Friday, November 30, 2007

Interesting reading

Though PoliceWhat are we becoming?

There is no requirement that you read the linked article, nor is there an assignment associated with it.  I thought some of you might find it interesting.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

How to use this blog

Pay Attention


Read the entire post.  People asked me several times today if setting up their blog was all they were supposed to do.  READ THE POSTS. 

 Several people on the Poe assignment did questions 1 through 4.  The post reads "questions 1 and 4".  If you don't pay attention, you won't know what to do and might do too much or too little.

I will do my best to give you clear instructions.  Do your part by reading them.

Hit Publish


When you publish your posts, hitting "save" only saves them.  You must hit Publish for your post to make it on your blog in such a way that others can read it (or give you credit for it).

Learn how to use the site


Visit http://edublogs.org/support and at least watch the video entitled "an introduction to using edublogs".

Make Sure You're Up To Date


Go back and make sure you've done all the assignments and all the parts of the assignments on this blog.

In the future, check this blog every day for announcements and assignments.  You are responsible for doing the work posted here.

Privacy

PrivacyRead this article and reflect on the issue of privacy and technology a là the chaperone feature on some cellphones.  Create a Toulmin argument expressing your own thoughts using facts from this article and any others you care to use.  Post the results to your blog. 

Note:  there was a bit of confusion about what I meant when I said to dreate a Toulmin argument.  I meant to write an argument based on your reflections that contained the elements of a Toulmin argument, i.e. a claim, fasts, warrant, etc.  When you present your thoughts to someone, leading with "Claim:...isn't going ot be particularly persuasive.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Make sure you do these things


  1. Email me your username if you don't see your site linked on the right (mr.giddings@comcast.net)

  2. Create a link to http://giddings.edublogs.org on your site (on your dashboard, click blogroll and then add link and type or paste the link).  I recommend bookmarking the site at home too as we will use it for assignments on a fairly consistent basis.

  3. Complete the Poe assignment on your blog

  4. Complete the iClaim assignment below and email it to mr.giddings@comcast.net

Setting up your blog


  1. Go to learnerblogs.org

  2. Choose K-12 student

  3. Enter a username and your email address

  4. Give me the address to your new blog so I can add it to our main page "Giddings Noodleblog"

  5. Visit My Profile and pick a password you will remember (don't forget it--I won't be able to help you if you do)

  6. Go to the plugin tab on your dashboard and activate advanced editing

  7. Go to the presentation tab and pick a theme

  8. Go to support and click video tutorials and watch "an introduction to using edublogs"

  9. Create a post in which you reflect on Poe's sonnet To Science found in our textbook on page 663.  Include responses to questions 1 and 4.  Feel free to use dictionary.com to help with some of Poe's vocabulary.

iClaim

Complete the iClaim tutorial #1 and submit the work via email to mr.giddings@comcast.net.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Logical Arguments

[slideshare id=173615&doc=logical-argument-1195585762596186-5&w=425]

Thanks to Nate Stearns for this fine slide show. This is really cool. I promise to learn how to do this sort of thing myself.