Digital Nation on PBS.org

One of our discussions lately reminded me of this web series. It is called Digital Nation. It is not just a small video. It has even expanded from when I first introduced it to my classes years ago. This is an ongoing project PBS is doing. A lot of what they discuss in these videos is very relevant to our topic of the class. We will watch a video or two from this website in class tonight. But I wanted you to have the link so that you can use it for your papers, and see what is being researched and talked about on these topics. 

Whole Website:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/

Multitasking at MIT Video

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/living-faster/split-focus/multitasking-at-mit.html?play

Online, all the time Video

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/living-faster/digital-natives/online-all-the-time.html?play

Life, Sped Up Video

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/living-faster/where-are-we-headed/life-sped-up.html?play

So get on the website and bring your opinions to your journals and to class and we'll see where everyone stands. 

Journal assignment: See all sides

From time to time I will provide you one of your topics for your journals. This is all in preparation for your next Major Writing Assignment. For this one just follow the directions below. I will post your next assignment soon. 

Here is the journal assignment:

With some topics, the conversation will be presented as a series of arguments while in others it might be presented as a series of questions. Your job in this journal is to describe the debates or questions that comprise your topic.

You have probably heard the old cliché that every argument has two sides. This is not the best way to approach a topic, since most arguments have more than two sides. Think about something like the abortion debate. Are there only two sides—those for it and those against it? Hardly. There are people who want it to be illegal in any circumstance. Others argue it should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest, or when there is a threat to the life of the mother. There are people who want it to be legal but want to provide disincentives (e.g. mandatory counseling) to women considering one. Some people want it to be legal only in the first trimester, while some who want it to be legal want to make sure it happens very rarely. There are people who want it to be legal without restriction.  

Do you see how there are many sides to this debate? Do you see how these sides can translate into groups or camps who all take part in the discussion? 

In this journal assignment, discuss the various debates or questions associated with your topic. You will need to describe how the conversation is made up of multiple camps and sub-topics reflecting the variety of opinion on this topic.

This journal will prepare you for the more in-depth discussion of commentary, like we will do for our next major writing assignment. 

I will post the assignment details for the 2nd Major Writing Assignment soon. 

Summarizing

I have been thinking that we need to discuss summarizing in class. Let's take some time in class tonight to do that. Here are a few images that might help if you are struggling with summarizing. 

Unfortunately they all came from the same person, as far as I can tell. But they are good anyway. I hope it helps.

And this article is the one we will be using to practice summarizing tonight. It's called "The Bounty of the Sea" by Jaques Cousteau.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7mb7BBiWHaVSWJEMVFfOVRTSGs/edit?usp=sharing

MLA Format

I am sure most of you are fully involved in making your Annotated Bibliography by now. So this might just be unnecessary info, but I wanted to share my favorite hand out for MLA Format. We will talk about this in class tonight, so don't worry about it too much I just wanted you all to have a copy of it without me having to make copies.

I used google drive to share it. I hope it works. If it does it opens up the doors for me to share other pdf files and things that I have collected over the years.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7mb7BBiWHaVcDR6UEgtd3dFMzQ/edit?usp=sharing

How to Google like a Boss!!

Hey Guys,

I wanted to share this photo with you again. There are so many tricks to researching and searching on google and other search engines. But really, there are too many to remember them all. So find what works for you and share it with the class here.

Where do you go to find the best stuff for your papers? What kind of things do you type in to the search bar to get the right kinds of articles? Many will benefit from your experience.

Due Date Change!!!

After discussing with the class today, we decided to change the due date for the Research Summary/Annotated Bibliography to July 9.

So bring your printed out paper with you to class on Wednesday, July 9.

Also don't forget to format your paper using MLA. Meaning, 12 pt font, Times New Roman, double spaced. Also don't forget to include your name, date, teacher, assignment (all double spaced) on the first page, left aligned.

Here is an example of formatting for MLA

Here is one citation close up: notice the hanging indent and paragraph formatting

This is another example. It's just a screen shot, and it's not double spaced, but it's formatted correctly

One last one. Notice the shorter paragraphs and hanging indents

I hope these examples will help you as you write and format your annotated bibliographies.
Happy 4th everyone!

Journal topic ideas

I've been thinking that we should do some online brainstorming like we did in class last week. This is my way of helping you figure out what to write about in your weekly journals. So I did a basic search about journaling on Pinterest and here are a few pics of what I found. They might not all work because some of them are about art journals. But take what ideas work for you and don't forget to share some ideas of your own in the comments.