For this journal entry, I chose YouTube, listed under Social Web Tool 2. YouTube is essentially a video sharing platform that allows users to view and upload videos. It also allows users to post comments and to search for specific videos that they are interested in. Besides these functions, on the homepage, there are always some recommendations based on users’ past views and likes.
YouTube would be a great tool to use when we are looking to support a CoP that has been formed. There are particularly some advantages of YouTube when it comes to using it to support a CoP. The most important one among all is YouTube’s interoperability on other social media platforms and applications such as Facebook, Skype, and Yammer. Its interoperability allows easy sharing of information and knowledge on other platforms, which allows members within a CoP to use several tools in combination to better support their CoP. The second benefit we see in using YouTube to support a CoP is users’ ease of access and use on YouTube. YouTube allows users to easily access their website with an account, and a lot of users already have a google account that they can use to access. Also, the website is very easy to use, and it’s very self-explanatory so there is no further instruction needed in regard to viewing or uploading a video and posting comments. These benefits together make YouTube a great tool to support a CoP, but it’s not an appropriate tool that we can use to initialize a CoP since it doesn’t provide much functions in relation to communication. It doesn’t provide a private platform for users to chat and interact with each other.
YouTube can be used to share and transfer knowledge in many different ways. First of all, as I’ve already mentioned above, it’s interoperability allows the videos that are posted through YouTube to be shared on many other platforms. If this function is not already imbedded in that platform you are looking to share YouTube videos on, you can also share it by using URLs. The most important part of how YouTube is great at sharing knowledge is its capability to demonstrate something in the form of video instead of using tedious words and explanations. Most of us are visual learners, and we learn and follow better when we can actually see the material presented in front of us. YouTube is the way to make this happen. The search function on YouTube also allows users to quickly find the information that they are looking for and narrow down their search. Comment is another function that provides an easy way for the users to share their thoughts and questions.
All being put together, YouTube is a great tool to consider using when we are trying to better support a CoP.
Body 1: Why is Gen Ed necessary? Why does it have to be present in our current education system in order for it to function effectively?
Body 2: Reflect on our current Gen Ed system, and what can we improve from the system we’re using now to make it better and to meet the goal of it. What are the things necessary in this system？
Body 3: The school should focus on the flexibility, exploration, and real life application of the Gen Ed program. There should be several different types of Gen Eds programs for students to choose from since every student is different and has his/her preference. Think of a way to meet the needs from all different kinds of students.
I’ve been a big traveller since I was a child, and my parents brought me to all the places that I’ve never dreamt of traveling to. They did everything possible to let me learn and explore outside of the classroom, and I would have to say that, I did learn so much from going to all different places and looking at all different people. A few years ago, I weren’t mature enough to realize the point of traveling, and I simply took it as a way of enjoying life. However, after all these years, I came to the realize that traveling is far more than this simple enjoyment, but it’s more about exploring the unknowns, learning the world, and finding yourself. Travel is far more than buying a plane ticket and booking the hotel, it’s about planning and getting your hands on those things that you would otherwise never have the chance of experiencing.
I’ve travelled to so many places in China, and even in Asia, but I could say that out of all of these trips, the ones that I think are the most memorable are those that I actively involved myself into the planning process, and those that I actually learned something about people and life. It’s more than likely that you’re going to forget some scenes during a trip from 5 years ago, and maybe you could only remember how amazed you were by these artworks of nature, but it’s nearly impossible for you to forget the experience and knowledge that you took from this trip–those that have become part of you.
Among all of these places that I introduced to you, where I’ve actually been to, the one place that I remember the most clearly about is Aden Daocheng. It was definitely not the most relaxing and fun trip, but it was for sure the most important one which let me reflect on myself. Comparing myself to the bikers I saw along the streets, I seem to lack something–maybe the strength and perseverance of doing one thing. Why couldn’t I do it? I felt like that I was too afraid of it, and I was scared that I would give up in the middle. I was too vacillant about also making a decision. These things are the weakness of myself that I would otherwise never realize unless someone else tells me about, but this trip and the people that I met along the way enabled me to look at myself right through someone else’s eyes.
It seems not as much a big deal where I travel to as what I could learn from one trip. I agree that we need the real enjoyment in life sometimes, but we’re really going to realize at one point in our life that happiness lies far beyond the physical enjoyment. The intellectual enjoyment is the one that could truly grant you the longterm happiness, and this happiness is never going away even after the happiness of the physical enjoyment has gone away.
Personally speaking, I think general education is absolutely necessary for the college students. General education makes students more well-rounded, and it helps the students to better fit into the society. However, when the general education has gone too far and it’s not even “general” anymore, the system should be changed in order to better serve its original purpose.
From learning the 3 prototypes of general education, I think Modern Literacies serves the best for the purpose of general education, which is to let the students to explore the possibilities and strengthen themselves. General education should include enough freedom and options for the students, and it shouldn’t be limited to one specific area of study. While the other 2 prototypes seem to be interesting and enjoyable for a small group of people, they might be too specific for the majority of students. Originally, I thought the idea of Chosen Topics would be cool, just because that it lets me to actually explore every single aspect of the education system. However, later I found that different people may have different interests, and they should be promised with the freedom of choices since this is general education that won’t deal too much with students’ careers later in life. Modern Literacies, in this sense, would be certainly a better choice because it not only grants students the opportunities to explore, but also it doesn’t limit the students’ choices to specific fields of study. It gives students the chances to choose, and this freedom of choice is one of the most important things for college students. In the other one, the Scaffolding prototype, the idea of general education seems to be completely thrown away, and it only leaves the professional aspect. The general education should be more about exploring than forcing the students to commit 24 credits to one specific subject. Taking the general education to a level of 400 course is just too much.
Overall, I still prefer the Modern Literacies prototype since it not only allows the students to explore, but it also helps the students to prepare for their lives in the society. For example, it has a requirement of financial literacy that improves the students’ knowledge of something that they will be frequently dealing with after they graduate, and even when they are in school. This prototype of Modern Literacies will certainly prepare me and the other Pennstaters better for their future.
Hong Kong is a administrative region under the control of China, and it’s right beside Shenzhen, where I came from. It’s a huge financial centre ranked right after New York and London. From 1842 to 1997, Hong Kong was a British colony, and it officially returned to China during 1997. Today, most of the people only look at Hong Kong as a crowded modern city, but Hong Kong is much more than a modern city.
Nightview in Hong Kong
Since I live right beside Hong Kong, it’s such a piece of cake for me to travel to Hong Kong. Actually, Shenzhen and Hong Kong are only a river away from each other, and I can go to Hong Kong as many times as I want with a year long pass–which is a privilege to the citizens in Shenzhen. I can also apply for the finger print service, and from then on, whenever I travel to Hongkong, I only need to bring myself without any pass.
Pass to Hong Kong and Macao
When I was a child, I always dreamed of going to Hong Kong because there is the closest Disney Land. I went there twice, and it actually disappointed me since it was nearly nothing compared to the ones here in United States. Everything is minimized there probably because they don’t have as much land resource. There is also a Ocean Park in Hong Kong, and I loved going there even though the lines got pretty long sometimes.
Hong Kong Disney Land
Ocean Park
There is also a Walk of Fame in Hong Kong with 73 film stars handprints here just like the one in Hollywood. It’s quite interesting to come here and have a walk beside the sea while learning the history of film makers in Hong Kong. It’s one of the best spots in Hong Kong for you to shoot some pictures too.
Statue of Bruce Lee
Handprint of Jacky Chen
Victoria Harbor is the largest harbor in Asia and third in the whole world, and it’s definitely the most stunning one out of all. It’s the centre of Hong Kong and it documents the growth of Hong Kong.
On the Victoria peak, there is the Madame Tussauds, a wax work museum of many famous actors and actresses. I love to go there, and during Halloween, they sometimes hold a special haunted house inside the museum that always creeps me out.
Look at Jacky Chen! Does he not look real?
The place I love the most still belongs to the Causeway Bay because I get to get all my shopping done here.
Sometimes you run into famous people in Hong Kong, and this happened to me several times so don’t be so surprised if you really identify someone who you dreamed of seeing one day in Hong Kong! This is Hong Kong, and what do you expect!
In my perspective, the Gen Eds is extremely important for the college students. We come to college not only for the purpose of finding good employments in the future, but to learn and explore the unknowns. Gen Eds provides the opportunities for us to build ourselves into well-rounded people. We all need passion in life, and this passion may not necessarily related to our majors. I’m a business major, but I also like music and art. I think the Gen Eds offers me the chance to learn more about my passions. Later in life, these knowledge is going to build me up into a stronger person, and I will always have something that I’m passionate and knowledgable about.
It’s also too early in our life to say what we want to do for the rest our lives. The Gen Eds helps me explore the unknowns, and offers me more possibilities for my paths into the future. It’s not until we learn something we find out whether we enjoy learning it or not. If I don’t want to take the risk of choosing a class that I don’t like, how would I ever find out that it doesn’t suit me well? College is about exploring, and it’s about finding yourself. We are lucky since we are still young, and we have the energy and time to make mistakes, and correct them.
There is one more thing the Gen Eds gives us–the social network. When you encounter new people, if you have something that you are professional and passionate about, it’s easier for you to build up a topic and talk about. The more you know, the more you could talk about it. It’s quite pleasant if you could also find some people sharing the same interests with you this way. Knowledge builds on your social network, and it makes you seem wiser than the others
Today, we’re going back to Guangdong, and I’m going to tell you a little bit about what do people eat here in Guangdong. Just as a reminder, if you do have friends coming from Guangdong, don’t ever presume that they eat everything. Stereotyping may be really bad sometimes, because you are simply assuming what you know to be the truth. I even get offended sometimes while people asking me whether I eat everything. I would probably put it this way: there are people who eat nearly everything here in Guangdong, but I don’t, and most of the people don’t either. For me, just thinking about myself eating random creatures gives me a vomiting feeling. You’ve probably heard many people saying that Cantonese eat everything, but as a Cantonese, I’ve never seen those people who do eat everything before. I’ve heard of it too, but nearly every Cantonese around me feels disgusted towards consuming weird things. Today, instead of focusing on the “eating everything” topic, I would tell you more about something I like to eat as a Cantonese.
Does it not look delicious in the picture above? It’s the Cantonese Dimsun. It’s more like the breakfast or brunch here. Family usually get together in the late morning, around 10:00 am (it varies depending on the situation) to have some chatting while enjoying the delicious food. Some people go to work after eating the Dimsun, but for the older people, they usually come early in the morning and stay for a long time reading newspaper. When I went to Hong Kong, I noticed that most of the people in the restaurants eating Dimsun were the older. They usually order a pot of tea and two dishes of Dimsun, and then they would sit there quietly enjoying the morning.
Some of the restaurants with Dimsun are expensive, and you usually need to get into a long waiting line if you haven’t made a reservation ahead of time. In these restaurants, there are always some carts with different Dimsun going around, and you could just pick whatever you like.
There are some other restaurants like this where you go and get your own food, and they will stamp on a card given to you to keep track of what you’ve ordered. I’m not saying that these restaurants aren’t good, but it depends more on the running style of the restaurants.
This is probably one of the most famous Dimsun dishes, and it’s called rice rolls. It probably doesn’t look as good as it taste, but I promise that it’s one of the best things in life (if you go to the right place). It’s wrapper is rice made, and you could choose different inside–there are beef, pork, shrimp, roast pork…and so on.
This is called the roast beef bun, and it’s my favorite for sure. It has a kind of sweet taste, and just thinking about it makes me feel so hungry!
I really can eat a lot when I go eat the Guangdong Dimsun, and I will show you more of them below.
Steamed pork ribs
Chicken claw
Turnip pudding
Shrimp dumpling
Water chestnut cake
Crispy durian cake
Pan-fried sponge cake
Cream custard bun
Krystal Gu
Dr. Jessica O’Hara
English 015
Oct.28, 2014
Global Warming: Exist Or Not?
Sometimes it could be found that people, who have some influence in one particular area of study, want to challenge the authority and change the public opinions just by implying his thoughts without providing proves and facts on the issue. In the case of global warming, this concept is well demonstrated by John Coleman, a weatherman, through his article “The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam,” and therefore is satirically rebutted by the Centrist Party to be misleading and no-fact based. John Coleman believes that global warming is “a hoax, bad science, a highjacking of public policy, and the greatest scam in history” without offering any ground for his saying. In the “Rebuttal to ‘The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam,’” the Centrist Party intends to reveal the nonsense of Coleman’s article by responding “If, for example, I am totally convinced that elephants can fly when my eyes are closed, does it make it true?” to Coleman’s statement “I am totally convinced there is no scientific basis for any of it.” By using a variety of rhetorical techniques, including sardonic humor, commonplaces, fallacies identification, focus on details, appeal to emotions, and concrete proofs, the Centrist Party is capable of testifying the existence of global warming, and rebutting John Coleman’s absurd standpoint.
Sarcasm and humor are being used quite frequently throughout the entire paper in order to keep the readers on track, and avoid them being drawn into the red herring or straw man fallacy. Looking at the paper written by Revelle and Suess, regarding to the greenhouse effect generated by carbon dioxide, Coleman points out that “It seems to be a plea for funding for more studies.” By using sarcasm, the Centrist Party compares the scientist’s need of funding for research to the weatherman’s need of money to do weather, and indicates that global warming is not wrong just because of the scientist’s need of funding. Sarcasm consents the writer of the Centrist Party to prove the point that Coleman’s standpoint is often misleading with no evidence back up. The writer continues to argue his point that global warming should not be considered as non-existing just because we don’t quite understand about it. “Just because we don’t understand everything about gravity does not mean we all just start floating off into space.” Instead of always using scientific based evidence to persuade the readers, the writer sometimes makes good use of sarcasm and humor to better convince people and induce them to participate in active thinking. Sarcasm and humor sometimes work better than overwhelming facts in the sense of persuading people.
In addition to using sarcasm and humor to convince the readers, the writer of the Centrist Party also emphasizes the rhetorical fallacies in John Coleman’s article to question the credibility of him. Coleman tries to appeal to the readers’ emotions by stating that the government should not “punish the citizens for living the good life that fossil fuels provide for us.” Using such classis strawman and non-sequiturs fallacies, Coleman moves to a topic that’s easier for him to argue about instead of focusing on the global warming. No science is present in this argument, but the readers could be easily distracted and pulled into the direction Coleman has set meticulously set up. Sometimes these rhetorical fallacies are hard to identify, and the readers have to take a step back and think about what direction of the argument the writer is trying to sway the readers into. Later in Coleman’s article, he also presents his opinion upon why global warming is gradually becoming a popular topic among the researchers, and he points out that “other researchers with environmental motivations and a hunger for funding saw this developing and climbed aboard as well.” At a moment, the readers may be fooled and start thinking whether this is indeed the ultimate reality behind the topic of global warming that’s gradually becoming epidemic. The write of the Centrist Party identifies that Coleman is using the red herrings fallacy to distract the readers from science here, and his emotional appeals actually work on some readers. The writer of the Centrist Party clearly recognizes the various rhetorical fallacies inside Coleman’s argument, and therefore effectively puts his credibility in doubt.
After pointing out the rhetorical fallacies in Coleman’s argument, the writer of the Centrist Party then identifies many mistakes in the details and words in his article that make Coleman seem even more absurd. The writer first of all cites Webster’s definition of pollutant as “man-made waste” to rebut Coleman’s saying that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. How could the key players officially label carbon dioxide as a pollutant when pollutant is referring to something man-made? The writer of the Centrist Party makes good use of the definition of pollutant to question the reliability of Coleman’s argument. Details are at times fairly important regarding to create a reliable image for the readers, and a small fallacy in detail at times could ruin the whole argument. Coleman considers carbon dioxide to be only “tiny fraction of the atmosphere,” the writer of the Centrist Party notices this, and states the “it is the only thing between us and a frozen planet that could not support life.” Coleman is trying to downplay the significance of global warming by including phrases like this that are quite misleading for the readers.
The most effective element in this satire piece is probably the various kinds of resources as evidence related to global warming that is being used in order to rebut Coleman’s nonsense argument. Although Coleman states, “they offered no proof that carbon dioxide was in fact a greenhouse gas,” contrastingly the Centrist Party clearly refers to the 1st paragraph on the second page of the 1957 paper that evidently establishes CO2 as the greenhouse gas. Knowing that statistics and facts work the best at times when appealing to emotions is not anymore effective, the writer of the Centrist Party backs up his/her opinions with evidence from the scientists and the authority. According to John Coleman, CO2 is going to be reduced from the tailpipes while using the catalytic converters, but from the 5 meticulously constructed chemical reactions formulas, it could been seen—even for those who are not under chemistry majors—that catalytic converters are indeed generating CO2. The writer of the Centrist Party combines rhetorical techniques together with the overwhelming facts to well persuade the readers that John Coleman’s statements are not at all scientifically backed up by proofs, and his saying should not be easily trusted without being verified.
It’s obvious that global warming is occurring and actions should be taken in order to control the situation after reading this satirical article of the Centrist Party. The writer of the Centrist Party fastidiously combines logic, proof, sarcasm, and identifies the rhetorical fallacies and the smallest mistakes in John Coleman’s argument to declare his/her viewpoint. Although the writer of the Centrist Party is not mentioned in the article written, his meticulous and sarcastic style of rebuttal wins over the audience and makes the American public aware of the growing concern for the greenhouse effect cause by CO2.
Works Cited
Coleman, John. “The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam.” – KUSI News.
N.p., 16 Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <http://www.kusi.com/story/
13167480/the-amazing-story-behind-the-global-warming-scam>.
“Rebuttal to “The Amazing Story Behind the Global Warming Scam”” — The
CentristParty. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014. <http://uscentrist.org/platform/
positions/environment/context-environment/john_coleman/the-amazing-story-behind-the-global-warming-scam>.
Aden is a small village highly independent by itself, and it seems to be completely secluded from the outside world. It’s called the “the last bit of pure land on this water blue planet.” Everyone who has been there has been amazed by its beauty and spetacularity. Aden is specifically famous for its three sacred jokuls, and it has a altitude of 1900 meters (1.8 miles). This is also a wonderland for the photographers.
My first time hearing about Aden was from my dad, during the summer after my 10th grade in high school. I wanted to go to Sichuan, and Aden happened to be just right on the border of Sichuan. I didn’t feel like going to Aden at all at the beginning, since there were so many posts online complaining the harsh conditions of the road trips there. As a child, all I’ve wanted from travelling was something to cheer my mind up, and something different from my everyday life. I didn’t really understand that why would I suffer myself if travelling is about relaxing and enjoying youself. This was not exactly what I was looking for, but in the end, upon looking at all the pretty pictures taken there, I agreed to go on this trip.
From what I expected, the road trip to Aden was not relaxing at all. It took us around 23 hours driving from Chengdu to Aden, and the road condition was not really as good as you could see in the picture above. I was literally mentally scared of road trips ever since this time, and for the entire 23 hours, I didn’t fall asleep at all. The road condition was really dangerous, and there were frequent landslides, so we had to change routes sometimes. Many people describe their trips to Aden as “My soul is heaven, but my body is in hell.”
My mind has been finally enlightened after seeing this–a forest of poplars. The scene of wind blowing through the poplars was quite mind settling, and looking at many beautiful and sometimes weird views along the way actually made the whole trip way better.
One thing that embarrased me and induced me to really think about the point of travelling was the bicycle riders along the way from Chengdu to Aden. How could they ride the bicycle when I could not even stand riding in a car? How could they do that? I even saw a 9-year-old little girl riding the bike with her dad! This was when I started think whether travelling is all about having fun, and the answer is definitly a no. Travlling is more about finding yourself and learning the things that you could never learn from reading books and taking college courses.
After the 23 hours car ride, we finally got to our destination–Aden Daocheng. The landscape there was perfect to the point that you could not believe that it was actually real. And maybe Aden is not as pretty as everyone says, but it’s pretty only for those who have gone through the nightmare. Only could you see the sunshine after you’ve gone through the rainstorms.
Rebuttal on Global Warming
This article gives many opinions to Mr. Coleman’s statement that global warming is a hoax. The Centrist Patry writer pays great attention to the details in the article written by Mr. Coleman. Step by step, he points out his personal standing upon the evidence he finds contrasting from Mr. Coleman’s arguments without profound evidence as support. He analyzes Mr. Coleman’s arguments and points out the fallacies that are frequently occuring. I would write about how the Centrist Patry reporter’s rebuttal on Mr. Coleman’s arguments related to global warming efficiently argue against Mr. Coleman’s opinions through different strategies the writer uses.
http://uscentrist.org/platform/positions/environment/context-environment/john_coleman/the-amazing-story-behind-the-global-warming-scam
