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Unit 4
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last edited
by Chris Werry 8 years, 10 months ago
Assignment Description Unit 4
Texts that Respond to Carr
- Shirky, "Does The Internet Make You Smarter?" (pdf, web page) This text takes on Carr's claims directly, acknowledging some of his points but complicating the overall argument.
- Pinker, "Mind Over Mass Media" Pinker challenges Carr, mounting a direct and rather dismissive attack on his entire project.
- Howard Rheingold, "Attention Literacy." Rheingold argues that "you need to learn how to exercise mindful deployment of your attention online if you are going to become a critical consumer of digital media." Rheingold does not believe the internet inevitably produces the effects Carr claims, but suggests that students must be taught how to manage and be aware of how they direct their attention.
- Encyclopedia Britannica hosted a forum on Carr's text. Many prominent writers responded with some short, lively posts. Here, for example, is Clay Shirky's "Why Abundance is Good: A Reply to Nick Carr." Some of these texts support Carr, some extend his claims, others complicate, challenge or qualify them.
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Edge magazine hosted an online debate of Carr's article. Again, there are a lot of short texts by prominent writers and prognosticators, including W. Daniel Hillis, Kevin Kelly, Larry Sanger, George Dyson, Jaron Lanier,Douglas Rushkoff,W. Daniel Hillis, David Brin
Texts Students Could Draw on to "Enter the Conversation"
- Jabr, F. (2013). Scientific American. ‘The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screen. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reading-paper-screens/
- Hooper and Herath, Is Google Making Us stupid? The Impact of the Internet on Reading Behaviour’.
- Sparrow, B., Liu, J., Wegner, D M. (2011) Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips. Safer Communications. [online] July. Sciencexpress, Sciencemag. Available at: http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/pdfs/science.1207745.full.pdf
- PBS video on new media and changes in cognition (10 minutes). Science correspondent Miles O'Brien looks at what could be happening to teenagers' brains as they develop in a rapid-fire, multitasking world of technology and gadgets. Jan 5, 2011.
- "Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say." By Michael S. Rosenwald, Published: April 6.
- Is Online Skimming Hurting Reading Comprehension? Transcript (and audio) of Robin Young's interview with Maryanne Wolf, cognitive neuroscientist at Tufts University. Wolf discusses her concerns and her research. She fears that the practice of the internet is ruining our ability for “deep reading.”
- Students Reading E-Books Are Losing Out, Study Suggests. By ANNIE MURPHY PAUL. New York Times, APRIL 10, 2014
- To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand Students do worse on quizzes when they use keyboards in class. ROBINSON MEYER, Atlantic Monthly, MAY 1 2014.
- What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades? MARIA KONNIKOVAJUNE 2, 2014 New York Times.
- The World is Digital, But Please Close Your Laptop in Class. By Peter C. Herman. (SDSU Professor)
- Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes. Katherine Hayles. Profession 2007.
- The Flight From Conversation. New York Times, April 21, 2012. Sherry Turkle is a psychologist and professor at M.I.T. and the author, most recently, of “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.”
- Why Can’t Johnny Write? Don’t Blame Social Media. http://mashable.com/2013/03/04/social-media-ffect-on-writing/
- “2b or not 2b?” David Crystal. The Guardian, July 2008. Despite doom-laden prophecies, texting has not been the disaster for language many feared, argues linguistics professor David Crystal. On the contrary, it improves children's writing and spelling
- Talking With Your Fingers By JOHN MCWHORTER, April 23, 2012.
- John McWhorter, TED talk: Txtng is killing language. JK!!
Alternative Assignments
THE END/WPA
- Happy endings for your class (ways of ending the class and organizing evaluations, etc.)
- The WPA (preparing students for WPA). Here's a file of information that I've used for a final unit on the WPA that could work for 100 or 200, it includes info on the WPA, an outline on the lesson plan, sample article, essay and WPA evaluation. Here's an evaluation assignment (students respond to a classmate's essay) that partners with the unit.
- Advice on the WPA by SSSD.
- A helpful prezi on the WPA for transfer students by Eddie Ling: https://prezi.com/ksuffxtraeeg/sdsu-wpa/
- An in-class assignment I've used either on the last day of class or on final's day so students can reflect on their progress and I can receive feedback apart from evaluations. (Alicia)
If We Use Gladwell
Here are some links that might be useful.
Using Haidt Text on Ethics, Evolution, Reasoning etc
Framing Articles?
Perhaps we could use this article on framing, "The Art of Reframing Political Debates," by Charlotte Ryan and William Gamson, Contexts, Spring 2006.
It is short, pretty engaging, helps with discussions of assumptions, could set students up for 200, and in a sense the issue of framing moves them toward rhetorical analysis without it being called this. It could also open the possibility of students using visual texts, and might also follow on from the work just done on strategies.
Students could use this text as a way of analyzing another text that discusses a social movement, issue, or social problem, or they could take a visual text like the Daily Show and examine how it reframes an issue.
Or, perhaps the assignment could be for the student to analyze the way a text frames an issue, and make the case for a productive reframing of that case so as to be more persuasive, reach a broader audience, etc.
Could also use one of more of the following to help explain what framing is about, or as target texts to analyze:
EXAMPLE One Event: Three Frames, Three Solutions
http://www.c3.ucla.edu/toolbox/terms-concepts/strategic-frame-analysis/strategic-communication-terms
Charlotte Ryan, author of Prime Time Activism, offers a good example of how one event can be framed in many ways, with a profound impact on the event's meaning. Consider the following three different versions of one news story:
- "An infant left sleeping in his crib was bitten repeatedly by rats while his 16-year-old mother went to cash her welfare check."
- "An eight-month-old South End boy was treated yesterday after being bitten by rats while sleeping in his crib. Tenants said that repeated requests for extermination had been ignored by the landlord. He claimed that the tenants did not properly dispose of their garbage."
- "Rats bit eight-month old Michael Burns five times yesterday as he napped in his crib. Burns is the latest victim of a rat epidemic plaguing inner-city neighborhoods. A Public Health Department spokesperson explained that federal and state cutbacks forced short-staffing at rat control and housing inspection programs."
Each version of the story represents a different frame-in other words, each has a distinct definition of the issue, of who is responsible, and of how the issue might be resolved. The first version, by emphasizing the age and actions of the mother (leaving her baby to cash a welfare check), suggests that the problem is irresponsible teens having babies. The solution would be reforming welfare to discourage or punish such irresponsible behavior.
Most articles about low-income people use the first version news story frame. It illustrates a news story that is episodic in its approach to a specific problem.
In version two, the issue is a landlord-tenant dispute about responsibility for garbage. The solution depends on the reader's perspective: either stronger enforcement of laws related to a landlord's responsibilities, or laws that would make it easier for a landlord to evict irresponsible tenants.
Only the third version really gets into larger issues about the impact of funding cuts on basic services in low-income communities. It illustrates a news story that is thematic in its approach to a specific problem.
Unit 4
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