Blog Topics for 3/25

Topic 1:

In advance of paper four, as kind of a freewriting exercise, this topic will be similar to the literacy narrative many of your groups constructed for the first blog. In this topic, each of you should write a detailed narrative about a time you creatively solved a problem. Be very specific, even to the point of over-specificity. What made you realize that there was a problem? What were the dimensions of the problem (in other words what were all the aspects of the problem you had to consider when deciding on a solution? What solution did you come up with and how did you come up with it? How was this solution received by others and how did this make you feel?

Now, compare and contrast your story with your other group members' stories. What were the similarities in the stories--in the kinds of problems, the solutions, and how solving the problem made you feel. Again, the more specific the better. Where there any notable differences?

Topic 2:

We have been discussing plagiarism and copyright law as separate but in some ways related concepts. We often think of these as being ethical or moral issues and thus think that they are natural and common sense. After all, don't people have a right to own their work and protect it from use by others?

Read this brief wikipedia entry (yeah, I know, I know) about the history of copyright law. What does this history suggest about copyright? What were the motivations behind copyright laws and do these motives problematize our understanding of copyright as a moral issue.

Also, what about the current popularity of remixing to create new works out of other existing work like this one and even popular and successful ones like those by the Gregory Brothers? These are absolutely acts of plagiarism and could be copyright infringements. But these are also examples of a very popular trend in the new literacies and may be seen as creative in their own right. What does our ability to do these things with technology mean for the future of copyright law? What about for our concepts of plagairism?

Literature Review

Here are the instructions from you assignment sheet for the literature review paper.

In this section of the assignment, you will compose a 5-6 page paper known as a literature review in which you discuss, in essay form, the problem you have researched. Why is it a problem? What is its history? What are the dimensions of the problem? What solutions have been proposed, have they been tried, and how successful have they been? What have been the criticisms of the solutions proposed?  In this essay, you do not need to argue for any of the solutions offered. The idea is to synthesize the literature about the problem to provide an overview of the problem and the solutions that have been offered so far.

Here us the most important thing to remember about the literature review paper: You are not making an argument for a particular solution, you are not arguing right and wrong, or anything like this. This paper should avoid being evaluative. Instead, you should think of this as something of a definition paper. The point of this paper is show that there is a problem and to show that the literature in your field has become to describe and think aboout the problem. This paper is an overview of the problem according to other writers in your field.

You might look at this video, produced for a class at San Jose State University to explain the literature review paper.

Ultimately, the point of the literature review paper is to show that you have a deep understanding of the problem you are researching and that you have done the research to understand the problem from many perspectives.

This paper should seem open-minded and informational.

Possible Topics for 3/11

Topic 1

Over the past several weeks, we have been working out of the "Apparel Merchandising and Social Responsibility" unit of Academic Universe. A helpful way to think about these essays is that they are arguments of problem and solution. The problem is unfair labor practices, specifically sweat shops and child labor. The solution is the Fair Trade movement. You've read essays that address unfair labor as a crime of humanity, as a necessary evil, and even as a beneficial first step toward development. You've also read articles that address the Fair Trade movement as a cultural and economic revolution, and as a naive non-solution.

Using these arguments as support for your own opinions, compose a post that argues whether or not your group sees Fair Trade as a solution to the problems involving unfair labor practices. Support your view point. You may also do some fast interbet research to find websites or videos that support or inform your view.

Topic 2

Last class, we discussed the importance of being a critical consumer of internet sources.  Write a blog that assumes internet initiates as an audience explaining the importance of critical literacy of websites and give some guidelines for evaluating internet sources. Just as we looked at websites about the same topic in class to determine the reliability of these sites, you may find and link to examples explaining which site is more reliable and why.