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BLOG: Kevin and Joe Tomei talk about issues in languages, teaching, culture and politics at languagejapan.com.

NEW: Kevin is National Treasurer of JALT

NEW: ShowaELC.org website for SWU English Language and Communications Dept.

NEW: What's Up Setagaya! radio program.

Student FAQ

1. Q: Where is my class page? A: Use the menu above.

2. Q: Where is Moodle? A: Click on button here.

Updated 2007-01-10

Thinking with the Computer

A course for learning English, computer skills and thinking styles

Critical Thinking Final Project

Critical Thinking

Final Project

Review the Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages

* Read the titles of an excellent URL on Evaluating Web Pages at Berkeley
* Look at the shorter Cornell version.
* Look at Susan Beck's version with links to interesting examples.
* Look at Ohio States' version.

1. Read about Evaluating Web Pages for

Accuracy (Mistakes? Good design? Easy to find all info?)
Authority (Is the Author Qualified? Individual or Group? Company or Organization?)
Objectivity (Both sides of issue? Balanced treatment?)
Timeliness (Out of date? New information or links?)
Coverage (Completeness of topic)

2. Choose ONE out of three projects. (US Beef in Japan, The Sixties, Disney) Look at all seven sites, choose two to compare. It is best if the two are very different in quality (good and bad) or viewpoint (opposite opinions). NOTE: You can choose to do the Alternative if you like.)

American Beef in Japan

American Embassy: US Policy on American Beef
A Blog by Seron about Japan: What Japan Thinks
Officer Outlook on Japan Beef
USA Food Production Daily
A web site for Vegetarians
Center for Media and Democracy PR Watch
Center for Global Food Issues

The Sixties (the 1960's in the USA)

The Counterculture of the Sixties
American Cultural History 1960-1969
The Almost Great Society
The Psychedelic Sixties
Are you Experienced? A Trip through the 60's
Baby Boomer Headquarters Section on the Sixties
The Groovy Sixties

Disney

Official Disney Site
One Pro-Disney Site
Buzznet on Disney
Quality Digest's Disney Institute
Columbia Journalism Review's Who Owns What
Disney Sucks dot com
Best Page in the Universe on Hate Disney

Alternative

Find 3 sites about TWO of the questions below and evaluate them. Write one paragraph analysis about each site. One of these 3 sites can be in Japanese for each of two questions. (Total six paragraphs)

How does the Lead Pencil rating system work? HB? What does that mean?
Why are Japanese such bad language learners?
How do people deal with death in Japan? What are attitudes and are they changing?
Which is more important to the culture of Japan today, baseball or sumo?
What is the best way to stop the increase in violent crime in Japan?
Why do Japanese women like cute things so much?
Suggest a topic to your teacher...

3. Write your final project. It should be about 6 paragraphs long. (Remember, each paragraph has one topic sentence and at least 4 supporting sentences.) Here is a sample plan for the 6 paragraphs:

Introduction: Why did you choose your topic (Mayan, Sixties or Eggs) and why is it important?
Link evaluation: One sentence about each link, its good and bad points.
The two most interesting links: Which two links are most interesting to compare and why (because of quality or because of opposite opinions).
The first link: A detailed view of accuracy, authorship, purpose, design and overall value.
The second link: A detailed view of accuracy, authorship, purpose, design and overall value.
Which one is best, first or second? Why?

Remember to enter your MS Word or Text docuemnt at kevinryan.com Moodle under your course name. by February 5, Wednesday. You can send to me in an email message or by using an attached (tempu) file from MS Word.