I need suggestions for class tomorrow! I'm teaching

[janx]

logical fallacies and would like to access a web site that is not a political one but that deals with politics and has an open blog or discussion board. The reason for this is that I'm not there to teach politics, but people tend to get very illogical when it comes to discussing politics. ;-) I've done this before and used the Missoulian when they debated global warming during an especially rough fire season, but that isn't timely now.

Suggestions?

[Mike 03]

1. Janx, what age group are you teaching, if I may ask? NT

[janx]

7. College English--undergrad.

I should have mentioned it. I'd like to have some fun in three of my classes tomorrow. :hi: The last time I tried this we had a blast.

[JVS]

2. Tell them that if they don't sit down, you'll hit them. After they sit hit them anyway and show...

them how it was false logic that led them to believe you wouldn't hit them if they sat down.

[skooooo]

4. Excellent pedagogy!

:rofl:

[JVS]

10. A lesson they won't soon forget!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beating_the_bounds

[janx]

19. Some of these students are a lot bigger than I am...!

:spank:

[Posteritatis]

27. Which leads us right into why appeal to authority is flawed! (nt)

[janx]

29. Stop that.

:rofl:

It's the appeal to false authority. I have to get back to these essays...

[XemaSab]

3. Try a local newspaper

Many of them have discussion boards that make FR look like the combined staffs of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. x(

[JVS]

5. or the large hadron collider

[janx]

11. Maybe that's why using the Missoulian was so much fun last year!

:rofl:

Thank you. I'll look around.

[XemaSab]

15. Here's a pretty good one:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2009/02/01/MNMT15EMFF.DTL

[janx]

21. XemaSab, it's fantastic! Thank you!

:hug: I'm going to email the link to myself and bring it up tomorrow.

[BlooInBloo]

6. Meh. Easier just to draw a truth table.

[JVS]

12. That shit is so inefficient

[BlooInBloo]

17. No, the standard algorithm for determining propositional entailment is inefficient....

Whipping out the truth table for a binary operator, not so much.

[Goblinmonger]

8. Go into the R/T forum on here

logical fallacies a plenty.
:hide:

[janx]

18. I've seen a lack of logic around here from time to time...

;-)

But I don't want to use an overtly political board. The young men and women in my classes are pretty bright, and they probably wouldn't appreciate it. And as I said, that's not my job.

Part of the fun of looking at a message board after going over the fallacies is that the students latch on to certain characters on the board. Often these characters will have interesting names, like InvestorSue or LumberjackJoe. We get to know them. :rofl:

Advertising is great for identifying logical fallacies, but it's sometimes too obvious.

Religion? Again, a fertile source, but my classes are so diverse that I don't want to consider that. In any one classroom I can have the following faiths: Muslim, Roman Catholic, agnostic, atheist, fundamentalist Christian, mainline Christian, Buddhist, and some religions I'm probably not even familiar with.

[Turbineguy]

9. I use this.

It's pretty had to reconcile critical thought and today's version of conservatism. But you never have to come right out and say it.

Blooms’s Taxonomy of Critical Thought

KNOWLEDGE LEVEL: Learn the information.

Sample verbs: Define, find, follow directions, identify, know, label, list, memorize, name, quote, read, recall, recite, recognize, select, state, write.

COMPREHENSION LEVEL: Understand the information.

Sample verbs: Account for, explain, express in other terms, give examples, give in your own words, group, infer, interpret, illustrate, paraphrase, recognize, retell, show, simplify, summarize, translate.

APPLICATION LEVEL: Use the information.

Sample verbs: Apply, compute, construct, construct using, convert (in math), demonstrate, derive, develop, discuss, generalize, interview, investigate, keep records, model, participate, perform, plan, produce, prove (in math), solve, use, utilize.

ANALYSIS LEVEL: Break the information down into its component parts.

Sample verbs: Analyze, compare, contrast, criticize, debate, determine, diagram, differentiate, discover, draw conclusions, examine, infer, relate, search, survey, take apart, uncover.

SYNTHESIS LEVEL: Put information together in new and different ways.

Sample verbs: Build, combine, create, design, imagine, invent, make-up, produce, propose, present.

EVALUATION LEVEL: Judge the information.

Sample verbs: Assess, defend, evaluate, grade, judge, measure, perform a critique, rank, recommend, select, test, validate, verify.

[4 t 4]

14. How about logical fallacies

and our new President ?

[janx]

25. I would love nothing better than to try something like that eventually. n/t

[janx]

16. That is useful! They already know the classic fallacies,

but what you present is an interesting way to look at them. If I use this AND a newspaper web board site or two, we could have a lot of fun. Thanks so much.:hi:

[4 t 4]

22. Bless you for being a teacher

I have life forming memories from some teachers along the years. Very powerful. Have a great class and hang in there because I think more money will be coming for you soon-I hope so.

[janx]

28. Thank you. n/t

[EmilyAnne]

13. This is definitely political, but this video is an amazing example of logical meets

illogical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aJ5Zy4nGP4&feature=channel_page

[ColbertWatcher]

20. fark.

They have people posting logical fallacy macros all the time.

Here's a sample thread about that moran who said FDR started the Great Depression: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=4204272&cpp=1

[janx]

24. That is funny and intriguing, but it might be too political.

The site is interesting though. :hi:

[Catshrink]

23. This may be too polarizing...

but here's an article from Science Daily about how restricting abortions doesn't reduce their number and may actually increase it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090202174508.htm

Peru Study Shows Restrictive Law Fails To Limit Number Of Abortions

ScienceDaily (Feb. 3, 2009) — Despite abortion being severely legally restricted – and potentially unsafe – in Peru, the incidence of abortion is as high as or higher than the incidence in many countries where it is legal and safe, found researchers from Peru, the United Kingdom and the United States in an article published in CMAJ.

[Posteritatis]

26. What about a random newspaper's letters to the editor?

Or hell, if you're teaching a college class just look at the posters students put up around the place.

[janx]

30. These are techies, thank God, and most are not political.

;-) The posters I see are promoting different techie clubs, the literary publication, and RUGBY!

:rofl: I love it.