Blog Entry #7

After reading the proposal for President Michael Crow at Arizona State University written by a student Jo Donald, I agree with his overall idea about having E-books available for all classes. I think he makes a good point that we are moving into a more technological generation that relies very heavily on technology for work, school and social purposes. Being a "green university", ASU needs to find ways to innovate classes with technology in order to have graduates  prepared for the real world and job opportunities. Arizona State University and the instructors here should encourage the use of technology as most as they can in order for students to keep themselves up to date with technology and the new generation yet to come.

Although I agree with his argument, there are some things I would change to his proposal in order to make his claim stronger and more convincing. Something that I would suggest that may strengthen Jo Donald's argument about online textbooks could be providing more evidence to support his claim that online books are a lot cheaper than textbooks. He did provide an example about his Computer Information Systems book that was about a hundred dollars cheaper than the hard copy, but did not include information on average how much a student will save my making a switch. Possibly if he provides more statistics and percentage of savings, people would be more encouraged to buy E-books rather than hard copies of books.

An example of a resistant audience in this proposal could be the students who do not agree with changing into E-books. These particular students have become very comfortable with working with physical copies of books since they have been working with them for years so making the change will not be easy at all for most of them. The author does mention them in his proposal, suggesting that these students change to E-books as well to keep up. He appealed to the opposition with the use of pathos when making it an option of obtaining hard-copies of books or electronic. However I disagree with one of the points he makes about what will happen next if his first proposal is successful. He suggests ASU should provide an electronic device for all students on campus who agree to use electronic books by raising tuition. I do not think this needs to be made at all; students who select the option of  using E-books could provide their own from of electronic device that suites their needs instead of having the school provide one for an extra fee. I feel like it was not very relevant with the proposal to have higher E-book availability. It does not strengthen the argument, instead I think it takes the argument in another direction.

I think the writer's ethos in this proposal were well made, because he is a current student at Arizona State University which provides credibility for his suggestions based on what his observations are currently as a student. He could have backed some things up better to make the proposal a bit more credible. Overall I do think this was a good model for our proposal assignment. I was able to really understand what I am expected to do for our next writing project. I think it was also beneficial for us to be able to point some things out that didn't work very well as the things that did work out to apply in our assignment. The research should include more about how students feel about this issue to make this proposal stronger and more likely to convince Mr. Crow to show that more students feel this way.

Blog Entry #6

Based on my scenario from Blog Entry #5 about teachers and classrooms being replaced by online and self-instruction,  there might be a couple things the country can do to prevent the problem or reduce the impact of so many unemployed people.

Having students think and feel differently about classroom instruction is the best way to start a solution to this possible problem. If students are taught about the importance of one-on-one instruction and the benefits it can have on them, they will most likely rather stay in a physical classroom. Although many students feel like they are capable of self instruction, nothing is better and more beneficial than having teachers motivate and support students for academic achievement. A lot of students can become unmotivated by realizing that penalties do not seem as severe when the computer only warns them about a deadline. I think physical communication among students and teachers is vital in student success. Before students are able to learn content they must first feel comfortable with their surroundings and feel like there are others who are willing to help around them like their classmates in order to perform well in assignments and tests. 

The government can also come up with a law in which every student is allowed to take a maximum of two online classes per semester rather than have the option to take all online classes. This will limit students from completely removing themselves from classrooms. Not only will teachers benefit by always being guaranteed to have enough students but will also help students deal with real-world situations. A lot of the times people forget that physical instruction is needed to work with a student's communication and interaction to prepare them for their future jobs and real-life occurrences.

Regardless of how much technology advances throughout the years there will still be a need for teachers because computers cannot replace a good teacher. Teachers will always be needed to monitor students in their learning.

Blog Entry #5

The likelihood of technological advances used to replace human jobs seems to be getting closer to reality. Examples of this can already be found when you think about teachers. Years ago, all education was done and learned in a classroom setting. Now, online classes are becoming a lot more popular especially in college. It used to be thought that students needed to be taught by a teacher in a classroom with peers learning at their same pace, but it is now seen that students prefer to learn at their own place online.

This seems to be the case since people are becoming a lot more competitive and are able to do a lot more things at once. Students are becoming more interested in obtaining real-world experience in their fields of study and becoming more independent by self-supporting themselves. Students' busy schedules force them to find the need for online classes or self-learning through textbooks. Use of technology in classrooms has significantly grown in approximately the past 5-8 years. School assignment submissions are changing from hard-copy to online submission. Very soon, students might be changing to all online classes and by this drastically lowering demand for teachers.  

If this is accurate, teachers will have a very hard time finding jobs due to the low demand for teachers. Therefore, the United States will be experiencing a tough economic meltdown with a lot of citizens getting unemployment and benefits. The government will be obligated to provide aid to these professionals who cannot find a job and therefore raise taxes for everyone to provide for these people. This situation will have a very negative effect for teachers, taxpayers and the government.

Blog #1 Rhetorical Strategies of Obama's Speech

In Obama's Speech on the issue between politics and religion, Obama used various forms of rhetorical strategies to express his idea that the government should not need to follow a certain religion's beliefs and make laws for the entire nation based from one. He argued that the United States laws should be made with values that are true for all people. regardless of existence or absence of religion. To bring out this argument Obama used pathos, logos, and ethos to convince the audience.

First when using pathos in his argument, Obama mentioned his experience with Alan Keyes. This was the first point that made the audience feel a bit more empathy toward his claim when he mentioned that "it did not adequately address the role my faith has in guiding my own values and my own beliefs". I think Obama  started using pathos early into his speech due to the fact that he was addressing a crowd of audience who is very religious. By saying what he says invites the audience to listen to what he has to say about his personal beliefs.

Obama applied explicit logos into his argument by providing information about how much of the United States population believe in God and the percentage of Americans who are involved in their religion. I think Obama brought in this statistic to demonstrate to the audience the variety of opinions and beliefs other Americans have. If he provides statistical information, the religious audience will most likely be convinced that politics cannot be based upon religion since so many people think very different.

In order to make a strong argument Obama made sure to include ethos in his speech by mentioning the church he attended in Chicago and address to have the audience believe that Obama actually did participate in religious activities at some point of his life. If he is speaking to a crowd of religious people who most likely are in favor of Mr. Keyes, then to make his argument strong he provided evidence of religious interest.

Obama's "Connection Between Faith and Politics" Speech Summary

In Obama's speech discussing "The Connection Between Faith and Politics", Obama talks to a large crowd of highly religious people about some of the problems the United States has been having due to religion and politics.

 He first begins to mention Alan Keyes who ran against him in the 2004 U.S. Senate General Election. Obama quotes that Mr. Keyes said, "Jesus Christ would not vote for Barack Obama. Christ would not vote for Obama because Obama has behaved in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved." Then Senator Barack Obama responds that he “is running for U.S. Senator of Illinois not the Minister of Illinois. This is where Obama first points out that the government isn’t made to get people to believe in religion. Although some religious ideas are brought into government and politics, it cannot be the fundamental component of government. He brings in the idea that politics should not have to follow a certain type of religion or base its laws and regulations by any.

He states that the United States is not defining oneself as a red or blue state but instead is choosing politics purely because of religion. He means that the political party preference should be determined by what citizens believe is the best for their country. Political parties should not advocate religious traditions and beliefs.

Senator Obama mentioned that he grew up without really having a religious setting in his household. He describes how later into his life he became closer to church as a source of “hope”. What he is trying to express by this is that every person has their way of looking for faith or hope. Many of the United States is divided by religious population as well as there is a population of non-believers, for which we should all agree on making laws that are fair to everyone regardless of religion.