The “Exigence”: an imperfection marked by an urgency

Before Tuesday (29 November), please read this short article in Education Week  about strategies for evaluating information online.

In class, we talked about the recent controversy over fake news. The power of fake news is an “exigency” that has moved people to advocacy: people are making arguments that companies like Facebook and Google should do more to ensure the quality of information they make available to us– and in fact, these companies have taken some action.

(If you’re asking, “what people?” — that’s a good question, gold star for you!)

In class, we looked at a “real” news article, “Fake news, ads dupe Internet-savvy students, study finds” (SF Chronicle, 21 November 2016). Here’s the link:

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Fake-news-ads-dupe-Internet-savvy-students-10629086.php

The news article takes the same problem (quality of information on the internet) but suggests a different solution: we must do more to give students (and all humans) the skills they need to evaluate information more effectively.

The lead researcher mentioned in the Chronicle article, Sam Wineburg, wrote his own article for Education Week — read it. By comparing the behavior of students and professional fact-checkers, he developed some recommendations for smarter decisions about internet information.

By comparing the behavior of students and professional fact-checkers, he developed some recommendations for smarter decisions about internet information.

 

 

For class on Tuesday, November 22th

Please complete two tasks before class on Tuesday, November 22.

  1. Reflect on what you saw at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency open house on Thursday afternoon and post to your blog. The post should comment on the transportation project AND the presentation of the project. Use details and specific examples so readers can really understand what you’re talking about.
Poster from the SFMTA open house, 17 November 2016
Poster from the SFMTA open house, 17 November 2016

Write a post discussing the transportation project. What did you learn about it? Did you form an opinion about its future?

I learned about the “High Injury Network” — the streets that account for 70% of injuries (pedestrian, bicycle, motorist). The map doesn’t break it down, though, so I don’t know which streets are statistically more dangerous for cyclists.

Also discuss the aspect of oral & visual communication you saw at the Open House. Here are some suggested things to think about–you can use these question to get started in your thinking (or ignore them if you have something better to talk about). What kinds of communication took place? Did you see things that were effective or ineffective (in your view)? What’s the difference between a poster and a powerpoint slide? Who were the presenters and what did you think of their credibility? Who was the audience?

The project website is here — you can find a PDF of all the posters as well as many other details.

2. Watch this video by TED curator Chris Anderson. He identifies the four key ingredients for a successful talk. This is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from Will Stephen’s “How to sound smart in your TEDx talk.” Write a blog post about your plans for S4–what “strange and beautiful objects” will you give to your listeners? This isn’t really a proposal, and you don’t have to stick with what you write. But it’s definitely time to get started thinking about S4.

SF Bike Party Ride Tonight

The monthly SF Bike Party ride is tonight — apparently they are adopting a “tweed” theme, after the tweed-cycling subculture. In the US, tweed cycling is kind of a vestigal offshoot of steampunk. In the UK, “Tweed Runs” are attire-themed rides, where people dress in moderately old-fashioned clothes (according to Wikipedia).

tweed_run

So, the Bike Party is tonight, and the SF Tweed group is riding on November 6th (see Facebook for details but don’t ask me any questions because this is the first I’ve heard of it).