Using Blogs to Identify Misconceptions in a Large Undergraduate Nutrition Course By Trena Paulus and Marsha Spence

The first thing I noticed was the immediate establishment of purpose, not what the authors were looking for but why they chose, in this case "nutrition" and "blogs". At no point was their an inflection of desired or expected results. While I know I should have been concentrating on the methodology of the study and how and why decisions were made I couldn't help notice something, small group sizes. In much of the reading I've done, not just in this class, I found that successful attempts at facilitating critical thinking, communities of inquiry, or whatever term you want to use, involve small groups. I found that note worthy. I realize that it is pointed out in the study but I wonder what would have happened to the quality of responses if they were not for a grade. If the blogs were available for student use but not required, but I suppose thats another study entirely. Another thing that I thought was important from a research perspective was the process. In this particular case the study was an inaugural run so to speak. There were a number of things that went right and a number of things that were not expected or desired. The data and study were analyzed and the study was repeated with changes to improve the research method. Prime examples of this are giving GTAs more training, and moving blog due dates to prevent them from coinciding with tests. The study was performed, analyzed, improved, and then repeated. This is different from other articles I read were mistakes and problems that arose were simply noted and then taken into account in the finding with no attempt to correct.

Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based Environment: Computer Conferencing in Higher Education D. Randy Garrison Terry Anderson Walter Archer

Assuming that the studies that this is basing its theories off of are reliable this literature review/ critical inquiry was pretty convincing. I think I managed to wrap my head around the general concepts they put forth pretty well. Theirs not a lot you can refute or argue with unless your familiar with the reference material and I am not. The concepts though were well laid out and elaborately explained in detail, they were logical and as a result pretty persuasive. I the only thing that struck me was the reliance on emoticons for a replacement of visual cues. I notice that the article is from 2000 so its almost 12 years old. I would think that many of the limitations, and drawbacks of CMC in facilitating a community of inquiry may have been addressed by subsequent technological innovations in the field since this publication. For example just looking at centra you can clap, laugh, voice chat, and text chat in a much more synchronous manner than was available in 2000. Voice would probably be the most important disadvantage in terms of comparing FtF and CMC that has been overcome. While you still can't see the smile or other facial visual cues in most educational CMC, tone, inflection, and other voice related communication tools are now available. Video chat I should note, is widely available but doesn't seem to be commonplace in educational CMC yet. The best way to dissect and analyze CMC with a standard set of coding to find elements and indicators of successful communities of inquiry is very interesting to me. I find problem based learning and development of critical thinking skills to be of the utmost importance in education. The more research and development of our understanding of what makes a successful community work, the better we can create them as teacher.

What Students Find Appropriate By Berhane Teclehaimanot and Torey Hickman

You have got to be kidding me. I know very little of the specifics of research publications but I am shocked that anyone thought this was worth the paper I assume it was printed on. The first thing that hit me was that they give exact statistics for Forte and Hewitt 66%-33% in favor, but Mazer is "roughly even"? I doubt Mazer's scientific findings were published as "roughly even". So why leave it out? The only reason I can think of is that these authors are bias and thus left out the exact numbers because they didn't like the results. As I read further I got the feeling that these authors were huge fans of teacher student interaction on Facebook. The next bit that made my brain stop was their method. "Students were not required to have Face- book accounts to participate, but they were in- structed to participate only if they were familiar with Facebook.". Ill admit that Im new to Likert type, Rasch analysis, T tests, and Alpha levels, but are you kidding me? Your going to do a study on interaction on Facebook but not require the participants to have ever even used Facebook. Im going to do a study on wether or not space shuttles should have thermodynamic instrument panels but Im just going to ask people who live in Cape Canaveral  Florida because their "familiar" space shuttles, and oh if they happen to be an astronaut all the better. I almost stopped reading this article after that but its an assignment so I trudged along. Then I saw that they started running into all kinds of problems with their question set up and started removing participants because their answers didn't "fit". I understand that statistical anomalies occur and outliers can be removed for good reasons, but they cut 8 people. Out of 60 down to 52 If I remember correctly, thats almost 15% of your data that didn't fit? How much data are you allowed to cut to manipulate your data so that it says what you want before your study is useless. Needless to say I was not a fan.

Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching

The use of virtual environments or worlds for educational purposes sounds like a novel idea. The practicalities of actually using them for anything productive are another matter. It seems like a interesting research study, looking at people who live virtual worlds and how their virtual lives compares to the real world. I personally am not sold on the idea for using SL or similar programs to conduct instruction of students. I do agree that their are a number of learning and educational benefits in using these programs in general. However conducting a class in a virtual world at this point seems overly complicated and troublesome. The major benefit that I see as pointed out by the article is using the virtual world to conduct experiments that would be to dangerous or costly to do in the real world. A wonderful use of technology but this is far from how it seems to work right now. As the article states their are a number of barriers that prevent instructors from being able to use these CMC and software tools in a fluid and successful manner. I think first before we scramble to start using SL for teaching it has to come a lot further in terms of fixing SLs technical problems, simplicity of use and cost effectiveness. It requires a great deal of understanding of SL, hardware and software requirements, bandwidth, and support software to fully utilize SL. That puts a big burden on the teacher and the student just to use a program thats by the articles own admission is fraught with a variety of issues and limitations. While its potential is noted it appears to me that its scope of benefits are currently limited and educators would be better served for the most part to use a channel of CMC that is more conducive to achieving their goal in a more efficient manner.

Barriers to online critical discourse

Ok wow the amount of explanation that went into this is ridiculous. It becomes apparent that explaining what you did, how and why you did it is just as much if not more a part of research than the actual data collection and analysis. This includes recognizing any bias and limitations that your particular research method or decision making may have resulted in. I found the description of the recorded conversation analysis very informative. I found this method of analysis and explanation very convincing. the quoting of conversation both from the class and interviews seem to support their claims. The order too I think helped, by showing the conversation, presenting their analysis and then backing up their claim with personal interviews. This was especially effective in the assertion that criticism was viewed as an attack and the constraint of time in the class discussions. I think in general, although the authors assert that this is a case study and no generalizations should be drawn, that this article speaks to earlier readings in our class. The appropriate choice of CMC channel is immensely important. Clearly in my view the choice to use a computer conferencing forum was a poor choice if the intent was to facilitate higher order critical discourse. I think a more synchronous medium would have been much better suited, preferably one with voice chat. For the purposes of engaging in critical discourse getting as close to FtF as possible would have been more ideal. Then again I have no basis for my claim other than my personal experience and assumptions about communication methods. I think this article is very useful in terms of giving me a better idea of the relationship of research methods with goals and data analysis. I intend on using it as a reference for my own data analysis and presentation.

Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university: ‘It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work’

The title of this article says it all. I had a brief bit of confusion with the term "uni" until i realized they were British and this was slang. The use of networking has played a huge roll in education on all levels. Most schools now have some sort of site or page for parents, teacher and students to interact with one another. The SNS Facebook being originally for college students automatically lends itself to all university students. I thought the use of Facebook for social integration into the "uni" life prior to going to school was an interesting social phenomenon. I also found how the usage of the site evolved through their academic career equally interesting. I would love to see some data  that followed a group of students from high school graduation to beyond college, and how their use of Facebook changed over time. I certainly know my personal usage of it have changed after graduation. This study was interesting but very short term. I also found myself as a student and Facebook user agreeing with my British student counterparts. Facebook is a social tool that can be used for a variety of purposes including education but ultimately its user controlled, if a university tried to interject itself "I feel many people would find it distasteful as if the university were trying to encroach on or cripple our social lives. (Male, Biology, age 20)". I couldn't have said it better, and besides as the article already points out, universities already have blackboard and similar programs to facilitate student teacher interaction. "Unis" should continue to study and research Facebook by all means but it should remain the social domain of students.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp19

Oh the dark side of the internet, what a scary place. I really liked the position this book took to the dangers of internet use by young adults. Even though their is very little in the way of data in the areas of online solicitation, harassment, and bullying what is clear is that the internet does not seem to be responsible for creating the problem. Even more encouraging is the fact that the problem is not as prevalent as parents seem to have thought. The internet does not encourage these behaviors but is simply used as a tool the perpetrators use just like any other technology. I didn't find it surprising that most incidents  or habits formed offline and then moved to an online interface. As someone who grew up with the internet I agree that most of the time such interactions are mild and simply ignored or laughed at by the intended victim. I also agree with the assertion that a strong family relationship at home is the best way to prevent anything from happening to your child. As the data showed those with preexisting offline issues and poor family environments were the most likely to end up being victims online and off. Playing a large role in your child's online activities and knowing which ITC channels are most dangerous (chat rooms) is the best defense. I must say I found the section on online gaming hilarious. As someone who has played online games for most of my life in some form or fashion it is not the medium that brings out these problems. If someone is emotionally distressed from playing a game then its usually an issue with the players not the game. Most games are competitive in nature and as such someone usually has to lose and this brings a lot of negative emotions out of people. This is an important distinction as most other forms of ITC are not overtly competitive in any way. In additions most games online have a support staff of administrators to deal with personal issues that can arise between players just like a referee in a football game. If a person is emotionally troubled by something someone said or did in a game then its a problem, the games, location wether online or on a soccer pitch is irrelevant.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp15

Their are a lot of variables involved in how ICTs affect a the family dynamic. Their were a lot of concepts in this chapter that like other chapters followed common knowledge.  By this I mean the idea presented was something that we have seen before and accepted as true but without any researched or data to back it up. Adolescents and teens can be argumentative, introduce a new media with entertainment and information value and of course their is bound to be arguments about it. I noticed that cell phones were used for comparison in this chapter. I found it interesting that they were far more responsible for work-family spillover than the internet even though email is a primary means of business communication too. Also they mention "internet use is easier to control than cell phone use". I wonder are they only talking about cell phones in terms of ones that only making calls or do they include internet use on phones as well. Is the internet use they are talking about confined to use on a traditional computer? I can't remember them ever specifying. Also the comparison of cell phones and computers made me think. Cell phones have been around longer in family life than the internet as we know it today. Are the two ICTs not in different points of assimilation into the family dynamic? I found the question of where smart phones and tablets fit into this internet study bugging me the whole chapter. Throughout the chapter their are references to studies done all over the world. Family relations involving the internet and how it affected them seemed the be the thread. Does the difference in social and cultural norms between Korea and Australia change anything as opposed to doing it in just western or eastern countries?

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp3

Online self representation, I can only imagine the fun had in doing the study they discussed in this chapter. The framework for online profiles made sense, and I think it was important to focus on a single type of profile for it to be successful. As the authors point out the motivation for telling the truth or lying and how much you share is directly related to the purpose of the profile. Comparing match.com profiles with facebook would be like comparing apples to oranges. It was an enlightening chapter. I found myself giving a lot of introspective thought to how I taylor my online appearance throughout this chapter. I was surprised to find out the level of honesty was rated a 4/5 by the study but it seemed the profiles lied quite a bit. Even though the lies were not large themselves there were a large number of things that were lied about. I found it interesting that the size of a single lie was more important than the number of lies in terms of determining how honest someone was with their profile. The majority of the chapter seemed to confirm what I think most of us knew about online profiles and CMC in general. Its much easier to bend or manipulate information and perception to suit your needs in a asynchronous format than FtF.

The effects of teacher self-disclosure via Facebook on teacher credibility

While this experiment had a number of limitations by its own admission, I have to say I am surprised by the results of its analysis. It admits that their are a lot of variable to take into account and it is by no means conclusive showing little difference in competence of those who showed high or low amounts of self disclosure. But the fact that high facebook disclosure positively influence students impression of trustworthiness, and caring is not what I expected. It does continue on the say that while student impression  may be favorable, depending on the type of disclosure, it may be negatively viewed by a employer. That makes a lot of sense to me. The more you associate yourself with your students the more you would seem to distance yourself from the faculty by default. I also agreed that their is a danger of giving false expectations to your students if the person you present in facebook (that they see) is not the same person in the classroom. This can definitely cause negative reactions from students who might feel jaded or lied to. Given the number of untested variable and possible negative outcomes I still think its best to limit self disclosure and err on the side of caution with your students, at least until more conclusive research has been verified.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp13

This chapter explored distance and proximal relationships or DR and PR and team and romantic relationships. They began by defining and differentiating all the aspects of relationships and separation. The  consensus seem to be that DR of both team and romance could be mediated  through a variety of TMC just as successfully as PR. I would like to note that the explanation of TMC as broad term that encompasses CMC was greatly appreciated. The section on separation served to show that social presence could be achieved through DR under certain conditions.  Estabishing social presence seemed to be the most important factor in deeming a DR successful. I like that fact that our classes assertion that you had to pick the right channel of CMC to communicate your context successfully turned out to be right.  The authors use the term "task-technology fit" which I think is much more concise. In short distance relationships given the right form or combinations of forms of TMC can be equal to any proximal relationship and this applies to both romantic and team relationships.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp12

The concept of friendship, what it means and how CMC influences it has been discussed at a number of times in both books and class discussions. Here the authors look specifically at friendship. They show how the history of research into friendship is helpful in understanding its new definition in the age of CMC. I thought it was good to note that the past views on friendship were not wrong but based on an earlier age of communication. When the new forms of CMC began to introduce themselves into society the concept of friendship began to change. The old standards for how a friendship could be modeled no longer applied. The idea of friendship being flexible helps researchers understand how new forms of CMC can fit into the model for friends interpersonal communication. This chapter dispenses with notions of good or bad in terms of outcomes but simply notes the effects of certain changes and actions. This is especially true when looking at the ending of relationships. The chapter covers individual channels of CMC and their impact and usage in relationships, but the section I found interesting was on the web of CMC and the future of research. The interplay of different channels of CMC to serve multiple purposes in different types of relationships whose outcomes or results are dependent the personalities of the people involved is mind blowing. It's so complex and multifaceted a field of study I'm not sure it's possible to understand all the workings of how CMC and relationships interact because forms of communication and social norms are constantly evolving. Just as previous notions of friendship changed and became obsolete it will no doubt continue to happen again and again.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp11

Wow, ok so we moved into sociology and technology. There was a lot in this chapter. It was almost to much, like they tried to compress a couple of chapters into one. I guess that speaks to the fact that there is so much you can look at in terms of the connections between family, society and technology. They gave some lit to back the assertions I think most of us already knew about technology and how it's both a benefit and also problematic. They introduced some terms like "ubiquitous computing" and "MTML" and explored a number of CMC channels in terms of family relation pros and cons. While the chapter had a sociological approach and they did talk about class, nationality, and race, the main focus seemed to be on gender.  I did like the analogy of the invention of the washer and dryer to the invention of new ITC, how it both made things easier and raised the level of expectations. I enjoyed the section on being "publicly private" but I thought the section on future research was so broad and overwhelming it could almost have been made into its own chapter. It felt to condensed and rushed, half the section was simply references to other works. It was hard to follow except to understand that their is more we don't know about ITC than we know, especially in the US, if that sentence makes any sense.  I would like some clarification on the differences between CMC and ITC.

Paulus & Scherff Article

Ok so looking at this a template for our own research I have some questions. Since Scherff was not only doing the research but also part of the data I notice you all went through an elaborate sequence of cataloging and auditing of your own action throughout the process to I assume show the objectiveness of your findings. Since I will be gathering data from subjects I know, is their a script that I should try to follow so I don't taint or contaminate my data and findings? Should I be worried about my objectivity using subjects that I know? Also my subjects know that Im going to record them, did the students know they were being used for data collection? Since my subjects will know when I record them it occurs to me that this could affect the conversation. I understand that their are rules and legal ramifications for secretly recording conversations but isn't it better if the subjects don't know their being recorded? I like the idea of taking it step by step, gathering the data and analyzing it, categorizing it, and letting it dictate what it is that you look at. I think this process will be more instructive for me rather than hypothesizing and then hoping the data confirms my idea. I can see where that can get you into trouble with bending the data to fit your idea rather than the other way around. I also notice you reference others literature in your data analysis. I see the reasoning behind it but is that something I should be working on as well? Should I try to find literature on online gaming research and read up on it before I analyze my data or is it better to be open minded going in and then try to find lit that backs your findings after the fact?

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp8

Its all about the CMC. This chapter looks at the interpersonal relationships in CMSS groups. Like the last chapter this one also has a very psychological perspective, looking at how these groups relate to health outcomes of their users. The general consensus is that CMC has a number of benefits over traditional FtF communication for a number of reasons that I wont list out here. Like any form of communication it has its own set of pros and cons and while it seems to have a lot of positives it is not without disadvantages. The only significant one seems to be that users have a tendency, for various reasons, to not stay a member of whatever support group for long. As I said CMSS seems to be the bees knees but that wasn't the important part of the chapter to me. The last two sections in this chapter deal with theoretical approaches and future research directions. Here we start to dissect not just why CMSS works but how and where we can go from here. I would not be surprised to learn that a participant led support groups work just as well as professionals led groups. I would also venture to guess that once a weak tie relationship develops into a strong tie that relationship is no longer viable as a outlet for open honest support as it once was. A new anonymous weak tie relationship would be need to fill that niche. This is all speculation based on pre existing frameworks for how the relationships work so I would like to see the results of the data and research once they are in.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp7

Now we discuss CMC social support groups. This requires a multi-faceted approach as their are multiple forms of support as well as CMC methods or "channels", each with their own set of attributes. I think its noteworthy to mention that for one of the first times we are dealing more with channels that do not entail communicating with previously established offline relationships but new online relationships. They are mediated in a mostly asynchronous anonymous way, which it turns out can actually be to our benefit. The focus here seemed to be on emotional support and fostering a sense of belonging within a virtual community. They discuss five channels but I want to use just two for an example. Online support groups and discussion channels are very similar in terms of attributes of CMC channels, but their purposes are vastly different. I thought the distinction and importance of purpose was incredibly important to understanding how channels function for the users. Two things bothered me about the chapter. The first thing is the term "face-threatening", I looked and maybe I missed it but I didn't see an explanation of that term. The other is "source perception", which I thought has vast potential as a research topic but was disappointed that they didn't go into it further. Now in the age of online publications of every kind, I think this topic has a lot of practical use for its research.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp6

This chapter gives an introduction to the concepts of relational maintenance and what they are. They apply primarily to FtF communication as they were developed before CMC. After the advent CMC they were tweaked to fit the new media. Unfortunately the rapid development of CMC has brought new methods of communication and with their growing popularity many of the old relational maintenance concepts no longer accurately describe the phenomenon they were meant to. Much of the chapter is an explanation of how the old concepts of relational maintenance have become antiquated in the new world of web 2.0.  The authors concede that while much data still needs to be collected it is possible to speculate on how these new methods of CMC affect relational maintenance.  I found the section on cost benefit analysis of various FtF and virtual asynchronous relational maintenance actions very interesting. I have no doubt this is an area psychologists or anyone who has had a long distance relationship will be very interested in.

Boyd & Ellison 2008

An interesting article that takes you through the creation of the social "network" site phenomenon. A few things about this article that I found interesting were the distinction of "network" and "networking", and I agree that for the most part it is the former that applies to these sites. I also enjoyed the recognition that the term "friend" in terms of SNS is often times nowhere near its actual definition but I suppose "acquaintance" or "contact" isn't as warm and fuzzy. I do find it interesting how the academic community is clamoring over what is clearly a veritable cornucopia of basically free data. The article lists and references numerous studies, almost all of which I am unfamiliar with but that have been pulled from this new medium in just the past few years. The networks organization of personal data, preferences, contacts, and communications do much of the researcher's work for them, not that that is a bad thing. I also found the scope of academic fields that can use this data and the number of avenues that they investigate fascinating. I also notice some of the ideas presented were affirmed in the chapters we read in "CMC in personal relationships".

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp10

Multicommunicating and Episodic Presence
Im glad this chapter started off by defining some of the vocabulary it was going to use, in detail. Chapter two could have used some of that. The chapter takes you step by step in an almost chronological order of the formation of the ideas or "constructs" that have evolved as researchers have studied the evolving use of CMC for multicommunicating and its implications on society. It would appear that as with a lot of CMC the data for this has been pulled from a variety of sources and fields. I don"t find it surprising that their was a generational difference in cultural norms as to what was considered rude in terms of attention while multitasking. I did find it interesting though that while everyone seems to think that multicommunicating helps productivity the  research regarding cognitive switching seems to argue the opposite. I also found in the conclusion that their was quite the reaction to their data. I would have thought that colleagues in this field would have reacted with interest or fascination not alarm, and contempt.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp2

Unpacking the Paradoxes of Privacy in CMC Relationships
This chapter deals with the privacy and openness in CMC, specifically SNSs. The chapter discusses blogs, facebook, and briefly twitter. I think its important that they differentiated the three as each has a different set of "ground rules" for interaction. The chapter gives a loose overview of some of the factors and reasons for different views people have on privacy management or CPM, and its importance and effects. Most of it seemed intuitive, such as the more anonymity a person had the more safe they feel revealing or saying things they wouldn't normally in a face to face encounter. However when they discussed talking in code in a blog journal as a method of protecting privacy Im not sure exactly what they mean by that. I assume they don't mean pig latin or a literal "secret code", but they never elaborate on it and they refer to "speaking in code" a number of times. Some clarification would be appreciated. In addition their are a variety of forms of SNSs and all but infinite complexities that go into personal justification and decision making regarding CPM. To draw general conclusions about how people see privacy and its role in SNS is risky. You would have to look at a very specific aspect of CPM with a specific SNS. I would think drawing broad or general conclusions of CPM in SNS as a whole would be almost useless. I should note that again they mention that much of the data is still being collected and that may be why they speak in general terms and theory.

CMC in Personal Relationships Chp1

A Functional Approach to Social Networking Sites
This chapter covers the primary ways in which people use SNSs. As someone who uses a SNS the chapter didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know. The concepts of impression management, information seeking, and metacommunication are all things I think anyone who uses a SNS do and understand. I was interested to know that the data for most of the conjectures in this chapter are just now being compiled, not that I think they will contradict the ideas presented but it is interesting to see just how long it takes to gather data.

A Faceted Classification Scheme for Computer-Mediated Discourse By S. Herring

Their is an obvious need to be able to classify data with regards to CMC. It seems to me that the first attempts to do so worked under the assumption that CMC was a static text based medium. This clearly was not to be the case and it seemed that each subsequent attempt would take into account the changes to CMC that had occurred but was unable to built a system that would continue to work as the medium changed and evolved. Thus if a perfect static system would not work it reasons that an imperfect flexible one might be more useful. Herring's multifaceted flexible system of organizing data certainly avoids many of its predecessors more problematic issues but even she recognizes its limitations. By its very nature of describing data it limits itself to text based forms of CMC, still for what it is meant for it does its job well. I think perhaps by precluding other forms of CMC and concentrating on text based data Herring has left her system open ended enough to remain flexible for the inclusion of new types of text based CMC when they arise. At least I believe that to be her goal. The idea of building a system for organizing textual, verbal, and visual CMC in its almost infinite possible combinations appeals to me like the idea of calculating the exact spot a raindrop with hit the earth as it leaves a cloud in a hurricane. Still, if we are to understand the implications of our continuously evolving field of CMC some system must be in place to organize the data we collect.

Words&Minds Chp 7

Conclusion
The multifaceted insight that Mercer brings to the explanation of how we use language makes for a fascinating read. For an introduction into CMC, a topic I am a complete novice in, this has certainly piqued my curiosity. I think partly because this book helps explain a little of why we are the way we are, from the development of language by our ancestors as a darwinistic survival tool of small communities to its state of passing the knowledge of the human race as collective consciousness. A lot of what I read in this book now seems elementary as though I should have known it all along, but I didn't ever think about it. With a better understanding of how the language I use everyday works I think it may have made me better at using those communication tools that so many people simply take for granted. Understanding how we assimilate the world around us and how to better share that information is incredibly useful as both a teacher and a student.

Words&Minds Chp 6

Development Through Dialogue
Again much like chapter 2 this chapter deals heavily with education and how learning gets done through the use of language. Mercer seems to focus on the child parent/adult relationship as a kind of apprentice and master mini community where the child observes and interacts sometimes interjecting new verbal behaviors to test ideas gleamed from past experiences. The idea of scaffolding in a learning environment can be seen in art in things like paint by numbers and coloring books but at a certain point becomes counter productive. Once a certain level of understanding is achieved the training wheels have to come off so to speak. This I think is where the intermental development zone comes into play. Pushing a student just beyond their comfort zone in terms of what they are capable of, too hard and the they may shut down and give up, too easy and they get nothing out of it. The later half of this chapter deals with group learning and teaching kids to use language to ask the right questions and work constructively together. This section seems to be problem based learning or something very close to it. The essence of which is teaching critical thinking skills through group based problems solving where the teacher does not simply lecture facts or give answers but prompts students with questions to get them to ask their own questions and start dialogues with each other to reach a solution. Teaching a student problem solving skills is the goal, the teacher is their to facilitate the development of these skill not just give answers. This is something I have become very interested in and feel has great potential in elementary education.

Words&Minds Chp 5

Communities
Mercers breakdown of the changing definition of communities over time and their impact on language was very interesting. I hadn't thought of how I would define a community outside of geographical terms let alone how it would change the use of language within it. I can definitely see where Mercer comes from calling musicians a "community of practice" but unless he is using "community" as a metaphor I think he may have been too general with his borrowed terms definition. I think its true that all photocopy machine technicians would have a shared understanding of what the others do regardless of geographic location, but not all would fix the same brand of machine. Some technicians might not know what a "F066" was if they didn't fix Xerox machines. Are some in a Xerox community and other a Toshiba community, or how does it work?  I only bring it up because of one point that struck me in the virtual community section,  Mercer warning about using the term "virtual community" to loosely. He notes "unless it is more precisely defined, it will be of little value". Mercers comment on the unimportance of good or evil in defining a community I thought was well made. I think CMC will continue to grow and take over as technology continues to make its way into more facets of our lives. Wether for better or worse as a medium I think its the future, as text gives way to speech and now video chat. Its clumsiness that Mercer describes becomes less and less of a problem.

Words&Minds Chp 4

Persuasion, Control and Argument
The next logical step after gathering knowledge in a world filled with other doing the same thing is to convince them that yours is better then theirs. Could you imagine if a school of fish argued about which way to turn? I thought this chapter was fascinating. Debate, what a wonderful thing, much like natural selection it allows us to weed out those ideas and thoughts that are flawed. By using our collective minds we are able most of the time to sift through a endless stream of thoughts and keep the ideas that make sense and dispose of those that do not. I think these tools of language may be the most important in the development of humans. At one point I believe that science made the most of them through the scientific method were the winner of a argument was the person who could prove that they were correct. A cooperative melding of the minds for the greater understanding of the world we inhabit is one of our greatest achievements as a species. Unfortunately it seems these days that the person who wins is the one who is simply better at using those tools in a persuasive manner, regardless of how wrong their idea may be. A colorful metaphor is far more entertaining and persuasive than facts, even if its a lie. Language can be a dangerous thing and those who have the talent and charisma to use it can gain power and control not just of a conversation but of the people who listen to it, lawyers and politicians being prime examples. I wonder though if their isn't more to be said in the application of persuasion in education. Obviously debate is central for a good learning environment, problem based learning has a its heart learning through group discussion and debate to build critical thinking skills. Persuasion though can be a useful tool for a teacher too, not just lawyers and politicians.

Words&Minds Chp 3

The Given and the New
Here Mercer get into Knowledge. This chapter seemed to deviate a bit from the last 2 in that it was almost instructive more so than informative at times. I see the points that he is trying to make by concentrating on the field of education. Perhaps the points of how we recall and check the retention of knowledge could not be any more evident than in a classroom. I do think it was important not just to elaborate on how we use this in a classroom setting but also how it applies to regular conversation and human history. The classroom aspect, with it techniques such as recalling the last lesson before moving on I think are not new ideas, or at least shouldn't be new to any teacher. But understanding fully the implications of how they work and when to use them is a different matter. I also feel the bits on conversation flow were interesting because once you understand how a conversation works it becomes much easier to avoid common pitfalls or at least get back on track if you lose someone, a useful skill for any professional to have.

Words&Minds Chp 2

Laying the Foundation
This chapter is all about the basis for understanding each other. I think it was paramount to emphasize the importance of context. Having read much further on in this book it becomes clear that this chapter may be the most important. The whole point of having a conversation no matter the reason becomes nullified if you cant put your thoughts into a context that the other person can understand. This is especially true in education. Dealing with a younger generation often times the hardest part of teaching is simply putting information into a context that the students can understand. The blank stares being caused by a lack of a common frame of reference makes perfect sense. The numerous examples in this chapters of miscommunications only drive home that fact further.

Words&Minds Chp 1

Language as a tool for thinking.
In chapter 1 mercer discusses the history of language and its roles in society. I think this is a fabulous starting place for my introduction into CMC since i have no background in communication. By explaining what language is and what it allows us to do, "get things done", "pass on knowledge", ect. Mercer sets up a broad platform to move on from. I find the concepts he is beginning to set up fascinating as the applications for this kind of knowledge would be incredibly useful in any field.