Category Archives: Module 1

Announcement for Module 1

BY MONDAY Fourth Task for Class 9/12: Create Two Questions

In class on Tuesday, September 12th, we’ll visit the offices of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition at 1720 Market Street. We’re scheduled to meet with Executive Director Brian Wiedenmeier at 2 p.m.

We’ll learn a bit about the history of the SF Bicycle Coalition, its current projects, and its future plans.

Based on what you know (or would like to know) about bikes and public speaking, create two questions for Brian Wiedenmeier. I’ll share some of these questions with him in advance, and you’ll have the opportunity to ask some of them at the meeting.

A good structure for a question is:

“In class, we read about _______________. What is your opinion/ what is the position of the Bicycle Coalition on this issue?”

You can also ask questions that are specific to Mr. Wiedenmeier’s role. For example, “What are the main duties of an Executive Director in a non-profit?” or “What changes have you seen in San Francisco since you started here?” or …..

Post these questions to your blog. If your blog isn’t up and running, post your questions in the comments (below).

Sample questions:

We watched Dr. Fred Rivara’s TEDx talk, where he argues ______________ about bicycle helmets. What is the position of the Bicycle Coalition about helmets?

We read about establishing credibility with audiences. How do you, as Executive Director, establish credibility?

Second Task for Class 9/12: Read These 3 Things

Aerial view of Panhandle, 1938. Photo Lun Esex. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

The previous post asked you to join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. Did you do it? Post a comment (below) and let me know.

For class on Tuesday 9/12, I’ll also ask you to read a few short selections and watch a few videos. As before, your goals are to:

  1. understand the main ideas of the readings individually
  2. connect ideas across readings & videos
  3. apply concepts from course materials to real life

Continue reading Second Task for Class 9/12: Read These 3 Things

Meet at Gleeson Library Plaza

Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park

Good morning, everyone!

Today we’ll meet at Gleeson Library Plaza. Bring your bike!

On the agenda today:

We will start talking about our next module, focused on collecting, evaluating, and presenting evidence.

Project 1 presentations! This is going to be great.

Visiting the Freewheel Bike Shop (1920 Hayes St.)

Exploring the eastern part of Golden Gate Park

Possibly getting ice cream at the legendary Twirl-n-Dip ice cream truck in Golden Gate Park.

Preparing for S1, the first Major Presentation

Tips for your Outline (just kidding — you don’t need tips for your outline).

Tips for the Write-Out:

The Write-Out

Tips for your Video Rehearsals:

Video Rehearsal

Tips for Writing about Sources:

Sources and Bibliographies

Sign up for an Individual Conference:

https://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/tjmhm

Speaking Center site:

https://myusf.usfca.edu/student-life/lwc/speaking-center

Info about Self-Assessment and Peer Comments to follow in a future post.

How to Lock Your Bike

We toured some of USF’s campus infrastructure last week:

  • the new bike racks near Lo Schiavo
  • the bike lockers behind Cowell Hall
  • the public bike maintenance station between Malloy and Kalmanovitz
  • the Class II Bikeway (a.k.a Bike Lane) on Golden Gate Avenue westbound.

Since we talked a lot about bicycle storage and theft, here is some information from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition about the best procedures for locking your bike:

Theft & Locking

Invention

By the way, some folks are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the invention of the bicycle (or its precursor, anyway). In 1817, Karl von Drais created the hobby horse or “draisienne,” a two-wheeled contraption that eventually evolved into the modern bicycle.

In ancient rhetoric, “invention” has a different meaning: it’s the process of discovering arguments and information to share with others. In our class, it also means discovering your own interests and passions.

For Tuesday’s class (2/7), post to your blog three ideas for a presentation (one of each from the categories below).

Write a good solid paragraph (or more) for presentation idea—at least 150 words or so. More is always welcome—writing these posts is meant to be an opportunity to push your thinking forward.

Remember, it’s fine to take risks. Don’t stick with a safe or easy topic. Rather, use this assignment as a chance to learn, explore, and grow as a communicator.

  1. A credibility assessment presentation. The challenge here is to apply one or more of the credibility concepts we’ve discussed (from Horner, Tseng & Fogg, or Treasure). You can choose almost anything as the object of your analysis, as we discussed in class (but of course you must think about linking to the topic of the class). Options we discussed:
  1. A presentation based on your own personal interests, values, or community. Whatever your interests, there’s a way to find out about the bicycle connection. Go to the main page of Fusion and search for your interest + bicycle. (Obviously, YouTube is also a great place to search but I want you to get to know the library site—it’s my job.)
  • say you loved The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006; 37% on Rotten Tomatoes)…. then you might love this inexplicable and strangely beautiful sight: https://youtu.be/k8PxC8mFM4M?t=52s
  • do you care about global issues like the environment? poverty? public health? folks are out there trying to address these problems with bicycles.
  • do you like travel? look into what it might be like to travel by bike https://www.adventurecycling.org
  • What about your home state or home town? What do people there think about bikes? Does your community have a bicycle plan? Mine does—and I was pretty surprised to learn about it! http://www.wilmapco.org/bikewilmington/
  1. A presentation based on your academic or professional interests. In class, we discussed the example of bicycle economics, which could focus on the bicycle industry of specific markets, on trade relations, or other economic aspects (such as those listed here: http://www.peopleforbikes.org/statistics/category/economic-statistics).Again, Fusion is the best tool—it connects you directly to scholars studying questions that might interest you.
  • design, innovation, & engineering are areas of great interest in the bicycle world
  • if you are interested in any health-related field, there is certainly bike-related information that will interest you
  • same for law or policy!
  • it would be fascinating to investigate bicycle marketing or the retail industry.
  • are you thinking of a military career? it might surprise you that, early on, bikes were adopted for military use: https://youtu.be/yNnTSD219GA