Good: Surreal self-sufficiency

 

According to “Self-Sufficiency Is Overrated” written by Sarah Wildman (2021) in The New York Times, the author had been helped by her friends and strangers and this kind of generosity bettered her to understand her real feeling and new points of view of self-sufficiency during her struggling times. First, the author exemplifies the situation when she borrowed her friend’s house for a summer week. On top of that, her friend also made additional generous offers, asking if she wanted some supplies such as eggs or milk. Ms. Wildman stated that “I brushed off her offers. Really, I said, we don’t need anything. It’s kind of you just to lend us the space.” However, her friend insisted, and this kind of entreaties enlightened her to realize that she “want[ed] someone else to take care of”. Being isolated from covid has worsened everyone’s mental health as the research conducted by NPR has shown that a half of families have been facing serious mental problems in the past few months. Some added stresses also aggravated the situation to become not only weary but also frayed, and her daughter aged 12 would be an example for this. Her daughter received chemotherapy for cancer and was under numerous treatments before that. On top of that, her mother couldn't think of words and was sent to the hospital. Spending time for four days to monitor her mother, her family was offered some help from friends to take shifts looking out for the patient. Although she denied it at first, then she thought it was the time to not take on self-sufficiency anymore. She then had an opportunity to receive tremendous kindnesses from friends, salespersons, and even strangers, all of which made her reflect on a way of thinking of the concept of self-sufficiency that we, humans, need to live with other people and sometimes we need someone to support us at some points. However, it is difficult for us to not hold strange feelings when bumping into long-lost friends. Just simple words like “I love you” made the author feel more buoyed. 

Reference 

Wildman, S. (2021, November 25). Self-Sufficiency Is Overrated. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/opinion/self-sufficiency-generosity.html

Num: Sex ed, one Instragram post at a time

 

    According to “Sex ed, one Instragram post at a time” (2021), The New York Times’ reporters Mona El-Naggar and Sara Aridi reported that social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, or TikTok were used as enlightening sources to provide sexual education to Arab women by numerous activists who are aiming to support reproductive health, solve cultural sexual misbeliefs based on religious doctrine and patriarchal societies in the Arabic world. Arab women have been facing gender equality. Moreover, standardized sex education is nonexistent in schools, with 40 percent of the unintended birth rate in Arab countries (Guttmacher Institute, 2018 as cited in El-Nagger & Aridi, 2021) attributable to women and girls have been left wondering, uneducated, and ashamed of their bodies. Activists are trying to mitigate the issues with the internet. Nour Emam, 29, an Egyptian activist, a professional doula, who helps women giving birth, and a former DJ broadcasts her show, “motherbeing”, via Instagram and TikTok. Fatma Ibrahim, 32, the founder of “Sex Talk in Arabic” posts her content on Instagram and Facebook. Dr. Sandrine Atallah and Dr. Deemah Salem, physicians from Lebanon and the UAE broadcast their show through Youtube and Instagram. The array of such online platforms and their ability to reach out to Arab women throughout the region is changing Muslim cultures. It's a common ground to provide a safe space for women to understand anatomy and open women to knowledge considered as harmful. To accomplish the main goal, to change a common religious belief that women have to oblige their husbands’s, every sexual desire, where those who refuse their husbands “the angels curse”, activists try to renew the idea with consent. Another misconception that they try to break is that families value women’s virginity, although many conservatives said that the platforms provoke unashamed, unembarrassed acts from women such as having sex before marriage, or learning about sex, which are not appropriate manners. However, many advocates found that the contents boost women’s confidence, and they can overcome their fear by understanding their nature.   

Reference 

El-Naggar, M. & Aridi, S. (2021, November 18). Sex ed, one Instragram post at a time. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/18/world/middleeast/sex-ed-arab-women-mideast.html

Pamin: Enhance educational lessons with machine-learning systems

 

   According to "The Machines Are Learning, and So Are the Students" (Smith, 2019), many classroom tasks like grading and providing immediate feedback are more and more being performed by a machine or so-called Artificial Intelligence, and this is optimizing and revolutionizing education. For example, in SAT exam preparation, "A plethora of online courses and tutorials also have freed teachers from lecturing and allowed them to spend class time working on problem-solving with students instead." Most tutoring systems in the past used rule-based artificial intelligence, cognitive theory, and decision trees to guide students to a pre-defined learning path. Nowadays, the machine-learning revolution enables the new capability of learning algorithms to learn from data. They know about the student through their interaction with the system.  Smith cites Kulik and Fletcher to support the claim that machine learning systems can now do better than human tutors in terms of improving student performance one reason is that it is more patient and insightful. More and more applications are being developed to support education. For example, Riiid TUTOR, an AI-powered TOEIC preparation application developed by a Korean start-up, and Acuitus's digital tutor application, created by a Silicon Valley start-up company, both use A.I. technology to support education.  Smith mentions in the article that schools, classrooms, and teachers are still important to teach social skills and subjects like art, music, and sport. As for A.I.-aided learning, its challenge might not be “technology but bureaucratic barriers that protect the status quo.” Dr. John Newkirk, co-founder, and chief executive of Acuitus, comments on A.I.-powered education that it is already proof that it is possible but still has much room for improvement in a decade or two. New education technology can reach students at home directly with machine-learning systems and the internet. Smith concludes by quoting Dr. Terrence Sejnowski who said that "Parents are figuring out that they can get much better educational lessons for their kids through the internet than they're getting at school." (Smith, 2019)

 Reference 

Smith, C. S. (2019, December 18). The machines are learning, and so are the students.

The New York Times. Retrieved December 7, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/education/artificial-intelligence-tutors-teachers.html

Sea: World's 1st 3D Printed Neighborhood

 

According to “How an 11-Foot-Tall 3-D Printer Is Helping to Create a Community” (Kamin, 2021), a partnership is working together to create “the world’s first community of 3-D printed homes” for the low-paid residents in Nacajuca, Mexico. Recently, the use of 3-D printing for building objects has grown rapidly in different fields, one of which is for construction. With the speed and requirement of less than three workers, the completion of a home can be finished within 24 hours. New Story, the nonprofit organization who is involved in providing homes for people in poverty, saw the advantages of 3-D printed houses. Therefore, in 2019, they started a project in Nacajuca, Mexico with Échale, an affordable housing social enterprise based in Mexico, and Icon, a construction technology company who had experience in a wide range of projects from charity to commercial. About 10 houses and more were printed by Icon’s Vulcan II printer, an 11-foot-tall three-dimensional printer. By placing layers of lavacrete, a special concrete mix, which  “looks much like a massive soft-serve ice cream cone” but forming a house. Then Échale played an important role in on-site building and selecting members for the village based on the needs. One of the chosen families is the Hernández family. Mr.Hernández is a carpenter with little income. Moving from the last tiny and messy place to a new home will provide him more working space and the feeling of a safe place for his daughter. Henry D’Esposito, JLL lead of construction research, agrees that this is an appropriate way to use 3-D printing for single-family homes in Nacajuca because of their size, repetitiveness and tolerance of  a magnitude 7.4 earthquake. On the other hand, he suggested that right now it might not be fit for all markets, especially the commercial real estate market. The study had to be made more about the building life expectancy and how it will perform over time.

Reference 

Kamin, D. (2021, September 28). How an 11-Foot-Tall 3-D Printer Is Helping to Create a Community. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/business/3D-printing-homes.html 

Yujin: Who, and Where, Is Peng Shuai?

 

In “Who, and Where, Is Peng Shuai?”, a New York Times article, Raymond Zhong informs readers about the disappearance of Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis star, after she accused a Chinese “top leader” of sexual assault. Peng Shuai began her tennis career two decades ago, during which she gained titles as a three-time Olympian, a world No.1 in doubles, and the 2014 French Open double, but she disappeared from public view for several weeks in November. It is speculated that her disappearance was because she had posted an accusation of sexual assault by Zhang Gaoli, an influential politician, and a former vice premier serving from 2012 to 2017, on Weibo on November, 2nd. The post stated that three years ago Zhang Gaoli had invited her to his home and tried to pressure her into sex. She did not consent at the time, but ultimately, they started a “consensual, if conflicted, relationship”. The post became viral across China; however, within minutes, Ms. Peng’s account vanished from the internet, including her posts and almost all other posts of the related topic.  Nevertheless, these measures did not succeed in covering up the story because Steven Simon, the head of the Women’s Tennis Association called on Beijing to investigate the situation on November 14th. On December 1st, the association announced that it was ending all tournaments in China, losing an extreme amount of money. According to Steven Simon, if China does not comply with their requests, they are not going to play in China due to the safety of the players and staff. The International Olympic Committee is also in the process of trying to sort the situation. Many have called out the Chinese government, including The Wall Street Journal, publishing an essay advocating for the removal of the Winter Games from China, the Biden administration and the United Nations human rights office, and fellow tennis luminaries speaking out on social media. The Chinese government has not responded in an official way, but news outlets have been posting on social media trying to persuade others that Ms. Peng is safe. Ms. Peng has only appeared in a video in a Communist Party-controlled newspaper showing her eating in a restaurant and attending a tennis event in Beijing, and some time after that in a video call with the president of the International Olympic Committee. 

Reference 

Zhong, R. (2021, December 3). Who, and Where, Is Peng Shuai? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/article/peng-shuai.html 

Emma: Why people care about math education and politics

 

Image from The New York Times

In her news article “California Tries to Close the Gap in Math, but Sets Off a Backlash” (2021), Jacey Fortin reports that in California, the attempt on revising mathematics instruction in public schools, which has been done by the state, has been strongly criticized as bringing “woke politics into a subject that is supposed to be practical and precise.” According to the news article, since the proposed draft on math education has opened for public comment in February this year, it has created intense debates over “the fundamental question on what or whom is math for?” In addition to that, the controversial issue has been used by Glenn Youngkin, a politician from The Republicans, to win his candidacy for governor in Virginia. Despite the fierce criticism, Dr. Jo Boaler, a professor of education at Stanford University who has been working on the proposed draft, argues that its aims are to provide high school students with alternative math courses such as data science and statistics to calculus, improve equality on accessing high-level math courses to students of different races, deny the belief in gifted children, and use math lessons to connect students to social issues such as immigration or inequality. As mentioned in the news article, in the United States, there is a racial gap in math achievement among the students. The statistics from the civil rights office of the Education Department indicate that 16 percent of students in high schools are Black students and only half of them studied calculus in 2015 to 2016. In contrast, students who are White and Asian dominated in high-level math courses. Although the proposed draft of the new guidelines on math education does not recommend that public schools select students who are good at math for gifted programs to study in advanced math classes in mid schools, the critics argues that it can prevent those students from the benefits of learning advanced materials. According to the news article, the proposed draft is still in the process of revision for further public comment that is expected to be arrange in summer to get approval from the education board of the state.

Reference 

Fortin, J. (2021, November 4). California Tries to Close the Gap in Math, but Sets Off a Backlash. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/us/california-math-curriculum-guidelines.html

Phum: Age Check Protecting Child ?

 

In the technology section, "Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web" (2021), The New York Times’ David McCabe exposes the pressure from activists and parents' desire to protect children from inappropriate content on the internet. In action, a lot of governments already require age checks for sensitive content, such as in Japan, where users need to verify their age to use the app Tinder, and in the same way, in Germany and France, users need to verify their age to enter pornography websites. In response, many companies and authorities are taking action on this matter by registering a new law on age checks to protect children. Leading online platforms are taking action on this issue, with YouTube requiring identification documents or credit cards for entry to watch adult videos, while Google and Facebook were looking for and developing new methods of age verification to prevent users from lying about their age. In the opposite way, Twitter doesn’t require aggressive identity verification for adult content. Users are allowed to click through to 18+ content without any document. The new rule of age-checking requires users to give personal information to websites, which might lead to concerns about privacy and hacking. Daly Barnett, staff technologist, states that users’ information given to websites is "a treasure trove of data that’s exploitable." Responding to a concerning privacy issue, many companies and governments have introduced new measures to protect the privacy of users by limiting the period of storage of data. Another worry about aggressive age checking is that anonymous users are no longer anonymous anymore. Requiring a lot of documents and evidence for verification brings more uncomfort and frustration to users. Some new technologies could help with this issue. Mr. Farid, along with regulators and companies, suggests that "We don’t want the solution to be more harmful than the problem." Automatic facial analysis is one possible solution for comfortable age checking, but there are a few bugs with female or darker skin. Anyway, the new trend of age-checking might be beneficial for Roblox, the game company, in order to ban inappropriate players, who cannot reenter with the same government document, which the possible method they suggest is video chat and ID card. From the customer point of view, some don't want to disclose their personal information for service that they might pay for,  or the age-checking policy might suit only adult 18+ content.  

Reference 

McCabe, D. (2021, Oct 27) Anonymity No More? Age Checks Come to the Web. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/technology/internet-age-check-proof.html 

Peter: A right regular joy

In The New York Times article “Why Does Coffee Make Me Poop?” Alice Callahan (2021), while also addressing related health issues, summarizes the available evidence and theory behind the rapid laxative effect that coffee has on some drinkers. In addition to causing a rapid desire to defecate, or to poop as Callahan likes to call it, coffee’s effect on the digestive system hastens the return to normal eating and pooping for those who have undergone colorectal or gynaecological surgery, for which reason her main source, Dr. Robert Martindale, medical director for hospital nutrition services at Oregon Health and Science University, offers his patients coffee the morning after such surgery. Similarly, some see coffee as an antidote to constipation, although Callahan reports that dietician Sonya Angelone advises that this is better dealt with by eating enough fibre, of which coffee contains only one gramme per standard cup of 0.2 litres. According to Martindale, the explanation for coffee causing a substantial percentage of drinkers to poop within minutes of drinking it is mediation by hormones or other factors in the brain, which are rapidly stimulated when coffee reaches the stomach, and which brain action stimulates a response in the colon long before the coffee itself gets there an hour or more after it has been drunk. However, the theoretical explanation is tentative since, as Callahan, citing Martindale, tells us, the research studies are largely “small, old and limited.” For example, while a 1990 study reported only 29% of coffee drinkers needed a quick trip to the toilet, Martindale reports his experience suggests that up to 60% of his own patients to be so affected: there is no strong consensus even on how prevalent the pooping effect of coffee is. Research from 1998 appears to rule out caffeine as the responsible chemical, since the effect is found to occur whether the coffee consumed is regular or decaffeinated, which leaves the cause to be found among the other 1,000 or so chemicals that make up coffee. Finally, having noted that the US Food and Drug Administration says that four or five cups of coffee daily is not a problem for of its drinkers, Callahan concludes on the cheerful note restated from her opening that for many people, coffee is “part of a comforting morning routine, waking us up in a multitude of ways.” 

Reference 

Callahan, A. (2021, December 1).  Why does coffee make me poop? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/30/well/eat/why-does-coffee-make-you-poop.html 

Peter: A necessary evil for constructive politics

In their opinion piece “It Is Every American’s Right to Curse the President” (2021), The New York Times’ Editorial Board argues that the strong free speech protections enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States must themselves be protected from the good intentions of those who would restrict speech that is deeply offensive to the community or to national leaders, as seen in a recent court decision where a woman was ordered to remove banners that used extremely offensive language about President Biden. The Editorial Board agrees both that the signs in question, which Andrea Dick had put up in her front yard in full view of her neighbours, are extremely offensive, and that she had intended to offend her neighbours. However, the board rebuts the argument that obscenity is a sufficient reason to ban such language from public display. Their first argument is the legal one that a previous US Supreme Court opinion in 1971 has clearly established that even the English verb which is “not actually advocating sexual intercourse” with the object noun in such contexts, as a lawyer in that case described it, is “legally protected in political statements” by the US Constitution, and that the New Jersey court ruling is contrary to that precedent set by the Supreme Court. The Editorial Board next explains why the Supreme Court is right to have upheld the right of Americans to use the most offensive words even in public and why all Americans should support that decision to maintain the strongest legal protection of free speech. They argue that keeping their freedom depends on Americans continuing to support their democracy’s emphasis on the value of free speech. The first opposing concern the board notes is that some are questioning the traditional American respect for free speech because divisions over politics mean that many no longer trust the other side to respect the tradition of tolerance for ideas that they dislike, so that Republicans in some states are passing laws to ban some expressions of ideas, such as race protests. From another side, Democrats are said to be guilty of falsely equating offensive speech with violence that must be outlawed. Whilst insisting that actual violence not be tolerated, the Editorial Board emphasizes that “Democracy requires that we feel safe while shouting at each other.” 

Reference 

Editorial Board. (2021, July 24). It is every American’s right to curse the president. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/opinion/sunday/free-speech-case-New-Jersey.html 

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 179- Critical thinking, E

What is it?

In their critical thinking questions that conclude "Successful Teams and Conflict", Warwick and Rogers (2018, pp. 179) invite us to apply the ideas in the reading to our personal experience. 

Write one comment that responds to both questions. 

The order of the questions seems logical: question 1 asks us to reflect on our own experience working on teams, which will review and apply the five stages of Tuckman's account of team development to our own experience, after which we can move to our own approach to conflict management. However, can address the two questions in the opposite order if you prefer. 

____________________________________ 

The questions to respond to in one comment

1. Think about when you have worked on teams. Did you develop in the manner Tuckman describes?
    
2. 
    Which conflict management styles described in the text is your dominant style? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this style?

 

You have 18:00 minutes to plan, write, and edit a response to both questions. 

I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

• planning = 4:00 minutes - 
• Which specific example(s) from your experience will you discuss? 
• Which details should you include to make them effective examples?
• What main ideas do they support? 
• ?
• writing = 10:00 minutes - it's much easier to write when you have planned 
• editing = 4:00 minutes

____________________

A useful strategy - as usual 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you have chosen to answer or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. 

_________________________________

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education

Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, page 174 - Critical thinking, E

What is it?

In their critical thinking exercise that concludes "Groupthink", Warwick and Rogers (2018, pp. 173) invite us to reflect on why concepts such as that of groupthink can remain popular despite the absence of solid evidence. 

Since we are asked to discuss theories "like groupthink," it will be useful to apply your explanation to more than the theory of groupthink. 

____________________________________ 

The question

1. Discuss why theories like groupthink remain so popular despite a lack of empirical data to support them. 
   

You have 16:00 minutes to plan, write, and edit a response to question 1.

____________________

A useful strategy - as usual 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you have chosen to answer or the article that the question follows up. Your aim is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. 

_________________________________

Reference

• Warwick, L. & Rogers, L. (2018). Skillful 4: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education