Dexterous Digits in the Thumb Tribe

Texting is popular among people who are comfortable using their cell phones for communication. With this popularity, proficiency becomes important. This week’s article is about an international competition in texting. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.

How many times each day do you send text messages? At what point would you consider the number of text messages being sent each day to be excessive? Are you part of the thumb tribe? What is the most unusual situation in which you have sent a text message? How often do you send text messages while in your classes? How important is it to text quickly? What would you recommend people do to improve their texting speed? Should texting be taught in school instead of keyboarding? When did you begin using a cell phone? Respond to the following quotation: “When you talk, you often blabber. If you text, you think more coherently because you have to make yourself understood in short but logical sentences.”

Dexterous Digits Article

Too Much TV and Obsolete Things

This week we will look at two different articles. The first one is about children having difficulty speaking because of their exposure to television. The other article is about things that have become obsolete. Go to the links below and read both articles. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the articles, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.

Which of the statistics in the article about speech surprised you? Do you agree that the background noise from TV makes it hard for children to understand their parents’ or older siblings’ speech? How much television should children be allowed to watch? If you had a much younger sibling, what would you do to promote his/her language development?

In the article about obsolete things, which of the obsolete things mentioned are still being used in your house? Is the article wrong about any of the items in its predictions? What do you think will become obsolete in the next decade?

TV Noise Article

Obsolete Things Article

Google in China

Google’s presence in China has been controversial since it agreed to cooperate with the Chinese government in its Internet censorship. This week’s article looks at how things have changed and what Google is considering. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.

Was Google’s initial arrangement with the Chinese government appropriate? If you were negotiating with the Chinese government to have Google available in China, what conditions would you accept and what conditions would you refuse? Who do you think was responsible for hacking Google’s computers and why would they make such an attack? Was Google’s response to the attacks the best choice for that situation? What would you have done? Respond to the following quote: “It’s not Google that’s withdrawing from China, it’s China that’s withdrawing from the world.”

Google Article

Viruses and Social Networking Sites

Social networking websites are very popular. So are malicious programs that hijack people’s accounts. This week’s article looks at how this happens and the impact that it has. Go to the link below and read the article. Write a reflective comment that shows you have read the article, expresses your views, and addresses my questions.

Have you ever had an experience like those described in the article or do you know someone who has had such an experience? If so, how was the account compromised and what happened? Why do you think that people hack other people’s accounts? What advice would you give to avoid having this happen? What would you recommend doing if this does happen?

Social Networking Article