don't forget pop culture references!!

Let's start an anonymous club, we can sit close in the dark.
Come round to mine, we can swap clothes and drink wine all night.
Turn your phone off friend, you're amongst friends and we don't need no interruptions.
Leave your shoes at the door, along with your troubles.

Let's start an anonymous club, I'll make us name badges with question marks.
Come round to mine, we can swap clothes and drink wine all night.
Turn your phone off friend, you"re amongst friends and we don"t need no interruptions.
Leave your shoes at the door, along with your troubles.

Thank you for cooking for me, I had a really nice evening, just you and me.

Jen insists that we buy organic vegetables
And I must admit that I was a little skeptical at first
A little pesticide can't hurt

Never having too much money, I get the cheap stuff at the supermarket
But they're all pumped up with the shit
A friend told me that they stick nicotine in the apples

If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you

Heading down the Highway Hume
Somewhere at the end of June
Taxidermied kangaroos are littered on the shoulders
A possum Jackson Pollack is painted on the tar
Sometimes I think a single sneeze could be the end of us
My hay-fever is turning up, just swerved into a passing truck
Big business overtaking
Without indicating
He passes on the right, been driving through the night
To bring us the best price

If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you

More people die on the road than they do in the ocean
Maybe we should mull over culling cars instead of sharks
Or just lock them up in parks where we can go and view them
There's a bypass over Holbrook now
Paid for with burgers no doubt
I've lost count of all the cows
There'll be no salad sandwiches
The law of averages says we'll stop in the next town
Where petrol price is down...
What do I know anyhow?

If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you
If you can't see me, I can't see you

remember 2 collect files 4 multimodal work (like this!)

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please consider leaving a comment! 

Remember to begin collecting images, video, and audio ... and maybe storyboarding your Multimoda Microtheme. Here is a great clip one might use.

quote sammies!

rational argument samples!!

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yes, today! free samples! they've been there, lurking in the sidebars. but NOW!! you can take a moment to look over some of the sample rational arguments posted at the blog. 

oh sure, you can go with the VERY ROUTINE (kinda dull) option, but how about reading a sample from a former student of mine, the lovely Ashley Nelson, who has so graciously allowed us to review her work?!! 

@ right, you will find both an early and revised version of Ashley's essay. keep in mind that she was not in a themed course, so her topic has little to do with slacktivism (as your essay will!). it's just such a solid essay -- fun, interesting, full of Ashley's voice, and very balanced in its approach to explore the problem and look at a variety of perspectives. 

do yourself a favor! read the samples!! 

happy drafting, and happy halloween!!

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We are just beginning to work on the development of a Rational Argument (see prompt @ the course blog). Recall that I added the initial component of finding an image -- from your daily life, not necessarily downloaded) as a point of departure for your thinking. Wednesday, we did some work discussing how to evolve the image into a research question by using the structure of the Microtheme to get us thinking in a focused but generous way. Continue this work today.

Here is a Critical Reminder: Some of you shared very interesting pictures, but I was not in every case sure that they had to do with our course theme of "Slacktivism" and related questions about smartphones, digital technology, social media, and screen culture. You should change course if you are not on this path. 

I was hoping that your found image might "connect" you to some thinking about our digitally mediated lives. If not, get going (sans image) with a slacktivism related question. So many things to choose from!! Political uses of social media; cultural uprisings and response, charities and social causes, connectedness and/vs ambivalence that may be related to the speed and ease of changing focus from one minute to the next (so "thinking" about poverty, for example, is easily dispensed). Open your search with a big, fat Google search. USE Wikipedia! Just start finding ideas. Collect links to articles, images, videos, anything that seems relevant to your thinking. We can sort it out in our process.

For Monday, you should have your image, a rough version of a Microtheme that begins to get after your potential research question, and AT LEAST one article from a very highly reputable source (an academic journal article or book is the ideal, but a NYT story or book review could do, as could key information from websites that are specifically focused upon the issue -- think "Doctors Without Borders" website for info on the refugee crisis). You should be able to tell us the key info from your article by having prepared a basic summary of it before Monday's class. Bring a copy to hand in, along with the draft of your Microtheme.

Write a blog post that identifies the direction you are taking. Be as polished as you can be, adding references to your sources (as you find them -- so you might, for example, avoid "publishing" but simply saving as a "draft" until Monday).

Remember -- truly engaged research should follow your genuine interest in the spirit of inquiry, NOT as a hunt for everyone who agrees with your initial bias. Stay open to improvisation, play, worry, and discovery!

people in public space

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