Blog #4: Metaphors

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My first metaphor of choice is “A Thousand Rules and Three Principles”, meaning that writers often get writer’s block because they try to follow so many rules, but there are only three real principles you need to abide by. Basically the principles state that you should write what your are passionate about, tell and show the story, and conform to the audience/ purpose you are writing for (4, Reid). In my writing I often get distracted by all the guidelines I am supposed to follow from previous teachers and my professors now, so I at times get very overwhelmed with all I am required to incorporate into my writing.

“Lost Money and Thank-You Notes: What’s in an Audience” demonstrates that with everything you write, including thank-you notes you have to write for your specific audience and secondary audience.For example, if you were writing a thank-you note to your grandma it would be informal and more personable; verses a thank-you note to a professor or boss would be formal and professional. It’s forming your writing to fit the audience and what is being asked of you. While I was in Girl Scouts we had to write short letters to friends and family to let them know I was selling cookies, if you made the letter more personable or explained what the cookie money was going towards you were more likely to receive an order.

“Fruit Jell-O: Balancing Arguments & Examples” illustrates that good writing is a balancing act between your arguments and evidence. If you have too many arguments your text becomes very boring and bland and too much evidence or reasoning makes your reader confused about the point of the piece. I find this metaphor to be very useful to keep in mind throughout my writing because I sometimes get carried away with presenting too many arguments and not explaining them as well as I should have. This at times creates an issue upon my writing because it makes what I’m writing very dull and my audience loses interest. So I recognize that using the Jell-O act of balancing is both beneficial to me as a writer and to my audience.

“Wash-and-wear Paragraph” refers to very difficult task of trying to decide how long your paragraphs should be and all those rules your professors told you to follow while writing. It is important to keep in mind that every paragraph is different and serves a particular need in your paper, much like different loads of laundry. Throughout school every teacher had a different rule for writing paragraphs, mostly saying that your paragraph had to be a certain length. Writing a paragraph and having it in the back of your mind that it needs to be X amount sentence is often overwhelming, but this metaphor explains that paragraphs need to meet only the requirement of stating your idea and keeping your reader the loop.

My final metaphor is “Hey Hey Hey and the Textbook Conspiracy: Annotating Your Reading”, this metaphor explains the benefits of writing while you read. When you make notes in the margin of the text your reading or all over the page you are fully processing and analyzing what you are reading. It enhances your reading and you become a better writer if you are able to sort out the most important things in the text you are reading. My freshman year of high school my teacher always nagged the class to annotate while we read and I remember hating it because it does require more work and time. After not annotating for multiple passages and books we read, I came to the conclusion that it easier to annotate now while reading then having to go back and reread the entire passage because you forgot the key points.

Works Cited

Reid, E. Shelley. “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students.” Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2011. 3-23. Writing Spaces. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.

Crayola Think Ahead 6-10

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A new re-branding of Crayola's 24 crayons packaging. for 3-6 years old kids
A new re-branding of Crayola’s 24 crayons packaging. for 6-10 years old kids

Crayola Think Ahead

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A new re-branding of Crayola's 24 crayons packaging
A new re-branding of Crayola’s 24 crayons packaging. for 3-6 years old kids

Place and Healthcare

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Throughout the course so far, I have developed a much greater understanding of how place can impact people and how place matters. I still believe that where people come from is not a tell-all of who they will become in their future life, but rather, place gives people a jumping off point from which they can grow and become their own person. In this regard, while place does give influence, I would not say that it is the primary variable that matters. Having said that, I am now much more able to comprehend how place can impact us in different ways.

Place can play a great role in culture and worldview. I found that, when we were sharing where we came from as a class, that some people have a personality that bodes well with the neighborhood that they came from. Similarly, with Rosalba’s activity regarding the prices and sizes of housing in Oxnard, it is easy to see how even within a relatively small area there can be a great deal of variation in the community demographics. One house was located in La Colonia, which is historically Latino/a ethnicially, while the other was only a short distance away in a much wealthier beach neighborhood of Oxnard. It used to be difficult for me to think of such great variety in place on such a small small scale, believing that cities were mostly homogenous in their ethnic and financial demographics. This was also shown in our work with the Social Explorer system in how between census tracts that are immediately adjacent to one another there can be variance in the percentage of low income families or of ethnic diversity.

We have also discussed how place can influence health, which does fall into my area of study. In the video comparing the neighborhoods of High Point and Richmond, we could see a great deal of difference by the time High Point was renovated. High Point incorporated sidewalks and community gardens, as well as parks, all of which promote healthy living and safety in the community. Richmond, however, is a food desert. Its residents do not have access to grocery stores that supply healthy and fresh food; in turn, they wind up consuming primarily fast food or other snack foods from convenience and liquor stores. The limited amount of fresh food that they do have access to is often out of their price range due to the “poverty tax” that puts a premium on these goods. This is the sort of thing that, because of where I grew up, I never had to worry about, since the closest grocery store was never any further than a mile away.

The first article that I chose to analyze focuses less on treating place as a cause, and instead treats place as a result of other socio-demographic factors. The article examines place of death across Switzerland, particularly in regards to whether the elderly move to a nursing home prior to time of death or whether they die at home. Some of the factors contributing to home deaths were socio-economic position (SEP) and number of children, as it was predicted that those with a higher SEP were more likely to be in better general health and thus not be admitted to hospitals or nursing homes, and those with children had more family members to take care of them and did not require as much attention from a nursing staff (Hedinger et. al 7-8). I found this article interesting primarily in its treatment of place as the dependent rather than independent variable, which parallels my individual perspective on the relationship between people and place. In regards to my discipline, since I plan on working with the elder population, gaining knowledge of the reasons older individuals seek care in a nursing home or hospital is extremely significant to my field of study.

My second article of choice examines the relationship between place of residence and stroke hospitalization and death, particularly across the state of Florida. The team used ArcGIS software in order to link the data regarding mortality and hospitalization rates to the individual county geographic data that they received from the US Census Bureau (Robertson et. al 3). In their results, it was found that while there was no significant evidence of risk of hospitalization for stroke based on place, there was a much greater risk of stroke mortality in the northern part of the state. Based on the demographics for this region, there is a possibility that the cause of the greater mortality rate lies in the fact that northern Florida is much more rural than southern Florida. Part of the issue could be lack of timely emergency care in these areas (Robertson et. al 7-8). This study particularly increased my confidence in the idea that within my discipline it is possible to study spatial discrepancies between less populated areas and their overall access to proper health care and facilities.

Throughout our time in University 298, I have found that location can extraordinarily crucial in the examination of health care, whether it be because of an environmental factor affecting the quality of life of residents in a particular city, or whether it be because of lack of access to basic necessities for healthy living such as fresh food or hospitals. I am now confident in my abilities to apply what we have been practicing in class with the Social Explorer data, as well the techniques that I have been learning in my Social Statistics course in order to produce an individual research project to present at SAGE this May.

Works Cited

Hedinger, Damian, Julia Braun, Ueli Zellweger, Vladimir Kaplan, and Matthias Bopp. “Moving to and Dying in a Nursing Home Depends Not Only on Health- An Analysis of Socio-Demographic Determinants of Place of Death in Switzerland.” PLoS ONE 9.11 (2014). Web.

Roberson, Shamarial, Matthew Dutton, Megan Macdonald, and Agricola Odoi. “Does Place of Residence or Time of Year Affect the Risk of Stroke Hospitalization and Death? A Descriptive Spatial and Temporal Epidemiologic Study.” PLoS ONE 11.1 (2016). Web.

Comm(unity)cation

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I never really understood the importance of place to begin with, until attending my very first UNIV 298 class with Luis Sanchez and Sean Kelly. Reflecting back and seeing the place I grew up in, really got me thinking as to why place wasn’t highlighted in my education in the first place. I started to see that not just the place I grew up in, but how place in general is omniscient. After reading David Orr’s “Place and Pedagogy”article, and sitting in on our various discussions about these readings in class, I came to realize that place was always there as an overarching factor in my life, I just failed to acknowledge its presence. David Orr once said that, “A place cannot be understood from the vantage point of a single discipline or specialization. It can be understood only on its terms as a complex mosaic of phenomena and problems” (2013, 186). It’s easy to say I completely understand that quote, then again that would be a lie because place is constantly changing. Therefore my take on this would be completely different from yours; because depending on the backgrounds we each came from, which are directly dependent on the environment we grew up in and the culture we’re surrounded by, it’s difficult to come to the same conclusion. However, there is one commonality here in which we can both refer back to on a constant basis, and that is place. Place is a constant variable to everyone’s equation. And whether we’ve each been in multiple places or a couple, it’s important to recognize that, “Places are laboratories of diversity and complexity, mixing social functions and natural processes” (Orr, 2013, 186), on the same level as humanity. 
Researchers Erik Braun, Jasper Eshuis, Erik-Hans Klijn, Laura N. Rickard, and Richard C. Stedman, are all moving forward in connecting their research in the communication field to the sense of place. In the article, “The effectiveness of place brand communication” by Erik Braun, Jasper Eshuis, and Erik-Hans Klijn, “…assesses whether three different strategies for place brand communication have a positive effect on attracting residents and visitors” (Braun, et. al, pg. 64). This article explores the main principles of how communication brings people together in different cities within the Netherlands towards using place branding, place brand communication, place image, place marketing, and place communications. The brand image of place represents how these researchers approach making connections towards how place branding and communication effects the total result of more populated areas. After researching these more “well-known” places and using specified target groups, “The empirical analysis shows that both physical place, brand communication, and word of mouth, place brand communication have similar positive effects, mediated by the place brand image, on attracting both residents and visitors” (Braun, et. al, pg. 64) . In other words, communication makes a positive attribution towards better defining the concept of place brand imagery being that,“all encounters with the city take place through perceptions and images” (Kavaratzis, pg. 66). Through the use of conceptual models, Braun and his team of researchers were able to reach a consensus that, “Overall, the conclusion of this study is that the impact of word-of-mouth and physical place brand communication on the place brand image differs significantly from that of traditional place branding” (Braun, et. al, pg. 70).

The easiest way to explain how communication does correlate directly within sense of place is through the use of the information presented in the article, “From Ranger Talks to Radio Stations” by the distinguished research professors Laura N. Rickard and Richard C. Stedman.The basic idea is that, “…this article examines how communication about national parks may contribute to visitor formation of meanings about and attachment to these places” (Rickard and Stedman, pg. 16). However, I saw that through these trials and tribulations in the experiences of each physical setting, the researchers of this forum came to resemble how communication is emphasized in directly impacting the quality of our experiences within sense of place in these National Parks. Rickard and Stedman simply demonstrated the mere fact that, “How people interact in places, such as through outdoor recreation, also effects the meanings and attachment they develop” (Rickard and Stedman, pg. 16). They did this through the use of survey data from the visitors of three different National Parks, and incorporated those findings into identity, socio-historical conditions and the meaning of place.
Interestingly enough, the articles selected for this linkage between Communication and place all came down to meaning. Communication gives place more meaning through the quality of the experiences within the place and being able to interpret the physical characteristics of the place itself. The articles previously discussed covered a lot of foreground and helped me to better understand why place matters in my discipline. In fact, it makes me want to become more disciplined in this field knowing how important my field of study is to the world around me. The use of GIS and embedding information into tables is a key aspect of learning more about that connection.

Works Cited
Braun, Erik, Jasper Eshuis, and Erik-Hans Klijn. “The Effectiveness of Place Brand
Communication.” Cities, 41 (2014): 64-70.
Rickard, Laura N, and Richard C Stedman. “From Ranger Talks to Radio Stations: The Role of Communication in

Sense of Place.” Journal of Leisure Research, 47.1 (2015): 15.
Orr, David. “Place and Pedagogy.” Place and Pedagogy 38.1 (2013): 183-88. Place and
Pedagogy. The NAMTA Journal, Winter 2013. Web.

Why place matters in Environmental Science

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Place, what an obscure topic such a simple word can be. The technical definition of place is any particular point or position in space, but place can be anything someone makes it out to be. Just like “home is where year heart is” place can follow in the same footsteps. With a definition as vague as place it is no wonder why it cannot be quantified to its’ full extent, because where would a person begin to start? Well for the sake of this argument and for this essay, place will be defined as the specific area, city, state, and in greater terms the country in which a particular test and or study is being conducted. Now place actually matters a great deal in any specific situation, in blatant terms knowing ones specific place can be the difference between being alive or dead. Luckily for us college students, we do not have to be faced with such a dramatic decision, and the only place we need to be concerned about is the place within our own disciplines.

Although us college kids enjoy pressing our luck most of the time and explore “sketchy” places because we have that invincible mentality that comes with young adult hood. Those atmospheres in which we judge whether a police officer will come or not are not the sole reason why place is a concern of ours. Place has always been brought to us on an open platter we just never fully taken the time to ask ourselves why is it there and how it is important. As we were growing up every adult one time or another would always ask “what do you want to do with your life” and we for the most part never knew how to answer their questions. At the time we were unable to answer their questions because we did not fully know how to attack it. Well what we didn’t know or failed to realize was they were really asking us which metaphoric “place” in our lives do we want to reach. Now when I mean metaphoric place I do not mean the actual place we are in the point of time. What I actually mean is the destination at the end of our lives that we want to be at and or reach. Now as humans with our complexed minds it is almost impossible to stay stationary we are always on the move constantly looking for opportunities to express our complexed needs. Now with that nomadic mentality we people are constantly traveling from place to place whether it is literally or metaphorically.

As for me, my literal place right here right now is in the dorms of California State Channel islands and the metaphoric place I am seeking out to go is a career as an Environmental lawyer. Well as that is my desired place for now, it is not an easy task. In being so difficult my first step is getting a degree in Environmental Science and Resource Management while I study here at Channel Islands. Well thanks to this wonderful place I now call home this idea of place has finally been brought to my attention through the various course I have taken here. Place to me is far beyond the given space in time I am in, place is the exact position in which an event occurs and how that particular event reflects the span of all the other things in a given sequence. Well as I feel that a given place is an important point in the sequence, I also feel that any place is an important point of reference in any discipline. Especially one such as Environmental Science where the field itself practically has a monopoly on Geographic Information Systems, a system which utilizes the idea of place. To demonstrate not only the importance of place within my field, but in general as well I will be utilizing two case studies conducted in regards to environmental science and the real world.

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Now we all live in a city, and that city was formulated from the ground up with carful thought and consideration in all aspects. A city or even a building cannot even begin development until it compiles an environmental impact statement. A statement which explains the consequences it would cause to the environment and or to the people who would be living in such an atmosphere. Well as we know there are tons of cities all around the world and each one has underwent its urban development. All types of countries and even societies regardless of wealth carefully puts thought into their productions of building a cities. They utilize all sorts of resources they have to not only take into account the environmental consequences, but the economic, and social consequences as well.  With a system such as GIS which can virtually map out all sorts of situations it is almost impossible not to take into account the places and areas in which a particular event is taking place. Now since I am specifically talking about the environment and societal up bring and development those will be the only two main subject I will touch upon.

As I had mentioned before, a city’s development and or improvements take serious and diligent consideration in all regards especially in the safety of its citizens. For if the foundations of a city are built under let’s say an old radioactive wasteland its population would face many unintended consequences. With having the formation of a city being so dire such studies as the water quality of a main water source is an important test to compile before development. Luckily for environmentalist the system of GIS could help point and map out the potential contaminated water areas that would be undesirable for people of a highly polluted country such as China. With regards to China and its highly polluted country Yan et al. was able to conceptualize and visualize the spatial pollution characteristics and identify potential polluted risky regions of the Honghe River Watershed. Which due to the hustle and bustle of a rapid economy such as Chia nonpoint source pollutants tend to runoff into vital societal utilities. Now with such a study the scientist had used space and GIS to map out these non-point polluted surface waters and warn it the citizens of the Honghe watershed not to drink its waters from specific sources. Bring this back to home and using the same tactics and agenda Yan et al. were trying to accomplish with the help of GIS scientist could warn us of the potential water contaminations. If hypothetically in the local area fertilizer run off became a problem, where if it was an issue they would be able to map out which farms and or crop lands these pollutants were coming from so we could do something about them and resolve the issue of pollutants entering a system.

Well to further piggybacking off the idea that urban development has a vital role in our everyday lives, another case study has been conducted in another part of the world to demonstrate the importance of environmental science and its development planning. In Tehran the capital of Iran the problem of urban sprawling has been getting out of control and creating obnoxious noise pollution leaving its citizens to experience nervous system damage and mental behavior alterations. With the help of the GIS system scientist were able to assess the spatial changes in traffic noise pollution so they could identify critical noise pollutions, where they could then install noise barriers that would limit the decibel levels being expelled. Well thanks to the study Mohammad et al. conducted the material of a surface was determined to be a factor that could and would limit the noise pollution levels. As though this may not be a major issue to us city folk who are used to the constant noises of cars and other materials, others that are not so use to such a chaotic life style it could experience negative consequences. Well to demonstrate a real world example map layers and surveyors could utilize the GIS system to do what Mohammad et al. did and see where the nosiest places are and help them map out desired places to live for like real-estate. Where if noise pollution is a problem propriety values could drop and vacancy rates may rise causing issues within the house market.

As demonstrated with the small case studies I have presented, place is a vital part to any equation whether if it is something big as picking out a place to live or something as small as which seat one should sit in class. Place is an important utility that most of us take for granite and fail to be credited when credit is due. If place had no relevance we or even I would not even being writing this essay as I speak because Channel Islands would have never existed. Instead the CSU system decided to utilize this place the once Camarillo State Mental Hospital and turn it into the CI we know and love. Place and GIS in general can and does place a crucial role in all aspects and failing to recognize and utilize such as system is a disadvantage to our own self.

Works Cited

MONAZZAM, MOHAMMAD REZA, et al. “Spatial Traffic Noise Pollution Assessment – A Case Study.” International Journal Of Occupational Medicine & Environmental Health 28.3 (2015): 625-634. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2016

Yan, Chang-An, et al. “Assessment Of Water Quality And Identification Of Polluted Risky Regions Based On Field Observations & GIS In The Honghe River Watershed, China.” Plos ONE 10.3 (2015): 1-13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

Blog Entry #4 – 5 metaphors and a reason why-

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2. Show & Telepaths

This metaphor means what you can explain a concept but can’t prove it which means don’t tell a story that you can’t show proof to. This is a tricky thing in writing because it is a fine line between academic writing and creative writing. Which is often a struggle in writing but can be easily avoided. I struggle with this but I’ve learned to read over the assignment multiple times and check to see what I write is able to be proven with examples or citations.

 

4. Lost Money and Thank-you Notes: what’s in an audience

This is a tricky metaphor because it not only addresses the primary audience but also the secondary audience. I find it hard when writing to make sure that I am addressing the correct audience in the right manner. I face this problem a lot this semester in English 107 with the blog posts. We are writing as an assignment for our professor but also to our peers and ourselves. With this we need to be able to formal for the academic part but relaxed so we don’t lose the interest of our peers. With this type of writing it requires you to analyze the type of writing produced which should always be take into consideration.

6.Fruit-Jell-O: Balancing Argument & Examples

With this metaphor it is important to provide constancy. In the Fruit Jell-O it is important to always have a balance with what you are discussing. Such as keeping the fruit to jell-o ratio balanced it is important to keep the examples balanced with the arguments you present. Within my writing I need to practice balancing out my Jell-o; I tend to provide the argument but lack the base of examples to support it. I often feel it does not come across well in writing. Although in person I always make sure I have more than enough examples to provide evidence to my arguments. I hope to strengthen my arguments in writing by getting my examples across in a clearer manner than before.

7. Wash-and-Wear Paragraphs

The importance in paragraphs is the length and content. This metaphor addresses the jell-o metaphor as well. In other words you need to have balance within your paragraphs so you do not overwhelm your reader. The length is important because a too long paragraph can be too much and cause the reader to lose interest. You may think that a too short paragraph is bad but it’s not. If your writing can withstand short paragraphs it is okay even if it is just a sentence. Within my writing I feel that I do not over extend my paragraphs I like to keep them short.

The next most important thing to think about in your paragraph is the content. If your paragraph does not have the right content within it is then just taking up space ( a filler ) which is not good. I was always taught that it is the content of the assignment and not the length. So within my writing I feel that I was Wear and Wash effectively.

9.Short Time Writing: Use your Higher Brain

This metaphor addresses the importance of analyzing the question and finding out the main key points. When writing for class such as English it is often asked that our writing is based off of a prompt. I find this type of writing to be the most difficult because it is asking you to write outside your comfort zone. With this metaphor it is telling us to use our higher brain to analyze and pick apart the prompt before we even begin to write. I tend to ignore this step and read the prompt once and then jump into writing. I need to take the time to analyze the prompt; to decide who my audience is, what I am writing about, and why it important. Then begin the assignment based on those three key points. I noticed that last semester in English 105 I had a hard time with the writing because I did not fully understand the prompt I was given. I think that if I had taken the time to analyze the question it could have been better addressed in my writing. This is something that I will try to do to better understand what it is I am writing about.

Reid, E. Shelley. “Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students.” Ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor P, 2011. 3-23. Writing Spaces. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.

Policing Over – Tech in the Classrom

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I gave a presentation about using technology for active learning at the Evidence-Based Teaching and Learning Lilly Conference last week in Newport Beach and I knew when planning the presentation I better address some of the pros and cons of allowing technology in the classroom in the first place.  Based on the other narrative out there — I realize it is a hot button issue… a simple google search will validate the fact that people tend to sit in one of two camps on this issue.  Should technology be banned from the classroom or allowed? Though I was biased going into the presentation, I decided to research the issue to provide a balanced perspective for my attendees.  Little did I know, my own perspectives — and in fact, my own technology “policy” might be impacted.


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A little about my story… for several years, I banned technology from my classroom due to the fact that students seemed to be very distracted, which distracted me; I just didn’t think students could be trusted to make responsible decisions on how to dedicate their energy during class.  I regularly policed their technology use to make sure they followed my rules.  Then, a few years ago I began to use technology extensively in my teaching activities so I was forced to reconsider the technology ban.  I allowed students to use technology but reminded them to use their devices appropriately.  After all, not only do I like to use my computer in classes (since I can type really fast) and but I also like students to use technology for activities in class, so there was no way I could ban them anymore.  But I didn’t just allow them outright — I had many caveats; I told students that it was obvious to me if they were sending emails or on Facebook when they were supposedly taking notes and if they were caught, their participation grade woulB3Y30H_2895014bd suffer.  Of course, I always had students who broke the rule and I had to address it with them; I should clarify… I have had issues with undergraduate and master’s level students exercising poor judgement with technology.  I even recently had a student who claimed to be taking notes when it appeared to me that she was typing at the “wrong times” and looking down at her crotch for long periods of time (where her phone was).  I gave her a stern warning and told her that I would be removing participation points.  She went back to her regular behavior that night in class. Policing technology use takes my energy away from teaching and well, it just becomes a major source of frustration.  Clearly, my approach was not working. But I hadn’t decided how I would or should adjust my approach — yet.


Conducting research for my presentation was a really useful process and DID help me reconsider my own approach.  I was surprised to learn that in almost every study I found, taking notes on the computer was far less superior for developing an understanding of complex information.  Yes, people who take notes on the computer can type A LOT and
3041954566_ff428d4d38_otake almost verbatim notes, but most of the studies show that this behavior only enables them to be able to regurgitate facts.  When asked conceptual questions — like about the MEANING of what they heard, they fell behind those who used pen and paper (Hembroke & Gay, 2003; Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014).  Fried (2008) also found that laptop use distracts both users and their peers…. not good news for tech in the classroom.  However, , I should clarify that these studies looked at classes that use lecture as the primary mode of instruction and lecture (on its own, with no learner engagement) has proven to be one of the least effective teaching strategies (Halpern & Hakel, 2003).


On the other hand, use of technology in the classroom facilitates positive outcomes including increased satisfaction with group projects and overall satisfaction (Driver, 2002)
blogger-336371_960_720; enhanced active exploratory learning, more meaningful interactions between students and with instructor (Barak, Lipson, and Lerman, 2006)
; higher participation, more interest in learning, and greater motivation to perform well (Trimmel & Bachmann, 2004)
; and even the opportunity for students to use instant messaging to make comments or ask questions “silently” (Granberg and Witte, 2005)
.  These studies were not conducted in lecture-only classes, they were done in classes where technology was deliberately integrated.


So now that I’ve presented both sides, what would I do? Well, I will continue using technology for active learning in my teaching and mix in short lectures.  But, to be honest, I’m done with policing technology use.  I agree with Schumann (2014) … my students are old enough to vote, serve jury duty, join the armed forces, and most are old enough to 635781889201768756-321843318_adultdrink legally; I need to believe they’re mature enough to make appropriate decisions on how they wish to devote their attention in class.  Plus, if I’m actively engaging them in the course content, hopefully they won’t have to try to hard to make the right decision.  I believe my job is to educate them with the resources to make the best decision, and then let them be.  So, like Seiber (Fischman, 2009) did in her study, I plan to show them the research on the impact of irresponsible technology use so they CAN make a responsible decision. Then, I plan to let students be responsible for their own behavior.  Policing over.


How about you… given the information I’ve provided, do you think technology should be allowed in the college classroom?


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References


  • Barak, M., Lipson, A., & Lerman, S. (2006). Wireless laptops as means for promoting active learning in large lecture halls.  Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 38, 245–263.
  • Driver, M. (2002). Exploring student perceptions of group interactions and class satisfaction in the web-enhanced classroom. The Internet and Higher Education, 5, 35–45.

  • Fischman, J. (2009, March 16).  Students stop surfing after being shown how in-class laptop use can lower test scores. The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/students-stop-surfing-after-being-shown-how-in-class-laptop-use-lowers-test-scores/4576

  • Fried, C. B. (2008, April 1). In-class laptop use and its effects on student learning. Computers & Education, 50(3), 906-914.
  • Granberg, E., & Witte, J. (2005). Teaching with laptops for the first time: lessons from a social science classroom. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 101, 51–59.
  • Halpern, D.H. & Hakel, M. (2003).  Applying the science of learning to the university and beyond: teaching for long-term retention and transfer.  Change, 25(4), 36-41.
  • Hembrooke, H. & Gay, G. (2003). The laptop and the lecture: the effects of multitasking in learning environments.  Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 15(1).  Retrieved from http://www.ugr.es/~victorhs/recinfo/docs/10.1.1.9.9018.pdf.
  • Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking.  Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159-1168.
  • Schumann, R. (2014, June 15).  In defense of laptops in the classroom. Slate.  Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/06/in_defense_of_laptops_in_the_college_classroom.html

  • Trimmel, M., & Bachmann, J. (2004). Cognitive, social, motivational and health aspects of students in laptop classrooms. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 20, 151–158.

Family Member Interview

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Assignment:

Interview friends, family members, or coworkers. Ask them to tell you what does “Cardiopulmonary Arrest” mean to them. Ask them if they know what “MI” means? Ask them what they perceive happens during “CPR”. Reflect on your findings and post your thoughts about this to your blog. Feel free to add additional questions if you would like, or educate those you interview if they have any misconceptions.

So I interviewed my mom about what she thought cardiopulmonary arrest meant as well as MI.  Her response was “doesn’t that mean your heart stops and you can’t breath”.  When I used the terminology “heart attack” instead of MI or myocardial infarction, my mom knew what I was talking about.  Furthermore, I asked her what she thought treatment was for cardiopulmonary arrest was.  Her response was CPR and a shock.  My mom has taken a CPR class before so she was knowledgable about that; however, it was interesting when I asked what the defibrillator does for the heart.  She stated, it restarts the heart, kind of like jumper cables.  I feel like that is definitely a major misconception; I educated her on what the defibrillation of the heart really does and how CPR is what brings the heart back into a normal rhythm.

 

Writing According to You

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When it comes to writing, I’ve learned a fair share of rules over the years. Of course, there’s the typical rules, like “i before e except after c,” “don’t use contractions,” “don’t have one sentence paragraphs,” and more. E. Shelley Reid shares more “realistic” rules for today’s writer in my piece “Ten Ways to Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students” by using metaphors everyone knows. All the rules she writes about are important to think about. However, the ones that stuck to me have more to do with either my personal writing style, my own struggles in writing, or lessons I’ve learned from previous writing classes.

Reid knows that writing is hard. However, it doesn’t always have to be. Reid mentions that “writing is made harder than it has to be when we try to follow too many rules for writing” (Reid 3) and wrote this piece to help make writing easier for all of us. Her three main concepts for writing are:

  1. Write about what you know about, are curious about, are passionate about (or what you can find a way to be curious about or interested in).
  2. Show, don’t just tell.
  3. Adapt to the audience and purpose you’re writing for.

With writing, it’s no fun to just write about whatever. It’s more interesting for you, as a writer, to write about something you are passionate about. It also helps it make more interesting for your reader to read. If you are into your piece, so will they.

However, you have to be specific for your readers; they can’t read your mind. Reid uses the situation of show-and-tell to further the concept. When we were kids, show and tell was the time to show something important or cool to our classmates and tell a story about it. However, if an object was too big, too valuable, or too fragile, our parents may not have let us bring it to show-and-tell, leaving us to resort to just telling. This becomes a problem because we means one thing to you can mean a completely different thing to someone else. When it comes to description, Reid says it best: “if you’re going to show me…what you’re thinking, using only language, it will take several sentences, perhaps a whole paragraph – filled with facts and statistics, comparisons, sensory description, expert testimony, examples, personal experiences – to be sure that what’s in your mind is what’s in my mind” (Reid 7). It may take longer, but it gets your point across.

Another useful tip Reid expresses is “focus on not losing them [the readers] somewhere along the way” (Reid 10). How do you do that? Easy. First, you mention the purpose at the beginning of the piece to get your point across to the reader. If you don’t mention it right away, the reader may get confused and miss it. Reid compares this to driving down the freeway with friends from out of town, when suddenly, you point at a pink house along the freeway without any warning beforehand and they look around, confused, and miss it. Instead, give them insight on the purpose and then inform them of the purpose. Then, they’ll be ready and know what to look for throughout the rest of the piece, seeing what you wanted them to see. You also need to be sure to repeat your purpose throughout the piece. Reid states it best: “If you only say it once or twice – there, in the last paragraph, when you finally figured out the most important point, or maybe once at the start and once at the end – we might miss it, or only get a piece of it” (Reid 12). We have been told since we were younger that repeating the same thing over and over again was bad in an essay; but it’s actually not. Reid parallels it with the chorus of a song you would hear on the radio. The chorus is the most repeated and retained part of the song. You could hear the song once and you already have the chorus almost memorized. The purpose of your writing is the same as the chorus of the song. Reid states that  “the core idea…needs to appear early and often, using the same key words, even, as an anchor for all the complex ideas, and examples you’re connecting to it, as a place for the audience to recognize the main idea and find a way to ‘sing along’” (Reid 12) and “as you’re revising, add your chorus back into some key middle parts of your essay – the beginnings and endings of paragraphs, like commercial breaks, can be places that readers expects repetition – until you start to really feel uncomfortable about your repetition…and then add it one more time, and it might be enough, but it shouldn’t be too much” (Reid 12). Repetition is actually good for your piece because it gets the purpose out there remains in the reader’s mind throughout the piece.

One of the hardest parts of writing is finding a way to utilize both your opinions and reasons together in a way that people would understand and be interested in. Most people try to just do one or the other, but it never ends up the way they want. Reid explains that “writing just your opinions, theories, and arguments is a lot like serving plain Jell-O: it seems like you’re doing something productive, but there’s just not much substance to it” (Reid 13). With no substance, readers get bored easily. On the other hand, “writing just your examples, reasons, and details is a lot like bringing cherries to the party: it’s interesting and lively, but readers don’t know what to make of it all” (Reid 13). This is also bad because there’s no personality in the piece; readers will not see yourself in the piece. Reid explains that “good writers blend argument and evidence as they write, so that readers get both elements together all the way through. Good revisers go back and adjust the recipe, seeking a workable combination” (Reid 14). In other words, finding the balance between opinions and facts keeps your audience interested and understanding of your purpose.

Now, I know writing may not be the most excited part of school, or life, in general. However, with the right set of rules, anyone can tell their story. “When you take control and anticipate your reader’s needs, you can make writing work for you in very powerful ways even without a lot of time” (Reid 20).

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