My most favorite project(idea from Professor) for this class is the final assignment, the Group Facilitation paper. I think it was the best assignment of the course. It gave students the opportunity to see how the concepts we learned in this course in real life situations. I understood the concepts better when I did this project. I thought it was the most effective assignment in this course. I also enjoyed listening and watching people's reactions and points of view on picking the best candidate for the job. It was a fun and interesting experience for me since it was my first time doing assignment like the Group Facilitation.
Other useful material that I really like in this course is how to counterattack someone's argument. I think the information on this is important because we do not have the same opinions with others all the time in life; therefore, it is important to know how to protect our argument and find the flaws in others' arguments.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
General Opinion about Comm41
2). What was your favorite thing about this class? What was your least favorite thing about this class? How can this class be improved?
My big like for this class is time efficiency. I have 17 units, and my classes are all heavy classes. This online class really help me to reduce the weights on my shoulders. I can finish my work at home and in ease. I also like the new experience of taking a new online class. Furthermore, this class teaches me many surprising thing like fallacies. I thought fallacies as something people only made in writing, but it surprised me when I realized that we made fallacies in every day conversations.
My least favorite thing about the class is communication. I know it sound ironic. However, I worked with people without knowing who they were until on day we filmed the group facilitation. I also expected to meet more people rather than just the ones who were in my groups. I hate voting sometimes because majority can be wrong. I think it is important for students to meet and work with different people because it is a good preparation(we have to meet different types of people in life when we work later on.) My least favorite thing is people's posts. Some people took the course seriously, and I learned something from their post. On the other hand, many people just wanted to finish the post as their duties, so their posts were helpless(rambling, vague, bogus,...). I had a hard time to pick the one that I could comment on.
This class should provide more opportunities for students to meet different people(not just with the same people for the whole semester). Besides, Professor should have more restrictions on posts. You should somehow enforce students to put more efforts into their posts in order to earn credit. It is too easy to just ramble on and on about non-sense things and have enough 150. You should at least make more requirements in posts.
My big like for this class is time efficiency. I have 17 units, and my classes are all heavy classes. This online class really help me to reduce the weights on my shoulders. I can finish my work at home and in ease. I also like the new experience of taking a new online class. Furthermore, this class teaches me many surprising thing like fallacies. I thought fallacies as something people only made in writing, but it surprised me when I realized that we made fallacies in every day conversations.
My least favorite thing about the class is communication. I know it sound ironic. However, I worked with people without knowing who they were until on day we filmed the group facilitation. I also expected to meet more people rather than just the ones who were in my groups. I hate voting sometimes because majority can be wrong. I think it is important for students to meet and work with different people because it is a good preparation(we have to meet different types of people in life when we work later on.) My least favorite thing is people's posts. Some people took the course seriously, and I learned something from their post. On the other hand, many people just wanted to finish the post as their duties, so their posts were helpless(rambling, vague, bogus,...). I had a hard time to pick the one that I could comment on.
This class should provide more opportunities for students to meet different people(not just with the same people for the whole semester). Besides, Professor should have more restrictions on posts. You should somehow enforce students to put more efforts into their posts in order to earn credit. It is too easy to just ramble on and on about non-sense things and have enough 150. You should at least make more requirements in posts.
What have you learned in this class over the course of the semester?
This class is new to me. I mean almost everything is my first experiences. This is my first time taking an online class. I learned so many new thing from this course.
I learned about types of fallacies and how to avoid them. I learned what how to make my arguments better. I also noticed that people usually used fallacies without thinking so. It is surprising, but I think most of us make fallacies on daily basic(in talking and communicating). The most common ones are appeal to emotion, begging the question, etc. Arguments are everywhere in our lives, and they are just in different forms. For example, advertisements and commercials are also arguments with fancy effects, models, acting, scripts, etc. Those are still arguments because it try to convince the audience. The most important thing I learn is how to avoid fallacies and ways to make my arguments become stronger and more effective. Furthermore, I now know how to counterattack other people's arguments based on the text book's guidelines. I know what questions I should ask when evaluating arguments. Overall, I learn so many, and those are the main things that I remember most parts.
I learned about types of fallacies and how to avoid them. I learned what how to make my arguments better. I also noticed that people usually used fallacies without thinking so. It is surprising, but I think most of us make fallacies on daily basic(in talking and communicating). The most common ones are appeal to emotion, begging the question, etc. Arguments are everywhere in our lives, and they are just in different forms. For example, advertisements and commercials are also arguments with fancy effects, models, acting, scripts, etc. Those are still arguments because it try to convince the audience. The most important thing I learn is how to avoid fallacies and ways to make my arguments become stronger and more effective. Furthermore, I now know how to counterattack other people's arguments based on the text book's guidelines. I know what questions I should ask when evaluating arguments. Overall, I learn so many, and those are the main things that I remember most parts.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Chapter 15 Interesting Concept
I do not find any interesting concepts in this chapter because they are common knowledge and things that we should know before hand. However, I will still talk about something that you maybe interested in and want to read about. The first thing I am going to talk about is about the cause precedes the effect. In other to let cause and effect reasoning occurs, then the claim that describe the cause need to be true before the claim that describes the effect become true(Epstein). I think this is a little confusing in text, but in example, it is extremely easy to understand.
Example: The rain make the area in front of my house become slippery.
The argument will not make sense or become valid if the house's front is slippery before the rain occurs.
In other words, the cause has to happen before the effect.
Another thing I want to talk about is the cause makes a difference in the argument. This concept is related to the previous one I show above. According to Epstein's text, "if the cause hadn't occurred, there wouldn't be the effect." If we need to check whether the cause make a difference or not, then we need to ensure that we do not overlook other possible cause(s).
Example: The rain make the area in front of my house become slippery.
The argument will not make sense or become valid if the house's front is slippery before the rain occurs.
In other words, the cause has to happen before the effect.
Another thing I want to talk about is the cause makes a difference in the argument. This concept is related to the previous one I show above. According to Epstein's text, "if the cause hadn't occurred, there wouldn't be the effect." If we need to check whether the cause make a difference or not, then we need to ensure that we do not overlook other possible cause(s).
Mission Critical Website
The Mission Critical website is very useful and helpful for students in critical thinking courses. On the website, students can find most of the major things we need to know in this course. I really like the layout of the website.It is divided into small categories, and under these categories are smaller group of information. The setting and layout make the process of finding the information we need become extremely easy. Furthermore, the readings always have examples go with them. For example, under the fallacies section, students can click on one type of fallacy. Then, the link will show up with explanation and examples. If students have a hard time to understand the reading from the textbooks, then they definitely will be cleared when reading from this site. Even students will not be able to understand the concepts completely they still have better understanding about those concept. The explanations and examples are very detail. The website does not only give the examples, but it also analyzes the examples and explains how the examples apply to the concepts. Unlike some other websites, Mission Critical website is built with better efforts.
Overall, I think Mission Critical Website is a great resource for student in this courses, communicating courses, and writing courses. I have better understanding about some concepts that I do not really get before reading the information on the site. I think it is really useful and helpful.
Overall, I think Mission Critical Website is a great resource for student in this courses, communicating courses, and writing courses. I have better understanding about some concepts that I do not really get before reading the information on the site. I think it is really useful and helpful.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Cause and Effect Reading
Cause and effect reasoning is one of my favorite. It tends to be one of the most common types of reasoning as well. We usually explain things in real life by using this type of argumentation. For example, my sister explains to my mom why she goes home late by saying that she has to go to the detention, and that is why she gets home late. Even in every day's activities, we can see cause and effect reasoning too. My brother does not have the critical thinking skill yet because he is only nine years old. However, he does know how to make a cause and effect reasoning when my mom ask him the reason he is late for school in the morning. He tells her the reason he is late because the weather is cold, so he sleeps in without realizing it. These reasons can work really well sometimes and sometimes not.
The reading on the website is very useful because it has everything one needs in order to have a better understanding about causal reasoning. First, it provides specific realistic examples to analyze and demonstrate what works and what do not work in causal argumentation. Besides, it also list out what students need to pay attention when making a cause and effect argument. We need to watch out for the fallacies we may unintentionally make when arguing using cause and effect reasoning. The website is also extremely helpful because of the check list it provides at the end of the reading. I think we can use those three points to check if our argument's strengths and flaws; therefore, we can make it become better argument.
The reading on the website is very useful because it has everything one needs in order to have a better understanding about causal reasoning. First, it provides specific realistic examples to analyze and demonstrate what works and what do not work in causal argumentation. Besides, it also list out what students need to pay attention when making a cause and effect argument. We need to watch out for the fallacies we may unintentionally make when arguing using cause and effect reasoning. The website is also extremely helpful because of the check list it provides at the end of the reading. I think we can use those three points to check if our argument's strengths and flaws; therefore, we can make it become better argument.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Judging and Evaluating Analogies
There are not many parts in chapter twelves. To be honest, I do not find any particular interesting section. Judging and evaluating is the only thing I do not have in my previous posts. Therefore, I will talk and discuss judging and evaluating analogies.
Reasoning by analogies is like putting examples into your arguments. Then, you make a conclusions by the comparison. Although, there are many great examples from the textbook, but I will provide one real life situation example.
Children without parents' love are like trees without water and sun.
The above sentence is a comparison between children vs. tree, parents' love vs. water and sun.
It is also an argument.
We should understand the argument this way:
Children need the love and care from their parents.
Children are like trees, and parents' love are like water and sun
The tree cannot grow well or survive without parents' love
Therefore, parents' love is necessary for children just like trees need water and sun to live.
Analogies are incomplete arguments. They give us hints on what we come across, but they do not give us the complete picture of the argument. Analogy can also be a good way to being a discussion.
In the text, there are 7 evaluating questions we need to ask when we evaluate an analogy:
1. Is this an argument? What is the conclusion?
2. What is the comparison?
3. What are the premises
4. What are the similarities?
5. Can we state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides?
6. Does the general principle really apply to both sides? Do the differences matter?
7. Is the argument strong or valid? Is it good?
When we ask these questions to ourselves regarding the argument or analogies. Then, we definitely understand the analogies better.
Reasoning by analogies is like putting examples into your arguments. Then, you make a conclusions by the comparison. Although, there are many great examples from the textbook, but I will provide one real life situation example.
Children without parents' love are like trees without water and sun.
The above sentence is a comparison between children vs. tree, parents' love vs. water and sun.
It is also an argument.
We should understand the argument this way:
Children need the love and care from their parents.
Children are like trees, and parents' love are like water and sun
The tree cannot grow well or survive without parents' love
Therefore, parents' love is necessary for children just like trees need water and sun to live.
Analogies are incomplete arguments. They give us hints on what we come across, but they do not give us the complete picture of the argument. Analogy can also be a good way to being a discussion.
In the text, there are 7 evaluating questions we need to ask when we evaluate an analogy:
1. Is this an argument? What is the conclusion?
2. What is the comparison?
3. What are the premises
4. What are the similarities?
5. Can we state the similarities as premises and find a general principle that covers the two sides?
6. Does the general principle really apply to both sides? Do the differences matter?
7. Is the argument strong or valid? Is it good?
When we ask these questions to ourselves regarding the argument or analogies. Then, we definitely understand the analogies better.
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