Week 13 Web of Risks and Facebook: Where do you stand?

Here were the directions to the blog post on Facebook.

Blog Post 10 Directions

Find a credible article online regarding the dangers OR the benefits of having a Facebook account. You can also research a story of someone who was affected negatively by having a Facebook account (i.e., someone who was bullied on Facebook). Write two paragraphs.

1.      In Paragraph 1 include the author and title of the article and a brief summary of the contents. Make sure that your link to the article is live.

2.      In Paragraph 2 respond to the ideas presented in the article giving your opinion and support for your opinion.

3.      Be sure and have a catchy title for your post.

4.      Insert a graphic or embed a video into your post.

5.      Your post will be graded on the 5 Cs (clear, concise, complete, correct, and creative).

6.      This post will be worth 10 points.

     Here is a blog post by Anna Marie that I would like to showcase.

The dangers of having and using a Facebook account have become very dangerous to the privacy of its millions of users. In the article Five Hidden Dangers of Facebook the writers of CBSNews (http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-3480_162-6469373.html?pageNum=2&tag=contentMain;contentBody) explain the dangers of Facebook’s unexpecting users. The first danger is that the user's information is being shared with other third parties. The second danger of Facebook is that privacy settings are not as safe as they claim to be. The third point is that the ads displayed on Facebook can contain viruses. The fourth point is that your Facebook “friends” make the user vulnerable. This is because a person on Facebook that you are friends with can be hacked and send you damaging software. The fifth and final danger on the list is that people called scammers are creating fake profiles. A study showed that, “40 percent of all Facebook profiles are fake” if you have a Facebook that means that almost half of all your “friends” are fake. 

I believe that there are dangers in using Facebook, but any one who has an account has to have some knowledge of how risky Facebook is. It is also party the responsible of the Facebook user to make sure that they protect themselves on the social networking sites. One thing that people can do to protect themselves on Facebook is having a strong secure password. Also making sure that your profile is set to private so that only the people that you know can see the information that you post. Another tip is to not click on any ads that Facebook may be displaying. Most people know not to click on ads because they look like spam anyways. Also, educate your friends on how to be safe on Facebook so that they don’t make you more susceptible to viruses. Tell them to create a safe password and let them know that they need to keep their profiles private.  To protect yourself from people with fake profiles make sure that you watch whom you accept as friends. I personally have a Facebook account and I never add people who I don’t know.  If people are smart and safe about how they use Facebook, then they can avoid the five hidden dangers of Facebook.

    Here is the voting results for whether I should use FB in my virtual comp class or not in spring, 2012. 
     
    12 said YES. 5 said NO....4 didn't vote.

Week 12: Days One and Two: Love and Marriage

On Day One, the Palmetto Writers worked in pairs on comparing and contrasting two songs: Adele's Someone Like You and Lady Gaga's You and I.

www.youtube.com/watch


www.youtube.com/watch


The directions were as follows:


 Work in pairs and compare and contrast Adele's song "Someone Like You" with Lady Gaga's "You and I."
1. Explain how the title of the song indicates what the song is about. Explain why you think they
2. Explain how the the style and the language in the songs seem particularly suited to what the songwriter has to say.
3. Analyze the visual rhetoric in the two songs. How effective is the video in communicating the message and theme of the song? Use evidence to support your claim.


Be sure and support your three points with examples from the songs.
Submit your comparison/contrast critique as a post and include your names and the title "Adele vs. Lady Gaga Songs".

Scott and Ursula's Response

1. In Lady Gaga’s song, “You and I” she returns to town and wants to rekindle a relationship with a past lover. In Adele’s song, “Someone Like You” she feels that instead of going back to her ex lover, she is moving on just like he did. Gaga chose that title for that song because it’s in the present where as Adele’s is drawing the line in the sand and making a new future for herself. 

2. In the music video, “Someone Like You” the whole video is in black and white which gives a more powerful meaning already. They show close ups of her face which expresses regret, because things didn’t turn out the way she wanted. The song is slow and methodical. It’s a bittersweet video of lingering piano and a powerful voice. She has been left behind by an ex lover and ponders why she couldn’t live up to his expectations and has gained the strength to make the decision to move on. Lady Gaga says, “It’s been a long time since I came around, Been a long time but I’m back in town. You taste like whiskey when you kiss me, Oh I’d give anything to be your baby doll. This time I’m not leaving without you.” Her powerful  voice is very loud and her style is contemporary rock n roll.

3. One visual reference in Adele’s video, is being in black in white and she’s walking along the a river in Paris, France, making this very bittersweet but stating that she’s resolved her problem and moved on, whereas Gaga paints her picture with her words, for example, when she says, “Sit back down where you belong in my corner of my bar with your high heels on.”

Here were the directions to the discussion forum on Andrew Sullivan's essay, Why the M Word Matters to Me.

1. Revisit the essay by Andrew Sullivan called Why the M Word Matters to Me.
2. Identify the reasons why Sullivan believes that gays should be allowed to marry.
3. Watch the two videos below.
www.youtube.com/watch


http://youtu.be/rN6X0M0rev8
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN6X0M0rev8
www.youtube.com/watch
4. In Paragraph 2 state your opinion and provide at least three reasons why you believe that there should or should not be marriage rights for gay couples. 
5. Support your opinion with at least TWO credible sources following the CARS checklist. Your sources must have a credible unbiased author, the facts must be accurate, reasonable, and balanced(no bias).
6. Use in-text citations in your post and properly formatted works cited at the end of your post.
7. Reply to a minimum of two of your peers' posts in which you agree or disagee and mentioning why.

Conner C. - Gay Marriage

Andrew Sullivan is a very brave and heroic man. Over his lifetime he has faced hate, hardship and even the contemplation of suicide. He is a strong and inspirational man who just so happens to be gay. With all of the challenges he had to overcome he is now happily married and has found the perfect lifestyle for himself. He has had a long road of supporting gay marriages and he most definitely has arguments to back it up. He believes that in order for America to be a strong, united country, everybody must make peace and join one another. With so much controversy over who can't get married, more and more hate is circulating. Instead of opposing gay marriages, why not let the people be free and make their own personal decisions?

It's fairly obvious what my opinion on gay marriage is, considering the first paragraph. I believe that since we are able to make such personal decisions as smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, we should be able to make such decisions about who we want to marry. It's okay for people of a different nationality or a different religion to get married, but people with a different sexual preference are excluded. How does gay marriage affect you in any way; you're not the one involved in the relationship? As Americans, we have the right to be free, to an extent obviously. With these freedoms comes personal choice, and sexuality should definitely fall into this category.

"Demographic information also showed most of the couples were older and better educated than average newlywed couples, with more than 74% over 35 years old and 69 % holding a college degree."
It is said, by use of statistics, that gay married couples on average tend to be of a more mature age and are literally more intelligent and succesfull than that of a heterosexual couple. What could happen with the legalization of gay marriage, besides creating thousands of happier couples?

"Gay Marriage Facts & Statistics - History of Gay Marriage." Gay Marriage Tips - Gay Marriage Jewelry - Gay Marriage Laws - Gay Divorce. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.      http://gaymarriage.lifetips.com/cat/64319/gay-marriage-facts-statistics/index.html.

"11 Facts About Gay Rights." Do Something. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-gay-rights.

Week 11: Day One The 50s Trophy Wives vs. Today's Trophy Wives

Today's lesson was based on an essay by Deborah Siegal called The New Trophy Wife.

The men were against the women in a comparison-contrast activity that compared trophy spouses of the 50s with trophy spouses of today. The men had to compare and contrast 50's trophy husbands  new trophy husbands today, while the women were asked to compare and contrast trophy wives of the 50s with trophy wives today.

The groups worked as a team of four: researcher, resource person, writer, and researcher/presenter to complete the table, find two graphics and include their sources.


Here is what Mel, Mal, Brittany and Anna Marie submitted.

#	Trophy Wife of Today	Trophy Wife of the 1950s
1	Work and make more or the same amount of money as their husbands	Women stayed home as homemakers and raised their children
2	Men are more willing to marry women with more education than themselves	Men married their wives for their beauty and body
3	Women think men are intimidated by their education and their powered career	Most women graduated high school and were married right after and began having children
4	1 in 3 women make more money than their husbands	2 out of 5 women with husbands and school-age children worked outside of the home
5	“If a woman is powerful, smart, and ambitious, her expectations for her husband, and for the relationship, rise.  Women tend to think that their spouse is not keeping his end of the pact	Women depended on the husband to earn money, support the family and help with all their problems.  Women were always portrayed as helpless and unable to take care of themselves.
6	Successful, educated women on average marry in their thirties	The average age of women getting married was early twenties

Clouse, Barbara Fine. Patterns for a Purpose: a Rhetorical Reader. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.

Roobix Coob. “A Women’s Role in the 1950s” Yahoo.com. Associated Content, 17 Nov.

2005. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.

"Women's Roles in the 1950s." 1950's Lifestyles and Social Trends. Gale Cengage, 1994. eNotes.com. 2006. 1 Nov, 2011 <http://www.enotes.com/1950-lifestyles-social-trends-american-decades/
womens-roles>

 I had to spend about 20-minutes checking students' comprehension of the essay, because people are coming to class unprepared. For example, I asked what the term 'alpha' male meant and no one could answer. 

The Google peer reviews had to be delayed because a lot of the students had their access set to Can View rather than Can Edit. We sorted that out though, so I am hoping the process gets easier the next time around. I ended up putting two peer editing discussion forums up (one in Week 10 and the other in Week 11) which wasn't really necessary since the Google links automatically update when people make changes to them.