Today's episode of TMZ on TV included a segment about the recently deceased Jack LaLanne, an American fitness expert and TV Host described as the inventor of the Jumping Jack. The changing nature of online information was witnessed as the commentators of the fast paced show checked their facts online during the broadcast. Wikipedia had first confirmed that Jack LaLanne was the inventor of the Jumping-Jack but the article was revised in realtime not even 30 seconds after the comment was aired to say, "Jack LaLanne never claimed to invent the jumping-jack but only to have popularized it in the United States." The Wiki article was also amended to say, "Lindsey from TMZ on TV is wrong."
Anyone with Internet access can write and make changes to Wikipedia, a self described quick encyclopedia and font of online knowledge. Annie Goodman, a blogger engaged in 'Conversations Beyond the Classroom' and student at Whatcom Community College writes, "The information we gain today might be void tomorrow." Her point, so well demonstrated by the good staff at TMZ on TV is followed by a relevant question, "So if information is constantly changing can we learn anything?"
Nicholas Carr, an author who writes on the social, economic and business implications of technology has revealed that the Internet changes the way we think. Our minds become engaged in a broader capacity when our decision making process gets involved. Information architects such as Google and other Internet search engine providers have become involved in the ominous business of adding artificial intelligence to the business of modern understanding. My discussion of the changing nature of information on the Internet is in fact addressing the larger matter of intellectual honesty and societies already strained capacity for trust.
WELCOME
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversation Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! I encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
Note to Self: Good job, Buddy.
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