DISCUSSION BOARD 5,6 AND 9

For this Discussion Board, each student will need to create ONE NEW THREAD in the Discussion. To create a thread, click on the "Create Thread" button in the bar above, then type your responses to the questions inside the text box that will appear (or you can cut and paste from a Word document).  When you are finished, click "Submit" so that your responses will be saved. In order to encourage original responses, you will not be able to see others’ responses until you post yours.

Once you have posted your own, original response, you must respond to the post of at least one of your fellow classmates.  To do so, click on the subject of their posting and add your response.  These replies must have substance; for example, your response should not simply be, "I agree with your ideas." or "You are so right!" Please remember that everything you post in a discussion board is public, and all students enrolled in the course will be able to view it.

Pro Tip: Since Discussion Boards disappear once the due date has passed, cut and paste any information you'd like to keep into a Word document or Notes file.

For this Discussion Board, read the following articles:

The Dumbing of America by Susan Jacoby.docx 

Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

As you read the essays, think about the writer's strategies.  What kind of evidence does he or she use in the causal analysis? 

Then,

In a brief paragraph (Part 1):

Identify each of the factors Jacoby identifies as contributing to the "dumbing" of people in the US. Explain each of the factors and how they contribute to the overall intellectual decline of the US citizenry. Why do you think she uses politics as a springboard for discussing anti-intellectualism? 

In a second brief paragraph, discuss (Part 2):

Do you agree or disagree with Jacoby's assessment? Are we all getting dumber? Do you think we'd all be better off "reading for hours in a tree house" rather than being online? Is there a happy medium? She mentions a number of problems with the lack of knowledge in our country today. Although the article is now ten years old, are there still things happening currently that either support or refute her claim?

In a third paragraph (also Part 2):

Choose one of the essays and discuss the following: What are the most interesting causes or effects that the article discusses?  Does the writer convince you that we need to address this issue?  What makes the article effective if you think it is a good article?  If you don't think that it is an effective causal analysis, where does it fall short? 

Finally, respond to at least one other student. You may agree or disagree with their “Part 2” response; provide an explanation of why you agree or disagree.