Thursday 16 January 2014

Follow-up for lesson interrupted by fire drill on 17 Jan 2014

Feedback on Term 1 Week 1 Reading Tasks
Please complete what we didn't manage to do in class under comments for this post. To recap, each group chose a section of a text to work on and you were supposed to:
(a) Write down the main point from the section of the text your group chose (you can rephrase the text if needed)
(b) Write down at least one example which might be applied to the point (either to support or refute it)
(c) Write a short explanation to explain how the evidence you provided proves or refutes the point.

Item (c) is an additional task which we would have discussed in class if there wasn't a fire drill.

The 6 sections of the texts were:
T1 p3 - 4
T1 p 5 - 7
T1 p8 to end
T2 p1 - 3
T2 p4 - 6
T2 p7 - end

Please start your comment by stating which section your group is working on. One comment per group. Complete by tonight.

13 comments:

  1. T2 p1-3 (Group Members: Qian Hui, Matthew Yap, Jamie, Theodor)

    a. Comments that students casually make online could negatively affect their prospects.

    b. An example from the reading would be the high school senior who posted negative comments about the lecture she was attending, and thus affected her chances of being accepted into the college. Another example would be a high-profile prep athlete from New Jersey who got expelled from his high school after posting inappropriate materials online. His tweets also made him lose his chances of entering the prestigious University of Michigan, after they went public. (Article: http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/tweets-get-student-expelled.shtml)

    c. The two evidences above shows that even though a social media platform is not an official site where college admission officers visit to check on their potential students, such immature and inappropriate comments casually made online could affect one's future in ways he did not expect them to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Qianhui, the key point for the section assigned to your group is actually "whatever you post online reflects your judgement". So do you agree with this point?

      Delete
  2. T1 P2-P3

    a. Reading is a basis for people to gain fundamental knowledge for our learning.

    b. An example would be a volunteer group working with Mindlab International undertook a stress relief program, which yielded the result that 68% of people reading had lower stress levels than any other activity conducted.

    c. The author’s argument is that reading books, is an internationally accessible source of knowledge and entertainment, unlike that of television and the internet. With such ease of access, it proves invaluable in terms of stress relieve for the reader. The readers are not easily confused by the confusing and contradicting opinions or facts given by netizen when more reliable sources like books are written by professionals who are experts in this fields.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Group 4 (Shawn Kit, Mavis, Carven and Ruoyu)

      Delete
    2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html

      Source of example

      Delete
    3. I think I wrote the wrong paragraph in class. So I corrected it and wrote the correct one in my post above, which you missed. Nevertheless, the key point we are looking at in this section of text should be "Without a true, fundamental knowledge base concerning the issues we care about, we can't meaningfully contribute to the debate and have a holistic understanding of these different matters." Some students also picked out the point concerning the "hybrid balanced approach". That's acceptable as well.

      It's not about reading reducing stress. So your example is not exactly relevant.

      Delete
  3. T2- End

    a) Youths these days are more cautious about the things they post online as they know it affects their future.

    b) A good example of students watching their online behaviour would be ourselves. These days, we are more cautious about what we post and we make sure that whatever we post does not hurt anyone, or any group of people. We make sure to not display any signs of bad behaviour online and that all our tweets or posts are safe to read and do not harm anyone.

    c. This shows that despite the freedom of speech, students do watch what they post online and that we make sure any posts we make online are not insulting anyone or any group of people because we know that these virtual footprints are not easy to get rid of, thus we are more careful about the things we post so that in the future, whether it's getting into a good school or getting a job, the ones looking up for information on us will not find anything that shows that we are not suitable even if our grades are good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Group 6: Jing Yi, Genevieve, Cowan, John

      Delete
    2. I am not so sure that the author is saying that young people know the dangers of posting online. On the contrary, I think he is saying they need to taught to be careful. The key point there is that in this day and age, we need to scrub our digital identity to present our best selves.

      Delete
  4. T2 4-6
    a) In the business realm, employers now vet the online reputations of job candidates as a matter if course.

    b) An example is that based on CareerBuilder's 2012 survey of 2303 hiring managers, there is evidence that the number of companies that use social media as a screening tool for potential job candidates was declining. It dropped from 45% in 2009 to 37% in 2012.
    ( Source: http://fleetowner.com/blog/background-checks-age-social-media)

    c) This refutes the author's claim that employers vet the online reputations of job candidates as a matter of course, as it shows that even though there are still companies that do conduct background checks based on social media, that number is slowly declining.

    Group 3: Joel, Kevin, Adam, Nicole

    ReplyDelete
  5. T1 5-7

    a)Even though that there are social media platform to share information, reading is a good habit that is to be cultivated and it is never too late to start.

    b)Many people have social media accounts which they check frequently. Students are not reading much, therefore, schools have implemented reading programmes which sets aside time for students to read before school starts.

    c)The evidence supports the authors claims. As this is commonly practice that students do reading in school, thus this shows that starting to read at any age is possible.

    Group 1: Wilbur, Leonard, Loynes

    ReplyDelete
  6. T1 P8 to end

    a) How does reading help improve lives of people.

    b) Reading helps us the world advance forward as it educates people and teaches them the right facts. Reading also helps us individually in the working world. Many employers look at more literate people who are knowledgable about their work.

    c) The evidence support the author's claims as many people, though literate, have poor reading skills. Being able to read efficiently is a key selling point that many employers seek out for.

    ReplyDelete