Week 4: Revenge effects

Summary: We continue our reading of Edward Tenner's Why Things Bite Back.

Goals:

• Consider revenge effects in diverse domains. 
• Relate these to recent events and personal experiences.
• Write a second rough draft.

• On to Week 5, Does technology control us?

Monday, February 9: Environmental Disasters

Read one book chapter and several short articles:

• Tenner, Chapter 4, "Environmental Disasters: Natural and Human-Made"
• Pinter, One step forward, two steps back on U.S. floodplains
• Infocus--The science of floods
• Steele, Katrina flooding caused more by history and politics than engineering, Cornell's O'Rourke says
• Achenbach, Iowa Flooding Could Be An Act of Man, Experts Say

1. What is Tenner's main idea in Chapter 4?
2. How do the articles about flooding relate to the part of the Tenner chapter about flooding? What ideas appear in both, and what ideas do the articles add?
3. Tenner described particular types of revenge effects on pages 9-11. Briefly, what are some examples of these from today's readings?
4. What is one question about the reading that you would like to discuss?
5. About how long did you spend on the reading and your response?

• Members of study teams 1 and 2 should post their answers to the above questions in the appropriate forum. As a reminder, reading responses are due by 5:30 the day before the class meeting.

Monday, February 9, 5:30 p.m.: Rough draft 2 due

Submit a short essay (rough draft). Be sure to review the guidelines for essays. As I reminded you when I returned your first rough drafts,

• be sure your essay has an identifiable thesis;
• be sure your essay adequately addresses the prompt you are responding to;
• include formal citations and a list of works cited;
• proofread your essay to ensure that you used the words that you meant to use and there are no missing or extra words that impede legibility.

Respond to one of the following prompts. For the first three prompts, I strongly encourage you to support your claims with at least one outside source. (No need to use a research article---a newspaper or magazine article, or some other online article from a credible source, is fine.)

• As our first discussion leaders observed, you are the first generation to have grown up with IM and SMS. Analyze how the purposes, process, and/or form of such writing differ from those presented by Professor LaLonde. 
• Reflect upon how growing up with IM or SMS has affected your formal learning about writing in school.
• Critique the role of spell checkers and grammar checkers in the process and outcome of writing.
• Relate a talk from the Rosenfield Symposium on Global Pharmaceuticals to one of our readings on medicine. (The talk counts as an outside source and should be cited.)
• Find a recent (last 5 years) news article about a medical technology. Analyze the article in the context of our readings about medicine.
• Take a position with respect to one of the two questions you debated on Friday. Argue for your position, drawing on evidence from this week's readings and presentations.
• For medical technology, is newer better?
• Should direct-to-consumer drug ads be banned?

To submit your essay, please place it in the folder outside my door. Feel free to drop in and chat if I am available and you would like to talk with me about your essay.

Wednesday, February 11: The Computerized Office

Read:

• Tenner, Chapters 8 and 9

1. Tenner described particular types of revenge effects on pages 9-11. Briefly, what are some examples of these from today's readings?
2. Some fifteen years have passed since Tenner wrote these chapters. What is a revenge effect that you think has now been resolved or eliminated? What is a revenge effect that is still with us?
3. Long before Tenner wrote these chapters, some technologists and futurists were predicting the advent of the "paperless office." To what extent would you say that has or has not happened? Explain your answer, drawing on Tenner if possible.
4. What is one question about the reading that you would like to discuss?
5. About how long did you spend on the reading and your response?

• Members of study teams 3 and 4 should post their answers to the above questions in the appropriate forum. As a reminder, reading responses are due by 5:30 the day before the class meeting.

Reconnecting with Nature (Center for Prairie Studies Symposium)

Peter Kahn is one of my colleagues from the University of Washington, and I highly recommend his talk. You may email me a short response (1-2 paragraphs) for 5 points of extra credit. Your response should include both a brief summary of the talk and some reflection or commentary.

Thursday Feb. 12, 11 a.m., JRC 101
Psychologist Peter Kahn will discuss "Technological Nature: Does it Deepen Our Relationship With or Disconnect Us from the Natural World?"

Friday, February 13: Sport

Read:

• Tenner, Chapters 10 and 11

1. Explain this quotation: "Not technology but the values of participants and spectators determine the danger of sport" (Tenner 295).
2. Tenner described particular types of revenge effects on pages 9-11. Briefly, what are some examples of these from today's readings?
3. What is the most important or surprising thing you learned from this reading?
4. What is one question about the reading that you would like to discuss?
5. About how long did you spend on the reading and your response?

• Members of study teams 5 and 6 should post their answers to the above questions in the appropriate forum. As a reminder, reading responses are due by 5:30 the day before the class meeting.

I plan to return your second rough draft by today at the latest so that you can begin work on the first polished essay. I have shifted the due date of the first polished essay to Friday of next week because several of the study teams meet on Wednesday afternoon or evening. This should give you a chance to start your revisions on your own, meet with your study group, and then revise again.

Janet Davis (davisjan@cs.grinnell.edu)