I sent the students out with the task to interview 3 people on campus (preferably people in the Gen Nexter age range) and ask them five questions. The questions were as follows:

1. Do you support gay marriage?
2. Do you support privatization of the Social Security system?
3. Do you believe it is yur duty as a citizen to vote?
4. Do you agree with the statement that technological tools make people lazier?
5. Do you agree with the statement that the growing number of immigrants in the U.S. strengthens our country.

With approximately 65 respondants, the results were tallied with Alex in charge of figuring out the best procedure for tabulation.

1. 64% supported gay marriage.
2. 47% supported the privatization of the Social Security system.
3. 90% agreed with the statement that it is your duty as a citizen to vote.
4. 58% agreed with the statement that technological tools make people lazier.
5. 18.5% of the respondants agreed with the statement that the growing number of immigrants in the U.S. strengthens our country.

We discussed the discrepancies with the statistics in the Pew Research Center study looking at the different variables, such as the demographics and the currency of the study.

The biggest difference was on Question 5 regarding immigrants strengthening our country (18.5% compared to 50% in the Pew study). We briefly talked about the high immigrant population in Florida and the issues related to employment and education. Although I wasn't terribly surprised that the survey revealed that the majority of students on the FGCU campus don't agree that immigrants strengthen our country, it brought home the point that we need to address the issue of diversity and spread awareness of what a diverse population can contribute to our nation.

This would make a good claim to use in an argument using the Rogerian pattern of argument to help students see the various perspectives on this topic.

We still had 15 minutes left in the period. I had talked about the i-Generation and planned to show the video clip below but the sound wasn't working. Instead, the students had to google the characteristics of the i-generation and form three questions regarding the values, behaviors, or issues of this generation and form their questions to try and elicit the differences between the Nexters and the i-generation.

A couple of questions posed in the discussion forum were:

(Carly's Questions)

1. Was either your first or second cell phone a smartphone?

2. Did/Do you have a facebook in middle school?

3. Have you ever used dial up Internet connection?

(Jennifer's Questions)

1. Were you in elementary school when you recieved your first cell phone?

2. Were you younger than 15 when you joined your first social net-working website?

3. Do you use a PDA for more of a research data base than your own computer?

In a way, I'm glad that the video didn't work, because it allowed time for tdiscussion of the differences between the i-generation and the Gen Nexters.

Here is the video clip I wanted to show.

Week 9 Day Two

This week's online blog post was on personality types. The following were the directions to the assignment.




Revisit James Gleick's essay Life as Type A on pp. 449-454 of your Longman Reader.

1. Do some research on Type B personality. Write a post of no shorter than 150 words in which you offer a fuller definition of the Type B personality than Gleick's essay provides. Rather than defining Type B through negation, as Friedman and Roseman do, marshal convincing evidence that illustrates the validity of the Type B phenomenon. Write a brief personality sketch of the "canonical" Type B as well as discuss the factors that shape the Type B personality as you define it. Be sure and cite your source.

2. Take the personality test at http://www.personalitytype.com/career_quiz and summarize the results.

Type A
Type B

Here is a good post by Caitlin.

1. Gleick's essay revolves around mostly explaining what a type A personality is, and towards the end he adds a little 'blurp' about what a type b personality is but doesn't explain it with enough information for anyone to completely comprehend. It says that a type b personality is the opposite of a type a personality, and with a little research its easy to figure out. A type b personality is someone that is much more easy going, they relax easy and they know the value of the word patience. These people are also very non confrontational, and their rarely ever quick to anger. Their calm, cool and collected and it takes alot to irritate them. They know how to keep themselves from becoming too stressed and when they do get stressed they know how to channel their stress rather then being destructive. If a type a personality becomes overwhelmed at work or with school work they tend to get frustrated and shut down rather then getting anything done, where as a type b personality will make a list of everything they have to do and get it done in an efficient manor without becoming frustrated or stressed.




2. The results for my personality test were ENFP. ENFP's are curious, energetic, adaptable and creative. We like letting ideas float around and come up with a solution thats unconventional and out of the ordinary. We tend to be talkative, enthusiastic, playful, and generally fun loving people, who are warm and caring but have strong personal values. Tend to pride ourselves for our uniqueness and originality, but are optimistic for the "possible." We tend to see significance in al things and keep our options open. After all were only 6-8% of the world.



Several students are not reading the directions carefully enough to know that they need to comment on a minimum of two of their peers' posts.

On Monday, I need to remind the students to be sure and cite all graphics that are not royally free. Many are forgetting to do this. Most have gotten the hang of labeling conventions. There are a few who don't bother to read the directions.

I was pleased with the way that the Monday lesson on procrastination linked to Personality Type B. Ben and a couple of others pointed that out. I hope the students are finding the readings interesting. I certainly am finding the essays in Comp 2 very good.

Week 9: Day One

Today we worked on creating a visual argument from an essay in our text. The directions were as follows:

Use the information in the article by Kurt Kleiner When Manana Is Too Soon to create a visual argument supporting Steel's claim that there is little correlation between anxiety and the tendency to procrastinate. Put a PowerPoint slide presentation together that explains in pictures and text his theory that procrastination is caused by a combination of hyperbolic discounting with a theory of motivation called expectancy theory, or temporaal motivational theory (TMT).

Your pictures should dominate your argument.

You title slide should include the title of your presentation and the names of the authors. Your title should be catchy and be related to procrastination. Include at least five slides not including the title slide.

The last slide should cite ONE of the images you use in your slideshow using MLA format. Use www.easybib to enter the information.

Roles: Resource Person (has text, does image citation, and looks for images)

Writer: (looks for images, writes text, puts slideshow together, submits PowerPoint presentation)

Katie and Erica did a great job on the various causes of procrastination presented by Kurt Kleiner.

There wasn't enough time to have selected students show their work.

Week 8: Day Two

This week began the collaborative blogging assignments. I decided to have everyone go into their Eagle mail and accept their invitation at the beginning of our F2F class on Monday.

I also had someone demonstrate how to embed a video. Despite this orientation, several of the students did not get onto the blog as they were supposed to do this week's blogging post on the Darley and Latane essay about the Kitty Genovese case. Several students are not reading the directions to the assignments and are losing points for this. I think it is due to lack of attentiveness when the oral directions are explained and the jumping into the assignment without reading what is needed. I don't know what the solution to the problem is.

Anyway, here is the assignment.

Read the true story of Kitty Genovese from the New York Times article written by Martin Gansberg two weeks after the crime.

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/mooreportal/kitty.html

Then answer two of the the following 3 questions.

1. Explain Darley and Latane's "diffusion of responsibility effect" in the Kitty Genovese case and find a similar case from the newspaper in which bystanders were involved and did nothing. Summarize the other case and provide your personal response to the story. Be sure and cite your source.

2. Darley and Latane cite social critics who believe that the United States has become a nation of strangers, alienated and withdrawn from one another. Write a response refuting this claim by summarizing one good Samaritan story from the news in which bystanders did react in a crisis to help someone out. Also, draw on your own or others' experience. Be sure and cite your source for your news story.

3. How could families and schools or communities or religious organizations encourage children to act rather than withdraw when confronted by someone in difficulty. Do some research and explain the steps that this particular institution could take to help develop children's sense of responsibility to others. Develop your points with specific examples of what has been done and what could be done. Be sure and cite your source(s).

There were some good posts on this subject with most students choosing to answer Questions 1 and 2. McKenzee did a nice post on Questions `1 and 2.

When I read about the Kitty Genovese case I found the results shocking yet understandable. Does that make me bad person? I’m sure anyone else who replied to this question would only talk about how it’s awful and inexcusable for the citizen’s actions. In reference to Question 1, I completely understand the "diffusion of responsibility effect". Why would anyone report a murder if in return they only get put as a suspect? The answer is they wouldn’t. The “diffusion of responsibly effect” is when someone that needs helps or in a crisis is ignored by others. There can be two reasons for this, fear and assumption. A person could be afraid to help someone because they could be put involved with it, when the truth is they just happen to be passing by as the right time. Other reasons include having the assumption that someone else is going to help them so they don’t need to. I fell that this effect has be influence by society.
Interesting video relating towards bystanders:



Although a claim has been stated by Darley and Latane in Question 2, about the United States becoming alienated from one another, I don’t believe it’s all true. There are always people that rise above society’s brainwashing ways and do the right thing. On Fox News in Oregon a group of men saw a women getting raped as they drove by. The men stopped the car to pull the guy off of her and held the guy until the cops arrived. There are good people out there; it’s just a matter of instincts and not fearing what’s going to happen if you do take action.
Link to the incident:
http://www.kptv.com/news/14441750/detail.html

Week 8: Day One

Monday's class centered around the power of visual rhetoric. Ann McClintock's essay Propaganda Techniques in Advertising allowed students to look at the various types of propaganda that are used in advertising.

Students worked in pairs to find three ads that would demonstrate at least three of the types of propaganda McClintock discussed in her essay.

The students did a good job with their PowerPoint presentations. Three groups presented. The one difficulty for some of the groups was to distinguish the transfer technique from the glittering generality technique.

Here is an example submitted by Laura and Jared.

transfer technique

name calling technique

glittering generalities technique

I was pleased with the activity and how students were so efficient in finding the ads that demonstrated the techniques. All seemed on task and the time limit was perfect.