Monday, December 17, 2012
Social problem
What is societies responsibility to the event in New Town, Conn? Are mass shootings a social problem and what needs to happen so tragic events like this don't happen again?
Gun control
Should a discussion about gun control in each state or at the national level take place in light of the tragic event on Friday in New Town, Conn.?
Media coverage
Considering the event that took place in New Town, Conn. on Friday, has the media focused to much time on this tragic event?
God question
My daughter a week ago asked "why doesn't God hear my prayers" after learning that Kim (Mom) will not be home for Christmas. She is having a hard time understanding why God is not able to heel her Mom. What do you think I should have said to Madelynn?
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Looking Glass Theory
- We imagine how we must appear to others.
- We imagine the judgment of that appearance.
- We develop our self through the judgments of others.
How are you judge because of that appearance?
How has your idea of self been developed because othe other peoples judgments of you?
Monday, December 3, 2012
Socialization Study Guide
Socialization study guide
Terms to know
Instinct - an unchanging, biologically inherited behavior
pattern
Personality - the sum total of a person’s behavior,
attitudes, beliefs and values
Me – the part of our self that is aware of the expectations
and attitudes of society
I – the unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested component
of persoanality
Self – your conscious awareness of possessing a distinct
identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society
Sociobiology – the systematic study of the biological basis
of social behavior
Feral Children - raised without the influence of a cultural
environment
Generalized other – the internalized attitudes, expectations
and viewpoints of society
The looking-glass self - an image of ourselves based on
imagining how we appear to others
Role taking – forms the basis of socialization process by
allowing us to anticipate what other expect from us
Peer group – a group primary made up of individuals roughly
the same age and similar social characteristics
Total Institution – a setting in which people are isolated
from the rest of society for a set period of time and subject to tight control
Resocialization – a break of past experiences and the
learning of new values and norms
People to know
Charles H. Cooley
(born August 17, 1864, Ann Arbor, Michigan,
U.S. died May 8, 1929, Ann Arbor) was an American sociologist and the son of
Thomas M. Cooley.
He studied and went on to teach economics and sociology at the University of
Michigan, and he was a founding member and the eighth president of
the American
Sociological Association. He is perhaps best known for his concept
of the looking glass
self, which is the concept that a person's self grows out of
society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.
Rene Spitz
(Vienna 1887 – Denver September 11, 1974) was an American psychoanalyst of Hungarian origin. In 1935 that Spitz turned to the area of child
development. He was one of the first researchers who
used child observation. Not only disturbed children found his interest, but he
also focused on the normal child development. He pointed out the effects of
maternal and emotional deprivation. This became the field of his greatest
contributions. In 1945 he did research on institutionalization on children. He
found that the developmental imbalance caused by the unfavorable environmental conditions
during the children's first year produces a psychosomatic damage that cannot be
repaired by normal measures. Another study of Spitz showed that under favorable
circumstances and adequate organization a positive child development can be
achieved. He stated that the methods in foundling homes should therefore be
carefully evaluated.
John Locke
(29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704),
widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician
regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers.
Locke's theory
of mind is often cited as the origin of modern
conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that the mind was a blank slate or tabula
rasa.
George H. Mead
(1863–1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social
psychology and the American sociological tradition in
general.
Mead theorized that human beings begin their
understanding of the social world through "play" and
"game". "Play" comes first in the child's development. The
child takes different roles he/she observes in "adult" society, and
plays them out to gain an understanding of the different social roles. For
instance, he first plays the role of policeman and then the role of thief while
playing "Cops and Robbers," and plays the role of doctor and patient
when playing "Doctor." As a result of such play, the child learns to
become both subject and object and begins to become able to build a self.
However, it is a limited self because the child can only take the role of
distinct and separate others, they still lack a more general and organized
sense of themselves.
In the next stage, the game stage, it is
required that a person develop a self in the full sense of the term. Whereas in
the play stage the child takes on the role of distinct others, role taking, in
the game stage the child must take the role of everyone else involved in the
game. Furthermore, these roles must have a definite relationship to one
another. In the game stage, organization begins and definite personalities
start to emerge. Children begin to become able to function in organized groups
and most importantly, to determine what they will do within a specific group. Mead calls this the child's first encounter
with "the generalized
other", which is one of the main concepts
Mead proposes for understanding the emergence of the (social) self in human
beings. "The generalized other" can be understood as understanding
the given activity and the actors place within the activity from the
perspective of all the others engaged in the activity. Through understanding
"the generalized other" the individual understands what kind of
behavior is expected, appropriate and so on, in different social settings. The
mechanism of perspective taking within social acts is the exchange of social
positions.
Ivan Pavlov
(September 26, 1849 – February 27,
1936) was a famous Russian physiologist. Although he made significant contributions to psychology, he was not
in fact a psychologist himself and actually had strong distaste for the field.
It was though Pavlov work that supposedly instinctual behavior could be taught.
Concepts to know
Agents of Socialization
Family
Peer Group
School
Mass Media
Religion
Club/Social
groups
Ethnic
background
Work
Government
Unintended Socialization
Example – when your parents tell
you to do or act one way but your parents themselves do or act a different way
Symbolic interaction
Interaction between people that
takes place through the use of symbols. Interactionist study topics like child
development, relationships within groups, and mate selection.
Nature vs Nurture
Birth order
Our personalities are influenced by
whether we have brothers and or sisters, and the order in which we are born.
Cultural environment
Culture has
a strong influence on personality development. Our cultural environment
determines the basic types of personalities that will be found in a society.
Each culture gives rise to a series of personality trait.
Know and understand the personality assessments we did in
class:
Myers-Briggs
personality type indicator
You will need to describe what it is, what your
assessment revealed about you, whether your agree or disagree and why, and list
some reason why your results were what they were (what to you think influenced
you)
The test may also include questions from any of the videos we viewed in class.
Who are you and how do you become YOU?
Socialization is a process of learning norms, rules, regulations, values and attitudes of society. It is a lifelong process which starts from childhood till to the death of a person. Socialization is a vital process of learning through which the society exists. Each and every society socializes its members according to its own values. For example, if a baby enters in American society, he/she socializes according to the characteristics of American society. In the same way, the children of Russian societies are being socialized according to the characteristics of Russian societies. A man learns ways of attitudes, behaviors, languages, and cultures of a society through the process of socialization.
What is human nature? The debate of "nature" (heredity) and "nurture" (the social environment) is being made since decades. Some scientists think that nature plays an important role in the socialization while others view that nurture is only the way through which a member can be socialized. To answer this controversial question, one can give logical reasons that human beings do not have natural language. An infant comes in this society having only bones, flesh, and breathing system. If this very infant kept in isolation for several years, he/she cannot be able to speak even a single word. Heredity provides those essential things which are important to grow up but social environment is far important than heredity through which a children learns the language. Without the concept of language a member cannot create relationships with others. Language is a source to create relationships and to take part into the social interaction. So, nurture or social environment is so much important that it converts an animal into a social animal.
Cooley and the looking-Glass self
Charles Hurton Cooley was a renowned social scientist who thought that our sense of self develops from interaction with others. To describe this process, Cooley coined the term "looking- glass self theory" in the year 1902. According to Cooley, there are three elements in the looking-glass self theory.
1. We imagine how we appear to the others. For example, we can guess that others see us as intelligent or stupid.
2. We interpret others' reactions. We may come to know that how others evaluate us. Do they like us for being intelligent? Do they dislike us for being stupid?
3. We develop a self-concept. After the reactions of others, we develop feelings and ideas about ourselves.
Looking-glass self theory is like a "social mirror" in which a person can see his/her reflection. This process of self development clearly shows us the image of our personality. We can judge our personality by feedback of others. So, the process of looking-glass self plays an important role in the process of socialization.
Agents of socialization Agents of socialization are the people and groups which influence our emotions, attitudes and behavior etc. Family, religion, day care, school, peer groups and workplace are the agents of socialization that prepare us to take our place in society.
• Family
Family is an important agent of socialization where a child starts learning the language of family. Slowly and gradually a children learns the roles of family members. He/she recognizes the roles of father, mother, sisters and brothers. It has been seen that most of the children follow the roles of others like putting on glasses and reading newspapers as their parents do.
• Religion
Religion is also an important agent of socialization where an individual learns about right and wrong. Religions provide basic ideas of morality which become the part of our life in future. Religion teaches us about the way of dressing, speech, and manners which are suitable for us in formal occasions.
• Day care
Day care is another agent of socialization in which the children are being socialized and benefited by the others. It has been become a tradition in every society to hire a person for daily wages to take care of the children. Day care process stimulates the intellectual personality of children.
• The school and peer groups
The school and peer groups are the agents of socialization where a child meets with a large group of people of similar age. Apart from education, the students are linked with each other for common interests. In this way of sharing ideas and common interests, students find peer groups for themselves and they start learning from those peer groups. Friends, clubs, gangs, and the neighbors are some examples of the peer groups. While entering into a school and peer group a member starts learning new norms and characteristics like athletics ability, coolness, toughness physical appearance and attraction etc.
• The workplace
Workplace is another agent of socialization in which an individual enters into a mature age. Apparently, workplace is place where an individual serves as an employer and earns a few dollars. Besides this, an employer has lot of opportunities to learn essential things for future. It has been seen that co-workers always advise about the future plans and lifestyles. It can be said that it is a sort of rehearsal for future activities. Therefore, it is proved that workplace is an agent of socialization where an individual has the opportunity to learn a lot.
The Holiday Season
What has the following taught you about Christmas?
Family
Culture
Friends
School
Religion
Government
Mass Media
US Economy
Do any of the social agents listed above work against each other? How do you work out that conflict?
Family
Culture
Friends
School
Religion
Government
Mass Media
US Economy
Do any of the social agents listed above work against each other? How do you work out that conflict?
What will it take for the USA to become the world leader in education?
Finland is # 1
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749880
School Year around the world:
http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/school-years.html
Length of school year graph
http://www.inca.org.uk/Table15.pdf
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749880
School Year around the world:
http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/school-years.html
Length of school year graph
http://www.inca.org.uk/Table15.pdf
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Papa Don't Leave!
The link below brings you to an infographic image. Take a look and respond and feel free to look at other infrographics .
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1206/papa-don-t-leave/flash.html
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1206/papa-don-t-leave/flash.html
Working on Holidays: The New Class Divide?
Working on Holidays: The New Class Divide?
An employee restocks a shelf at a Walmart Supercenter in Troy, Ohio
As the holiday season gets underway, I think back to my childhood and the times enjoyed with my family. We were lucky. My immigrant parents realized the American Dream, and on the fourth Thursday of every November we had much to be thankful for. Even if my dad sometimes wasn’t there because he had to work, we didn’t mind. As a doctor, he and his fellow health care professionals knew that sickness takes no holiday. Policemen and firemen, plumbers and 911 operators: all kinds of Americans know well the sacrifices and pride that comes with providing essential services.
But while the right to one’s health and safety may be inalienable, the right to shop is not. Yet Walmart recently announced that it would open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day; Target and Toys “R” Us followed suit, with plans to open at 9 p.m. They are hardly alone. Gap Inc. stores (Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic) will be open Thanksgiving Day, as will Sears and Kmart. Shoppers may appreciate the extra hours, but what about all the people who will have to end their Thanksgiving meal, or forgo it altogether, in order to man the cashiers and stock the shelves?
Working on holidays has always presented something of a class divide. From the 1870s through the 1920s, middle- and upper-class Americans often lived with “the help” — mostly women of color whose job it was to cook and clean and care for others, day and night. While shows like Downton Abbey seek to give life to servants, they also sanitize what was a brutal, backbreaking existence. It was common for a housemaid’s day to begin well before the family rose and extend until after they retired for the evening. They did so seven days a week; working more than 80 hours a week — more than the 65 hours worked by most factory workers at the time. While we often imagine that these women were young and single, Evelyn Nakano Glenn’s research on such care providers has shown how over 30% of them were married, many with children. As they toiled for families not their own, they left their children, parents, siblings and husbands behind. November and December was no doubt one of the hardest times of the year, and their own families felt their absence.
The labor movement was central to changing this sorry state of affairs (though labor laws almost never cover domestic workers). Unions raised wages, lowered hours, instituted worker protections, guaranteed a minimum wage and secured holidays off for workers. Those who did have to work on national holidays were guaranteed overtime pay. As Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld have shown, when unions were strong, such benefits even extended to nonunionized workers. But as unions have declined, part-time work has increased. And this has meant lower wages and greater uncertainty. Working at $11 an hour for 25 hours a week means making $14,300 a year. For most retail workers, that’s one of the better jobs available. And still, it’s a job without health insurance, or a retirement plan, with constant scheduling changes that make it hard to take additional employment. Most of these workers wish they could work more, but employers would rather hire other part-timers. So when the boss says, “Can you work Thanksgiving?” workers have no real choice but to be “willing.”
(MORE: Do the Suburbs Make You Selfish?)
Today, working on holidays carries no guarantee of extra pay, and not working can mean losing one’s job. Some workers are fighting back; Walmart employees have plannedover 1,000 Black Friday strikes because of stagnant wages and health care premiums that will soon triple. Americans have a choice of helping these workers regain the protections, or walking past them in order to shop for more things. And that is the irony to the trend of stores opening on Thanksgiving. On the same day that we give thanks for all we have, why must we also rush out to buy more? Observers might say, “It’s just the logic of the market!” But the logic of the market is not some mystical process. It is the result of the decisions that we make. People work on Thursday so we can be thankful for all that we have. Perhaps it’s time for shopping moratoriums so that everyone can give thanks, instead of just those who have more to be thankful for.
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/11/19/working-holidays-the-new-class-divide/#ixzz2DHy8PQvS
How to Stop Sexual Assault in the Ranks
How To Stop Sexual Assault in the Ranks
Air Force women Trisha Loede, left, of the 39th Air Base Wing, hugs Ann Mitchell of the 39th Force Support Squadron, following a "dirty dash" at Incirlik air base in Turkey earlier this year as part of Women's History Month.
In the wake of the recent release of the Air Force investigation into sexual misconduct by Basic Military Training instructors at Lackland Air Force Base, Congress is likely to address the issue of military sexual violence through provisions in the pending National Defense Authorization Act.
With proposals ranging from creating military Special Victims Units, to reserving case-disposition authority for high-ranking officers, to strengthening penalties for offenders, legislators have vowed to get tough on crime against women in uniform.
But are they having the right conversation?
While enhanced prosecution is a laudable and necessary goal, the narrative of a broken criminal justice system only presents half the story behind the epidemic of military sexual violence. With its focus on the acts of individual offenders, the criminal justice system is simply not structured to serve as a vehicle for institutional reform or a means of empowering victims, whose role is usually limited to providing testimonial evidence.
The system, moreover, affords enormous discretion to police and prosecutors, up to and including the authority to opt against taking any action at all. In cases of sex offenses, prosecution is particularly sparse; around a quarter of police reports result in criminal indictment, and only half of those indictments yield convictions.
In the civilian world, recognition of these shortcomings has prompted the development of civil remedies for crime victims. Successful civil suits exercise an important deterrent effect, holding perpetrators accountable and encouraging negligent third parties to adopt enhanced safety practices. Victim lawsuits against third parties can be credited for the implementation of such standard security measures as the installation of door peepholes in hotel doors, the provision of adequate lighting in apartment common areas, and the employment of security guards on college campuses.
By exposing employers to significant financial consequences for failing to prevent and respond to sexual violence against employees, civil suits act as a powerful deterrent against workplace crime. Not only may victims sue their perpetrators, they can also bring negligence claims against employers who knew or should have known of the potential for the crime to occur. In addition, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act obligates employers to act when employees report threats, harassment or other potentially violent conduct in the workplace. Unless an employer can prove that it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct harassment or assault, the employer can be held liable for the misconduct of its employees as well as for any retaliation suffered by victims for reporting such incidents.
Uniformed personnel, however, are barred from these avenues for relief.
Not only may they not bring personal injury claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act, they are also prohibited from suing the military for discrimination and harassment under Title VII. In fact, while military contractors and civilian Department of Defense employees may seek such remedies, uniformed personnel performing identical work in the same setting may not.
The absence of these remedies undoubtedly shaped the experience of the Lackland recruits, who reportedly felt compelled to agree to their instructors’ demands for fear of the consequences to their career if they disobeyed orders. In any other employment setting, they could have held their organization liable in the event of such retaliation.
Beyond imposing a toll on employers who fail to abide by the law, civil litigation also empowers victims by offering them an opportunity to vindicate their individual rights. Unlike in criminal court, where the prosecutor directs the course of the case, plaintiffs in civil proceedings can control such decisions as what type of evidence to bring and how much to seek in damages.
Few would argue that military personnel lack the right to be protected against crime; why deny them the means to enforce that right?
Rachel Natelson is the Legal Director for Service Women’s Action Network, a nonpartisan civil rights organization that works to transform military culture by securing equal opportunity and freedom to serve without discrimination, harassment or assault; and to reform veterans’ services to ensure high quality health care and benefits for women veterans and their families.
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2012/11/23/how-to-stop-sexual-assault-in-the-ranks/#ixzz2DHxHJuDI
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Born Good? Babies help unlock the origins of morality
You will need headphones to watch and listen to the 60 Minute Video link below.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50135408n
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50135408n
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Insurance
Should it make a difference for a health care provider where you get your insurance from as long as they are get paid? Does it make a difference if it's is a state funded insurance plan?
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The Independent Project
What kind of education would we have if students were given the keys? What would education look like if student could design their own education program with no teachers to teach them? Students would be responsible for teach each other and themselves. Can you picture this kind of education model?
http://theindependentproject2012.blogspot.com/
http://theindependentproject2012.blogspot.com/
Should Teachers and Students Be "Friends" Online?
Should Teachers and Students Be “Friends” Online?
Published on February 7, 2012 by Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, MS, LPC in Teen Angst
Sam was on his Facebook account and searched for his favorite teacher, Ms. Sawyer. He clicked to find out more information about her when a message popped up "Janice only shares some information publicly. If you know Janice, add her as a friend or send her a message." Sam clicked the friend request. A few hours later Janice, I mean Ms. Sawyer, accepted Sam's request. Sam went straight to her page. He scrolled through her friends and then went to her photos. He saw pictures of her with friends and family, at the beach (in a bikini), and "jackpot" at a party drinking, dancing and wearing almost next to nothing. "This is good stuff" Sam thought. Sam chose the pictures he liked and then right mouse clicked and saved them to his desktop. He then posted them on his Facebook page. When this got out Ms. Sawyer found herself sitting in front of her principal trying to explain the situation. "Well, Sam sent me an invite to be his friend on Facebook and I forgot all about those pictures..." This is where the Balladeer in the Dukes of Hazzard would come in... "Well folks, I think we all would agree, this wouldn't be a predicament that any of us would want to be in."
There are some educators who don't believe teachers should interact with students on social platforms. First, there are some real ethical concerns. There have been documented stories of teachers who have ended up in sexual relations with students and these relationships began online. Teachers also need to be careful of what they post because some teachers have been terminated because of their online behavior. Professionally, there needs to be clear boundaries established between private and professional lives. As in the example of Ms. Sawyer, imagine being Sam and how those pictures changed or tarnished his image of his English teacher. Sam's once favorite and respected teacher had lost her credibility and rather than seeing her as his instructor he kept thinking about all of those pictures he stumbled across. Bottom line - teachers are educators and role models and shouldn't be "friends" with their students.
Sam was on his Facebook account and searched for his favorite teacher, Ms. Sawyer. He clicked to find out more information about her when a message popped up "Janice only shares some information publicly. If you know Janice, add her as a friend or send her a message." Sam clicked the friend request. A few hours later Janice, I mean Ms. Sawyer, accepted Sam's request. Sam went straight to her page. He scrolled through her friends and then went to her photos. He saw pictures of her with friends and family, at the beach (in a bikini), and "jackpot" at a party drinking, dancing and wearing almost next to nothing. "This is good stuff" Sam thought. Sam chose the pictures he liked and then right mouse clicked and saved them to his desktop. He then posted them on his Facebook page. When this got out Ms. Sawyer found herself sitting in front of her principal trying to explain the situation. "Well, Sam sent me an invite to be his friend on Facebook and I forgot all about those pictures..." This is where the Balladeer in the Dukes of Hazzard would come in... "Well folks, I think we all would agree, this wouldn't be a predicament that any of us would want to be in."
While most educators behave appropriately online, there are a few who don't. And as the saying goes, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. It only takes one teacher appearing on national television not using common sense online to taint the perception of educators across the nation. It is because of this that school districts across the US are scrambling to create policies that limit or ban conversations between educators and students via texting and social media platforms. Today school districts are trying to balance not only cyberbullying, but also freedom of speech and rights of privacy. The latter two don't just apply to students but to educators as well. Research is revealing that educators are being fired because of what they're posting and doing online.
In order to protect themselves, many school districts require teachers to sign some form of acceptable use policy regarding electronic communication use. Most school systems warn teachers to use caution when communicating with students online and to be wary of what they post. Teachers who behave inappropriately or have online pictures of themselves drinking, partying, etc. could face termination.
So, how does all of this affect you? Where do you draw the line? Should your child's teacher be his/her "virtual friend"? The answer may not be straight forward because it all depends on who you ask.
Proponents of educators using social media platforms to communicate with students argue that technology is a great teaching tool. They feel that social media is a positive way to connect to students in the world they live in. Students are online so much that closing a door to reach out to them is an opportunity missed. Plus, they feel that restricting their access to communicate online infringes on their constitutional rights.
Teachers not only teach content but they also instill values to help their students become outstanding and productive citizens. Educators teach youth by their own examples. Home and personal life don't need to spill over into the classroom. So teachers need to establish boundaries and keep their private lives, private. Aside from family, teachers spend the second largest amount of time with teens. They need to realize that they are role models both inside and outside of the classroom. Educators play a pivotal role in shaping the youth of today. Their job is invaluable to our society and should be one of the most respected positions in our nation.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
7 Billion People: TIME Surveys the New Global Population
7 Billion People: TIME Surveys the New Global Population
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1247311360001_2098174,00.html#ixzz29tNLcIAN
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1247311360001_2098174,00.html#ixzz29tNLcIAN
Power Poser
Watch the video on this Time.com site.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2091589_2092033,00.html?artId=2091589?contType=article?chn=specials
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2091589_2092033,00.html?artId=2091589?contType=article?chn=specials
If Everyone Lived Like an American
Read the Article and the post at the bottom.
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2012-10/daily-infographic-if-everyone-lived-american-how-many-earths-would-we-need
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2012-10/daily-infographic-if-everyone-lived-american-how-many-earths-would-we-need
Monday, October 15, 2012
Test Corrections
Should I allow future test corrections? Is allowing students to earn half thier missed points back for test correction fair to the students that prepaired and did well? If I do allow for future test correction should I give out a study guide? Some time I feel that by allowing for test correction, the insentive to study is reduced.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Anorexia
Click on link below to see the videos and read the responses, then come back to this page to post your response:
http://singsank.blogspot.com/2012/01/anorexia.html?showComment=1327622855075
More people die from Eating Disorders than all other mental illness combined, but ED research receive the lowest federal funding of all mental illnesses!! Because WE are to blame.
http://singsank.blogspot.com/2012/01/anorexia.html?showComment=1327622855075
More people die from Eating Disorders than all other mental illness combined, but ED research receive the lowest federal funding of all mental illnesses!! Because WE are to blame.
Why Kids Can’t Search?
- November 1, 2011 |
- 12:30 pm
We’re often told that young people tend to be the most tech-savvy among us. But just how savvy are they? A group of researchers led by College of Charleston business professor Bing Pan tried to find out. Specifically, Pan wanted to know how skillful young folks are at online search. His team gathered a group of college students and asked them to look up the answers to a handful of questions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the students generally relied on the web pages at the top of Google’s results list.
But Pan pulled a trick: He changed the order of the results for some students. More often than not, those kids went for the bait and also used the (falsely) top-ranked pages. Pan grimly concluded that students aren’t assessing information sources on their own merit—they’re putting too much trust in the machine.
Other studies have found the same thing: High school and college students may be “digital natives,” but they’re wretched at searching. In a recent experiment at Northwestern, when 102 undergraduates were asked to do some research online, none went to the trouble of checking the authors’ credentials. In 1955, we wondered why Johnny can’t read. Today the question is, why can’t Johnny search?
Who’s to blame? Not the students. If they’re naive at Googling, it’s because the ability to judge information is almost never taught in school. Under 2001′s No Child Left Behind Act, elementary and high schools focus on prepping their pupils for reading and math exams. And by the time kids get to college, professors assume they already have this skill. The buck stops nowhere. This situation is surpassingly ironic, because not only is intelligent search a key to everyday problem-solving, it also offers a golden opportunity to train kids in critical thinking.
Consider the efforts of Frances Harris, librarian at the magnet University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois. (Librarians are our national leaders in this fight; they’re the main ones trying to teach search skills to kids today.) Harris educates eighth and ninth graders in how to format nuanced queries using Boolean logic and advanced settings. She steers them away from raw Google searches and has them use academic and news databases, too.
But, crucially, she also trains students to assess the credibility of what they find online. For example, she teaches them to analyze the tone of a web page to judge whether it was created by an academic, an advocacy group, or a hobbyist. Students quickly gain the ability to detect if a top-ranked page about Martin Luther King Jr. was actually posted by white supremacists.
“I see them start to get really paranoid,” Harris says. “The big thing in assessing search results is authorship—who put it there and why have they put it there?” Or, as pioneering librarian Buffy Hamilton at Creekview High School near Atlanta says, “This is learning how to learn.”
One can imagine even more entertaining ways to help kids grok the intricacies of the search world. Why not let students start a class blog on a subject and see how long it takes for it to show up in search results?
Mind you, mastering “crap detection 101,” as digital guru Howard Rheingold dubs it, isn’t easy. One prerequisite is that you already know a lot about the world. For instance, Harris found that students had difficulty distinguishing a left-wing parody of the World Trade Organization’s website from the real WTO site. Why? Because you need to understand why someone would want to parody it in the first place—knowledge the average eighth grader does not yet possess.
In other words, Google makes broad-based knowledge more important, not less. A good education is the true key to effective search. But until our kids have that, let’s make sure they don’t always take PageRank at its word.
Monday, September 24, 2012
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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Legal Challenges to Voter-ID Laws: Too Little, Too Late?
In this year’s heated battle over voter-ID laws, the critics have scored a big victory: a federal court overturned Texas’ strict new ID law last week. It is not hard to see why. The state law was a combination of a poll tax and a logistical nightmare. But critics of voter-ID laws should not get too excited. Courts are still far too willing to approve these laws, and there will be plenty of them in place on Election Day on Nov. 6.
Texas’ law, which was enacted last year, would have been the nation’s strictest. (It could yet return; Texas says it will appeal the ruling blocking it.) It required voters to present one of an approved list of photo IDs in order to vote. There was a certain slant to the list: gun permits counted; student IDs did not. The law would have made at least 600,000 voters without valid ID ineligible to vote, according to the Justice Department, and it hit minorities hardest. Hispanic voters in Texas are at least 46.5% and perhaps 120% more likely than non-Hispanics to lack a photo ID.
For voters without ID, the state law made many people pay to vote, the way poll taxes once did. To get the necessary ID, voters had to present documents like a birth certificate, which can cost $22 or more. With 2 in 5 households living paycheck to paycheck, the law forced some people to make a choice between putting food on the table or a ballot in the ballot box.
(PHOTOS: Scenes from Voting Day)
Then there was the physical inconvenience. Voters were supposed to go to a driver’s-license office to get their ID, but 81 of Texas’ 254 counties do not have a working driver’s-license office. As a result, some voters had to travel up to 250 miles if they wanted to vote.
Supporters of the law made the usual argument that they just wanted to prevent voter fraud. But there are almost no cases of people impersonating other people at the polls — in Texas or anywhere else. One study found that voter fraud occurs in about 0.00004% of votes or less — about as often as Americans are struck by lightning.
The driving force behind voter-ID laws is actually the desire to suppress turnout, particularly minority turnout — as it was with the Florida law that made it harder for groups to register new voters and Ohio’s recent edict stopping early voting for most voters. (The Florida and Ohio laws were also struck down last week.) Not surprisingly, there is evidence that voter-ID laws do keep eligible voters away from the polls. A 2008 study in Indiana found that 7% of eligible voters who did not vote cited lack of the correct form of ID as one of the reasons.
The special three-judge court that struck down the Texas law did not get into anyone’s motives. It just made a point of simple logic. The Voting Rights Act prevents states from passing laws diminishing minority voting rights. Texas’ law made it harder for poor people to vote. And Hispanic voters in Texas are poorer than non-Hispanic whites.
(MORE: How to Solve the Voter-ID Debate)
The ruling is good news, but of a limited sort. The law was struck down because Texas is one of only 16 states that are covered, in whole or in part, by this part of the Voting Rights Act. Thirty-four states, and large parts of another seven, are not covered by the act, so in most of the country, the arguments that persuaded the court would not apply. On the broader question of whether unduly harsh voter-ID laws violate the Constitution, the Supreme Court has been of no help. In 2008, in Crawford v. Marion County, it upheld Indiana’s law, which requires a photo ID. That ruling has given an unfortunate green light to other states to pass strict ID laws.
There are still two major challenges to voter-ID laws working their way through the courts. Pennsylvania’s ID law was upheld last month, but the ruling is on appeal. South Carolina’s law is in federal court, being challenged under the Voting Rights Act. But however those cases come out, roughly two-thirds of the states will likely have a voter-ID law on Election Day.
If there were a lot of voter fraud going on, the case for voter-ID laws would be stronger, and even many opponents might be persuaded to support them — particularly if the laws made it easy and free to get ID. But when this fraud happens with lightning-fatality frequency and the laws put up sizable obstacles to voting, it is hard to view them as anything but vote-suppression laws. They should not be passed, and if they are, courts should strike them down.
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2012/09/04/legal-challenges-to-voter-id-laws-too-little-too-late/#ixzz267dXhI3E
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