Popular in Thailand today

What I read

I assume that we are all regular users of Google's search tools, but did you know that you can also search Google's search statistics? Google Trends provides a variety of ways to find out what people around the world are using Google to find out about. For example, the most popular Google searches in Thailand for the last few days have been: 

We also learn that searches on "vegetarian" are globally far more popular than searches on "meat eating":


And that Thailand has a conspicuous surge during the second week of October. 

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My response 

I've known about this cool tool from Google for a while, but haven't really played with it that much. In contrast, you might have noticed the nGram tool that had previously been the last entry on the list of "Useful References" on the right. nGram lets you easily check how often a word or phrase has been found in a vast collection of books over the past 200 years! For example, the use of the word "pizza" has exploded since the 1970s.

nGram seemed to me a bit easier to use than Google Trends, but I suspect that if I play around with it, I'll learn a lot more about how to use Google Trends. 

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My question

Have you ever used either Google's nGram or Google Trends? 

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Disease: reading 2, "Do We Know Too Much?" (SkRW3, pp60-61, Before reading)

Before we read

Write a comment to share your thoughts on these questions that Bixby and Scanlon ask on page 60 (2013).

• What are some of your own genetic traits that you feel come from your mother's side of the family? What about your fathers? 

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Reference

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education

Participating in online discussion boards (SkRW3, p66, Study Skills)

What we read

The study skills page that follows Unit 6 of Bixby and Scanlon (2013, p. 66) gets us to think about and gives some tips for participating in online discussion boards, such as our class blog. Although you might not have done this before, it is a common part of reading and writing in a modern academic environment. For example, if you were looking for something more challenging to listen to, you might have checked out Harvard University professor Michael Sandel's lecture series Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? In several of his lectures, Sandel refers to the blog to which his students are expected to contribute regularly as a part of their course. And of course, we have been blogging since day one of this class.

I've already given some reasons why we move some of Skillful's discussion exercises to an online discussion board, and on page 66, Bixby and Scanlon's tips fill this out a bit more. 

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What Bixby and Scanlon do  

Following her two questions to get us reflecting on our previous experience and preferences, Cottrell suggests six tips to improve our use of blogs and similar tools in an academic context. 

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Bixby and Scanlon's questions

Getting started

First, think for a moment about the two "Getting Started" questions on page 66. 

• Have you ever used an online discussion  board? (Yes, you have, at least in this class.) How did you feel about it?
   
• Would you prefer a class discussion (which we have also done), or an online discussion? Why?

After you have thought about it for a minute, spend a few minutes writing your responses to these two question. Then publish your comment. 

Scenario

Read the scenario and think about what Fatima did right and what she might not have done so well. 

Consider it

Next, we will read the six tips in the "Consider It" section. As you read, which tips have I asked you to follow? Which have I revised a bit? 

Which of the six tips do you think the most useful for you? 

Over to you

Finally, think about the last two questions with which Bixby and Scanlon conclude their discussion on participating in online discussion boards. 

Create a new comment to share your response. 

• Why are academic writing skills important for an online discussion board? For example our discussion of Stephen Law's thesis in "Carving the Roast Beast.
   
• How do you think an online discussion board might improve  your learning in a course?
   
• This is  not one of Bixby and Scanlon's discussion questions, but do you agree with them participating in online discussions is helpful for academic reading and writing? 

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Reference

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing: Student's Book 3 (p. 66). London: Macmillan Education 

School kids doing it for themselves

What I read

In "Climate change: Australian students skip school for mass protest" (2018), Frances Mao says that despite the Australian Prime Minister (PM) insisting that his government was already acting on climate change and complaining that he "wanted more learning and less activism in schools," thousands of high school students left classes on Friday, November 30 to join School Strike 4 Climate Action protests across the nation. Inspired by similar student activism in Sweden and recent school student protests against gun violence in the US, the teenage students organized the protests to express their frustration and concern that the Australian government is not acting fast or strongly enough to limit climate change, which they say is too vital to their own futures to wait until they are eligible to vote.

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My response 

I couldn't imagine such things happening when I was in high school, but despite the protestations by the prime minister and other politicians against them, it seems to me that the students must have learned a lot of useful skills to be able to successfully organize protests across Australia. The report does not say anything to the contrary, and the photographs suggest that the protests were peaceful, which I think shows that the students have done extremely well. They should get full marks for using the knowledge and skills that they have learned in school to peacefully express their opinion in a very forceful way. And it's hard to argue that they should not be concerned about climate change having serious effects on the world that they are going to inherit from the adults now making decisions. 

I'm reminded of the suggestion that the voting age be lowered from the current 18 to 16, which might be a good thing. It is not only climate change that will, and arguably already does, affect the lives of young people, including teenagers, today, but a lot of other issues, from education, to drug policy, to taxation, and so on. Your average 16 year old might not be paying taxes yet, but that is not a qualification for voting, nor should it be. Being a citizen of the society should be enough to entitle people to a voice in not only the government of their society, but also its form, and an important way to meet this moral aim is to allow citizens to vote in elections. From the comments that they made to the BBC reporter, Frances Mao, the students also seem well educated and aware of the issues, contrary to the insultingly dismissive comments made by the PM and at least one other politician. 

I think it's healthy to see the young taking a stand for something that they believe in, and standing up to the old who refuse, or simply fail, to understand and act in ways that are not only sensible but also morally better. University students have for long been politically active in such things; I remember the massive protests that helped to end the Vietnam war back in the 1960s, along with protests that drew attention to other mistakes that their elders were making. the article did not discuss them, but I suspect that the adult parents of the students who skipped classes to join the protests must also have agreed to that, so at least some Australian adults must be supporting the students' efforts for the sake of their own and their nation's future. 

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My question

Is the Australian Prime Minister right that high school students should not be involved in political activism? 

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Reference

• Mao, F. (2018, November 30). Climate change: Australian students skip school for mass protest. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-46380418

Is Law right? Must we give up pork, fish, and duck?

What we read

We have just read Stephen Law's introduction to his essay "Carving the Roast Beast" (2018). In this essay, Law presents most of the ideas in the dialogue form that was begun by in his Academy, from which we get the English word academic, by Plato about 2,400 years ago, and which remained popular in academic work until recently, being the choice of the scientist Galileo Galilei, and remaining popular with such recent philosophers as the great essayist David Hume.

I chose this essay because, although not written in the usual style of academic essays today, it is by an academic, and follows the usual organization of an academic essay: there is an introduction in which the writer states his thesis, which we have seen; a body, whose job is to support that thesis; and a conclusion to end the essay by smoothly leading readers out from the thesis that has now been supported.

Law's short essay also provides excellent examples of the use of examples, reasons and explanations to support a thesis, which is what the writing task for Unit 6 of Skillful asks us to do on page 65. 

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Our response 

We have now also done a quick survey to find out our initial responses to Law's thesis that eating meat is morally wrong. Before reading the body of his essay, in which we expect him to support his thesis, it is helpful to briefly discuss not only whether we agree or disagree with him, but what our reasons for this are. 

In a comment, explain why you agree or disagree with Stephen Law's thesis. If you thought that whether it is morally acceptable to eat meat depends on something, this is also your chance to tell us what you think it depends on. 

In case you were wondering, I did not choose this essay because I agree with Law. On the contrary, I think he's wrong, but my disagreement is not a good reason for you to disagree with him. As you will see when you read it over the coming week, his essay is very well written, and has a lot to teach us about academic writing, even though its style is unusual for academic work today. 

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Reference

• Law, S. (2018). Carving the Roast Beast [MS Word edition for use at AUA]. Retrieved from https://1drv.ms/w/s!AvLRvG3dUEtbw3Fm4_Mn-_T6Be_S

Getting into Unit 6 = Disease (SkR&W3, p57, Discussion point)

What we read

As usual, Bixby and Scanlon introduce "Disease" with a large photograph and some questions to get us thinking about the coming topic and ideas in Unit 6 of Skillful (2013, p. 57). 

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Bixby and Scanlon's questions

Discuss these questions in a comment. 

• How have medical technology and treatment changed since your grandparents were young? What about your parents? How have they changed in your own lifetime?
   
• What are some interesting or amazing uses of technology in modern medicine? Give as many examples as you can.
   
• What types of medical advances do you think, or hope (fear?), the future will bring? 

Write two or three paragraphs to address the questions in any order. Remember, it's response writing where we want your ideas written down in sentences as quickly as possible. Think for a minute or two, and then write. Then write your next idea, and the next one. And repeat. 

For clarity, write as though your readers have not seen the questions. Your writing should make sense as an independent piece of work. 

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Reference

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing: Student's Book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education