Grades...

Hey Guys,

Do your grades for this appear on the grades query page??


AD

Blog Grades

I submitted the link and names to Dwayne, and the email he sent me follows. I'm not sure as to how to get this info to everyone else so if you know anyone else from the group, let them know

Robert Grant
Marc
Andre
CrystalF
Dave McKnight

Team Blog
1.5/4 Setup and Configuration:
-Useful/appropriate Blog name
x-Effective layout choice (Contributor, links & Previous Posts visible attop of page)
x-Added or changed links etc.
x-Used full names and real names for contributors

5/6 Content
-Effective introduction
-Use of Posts NOT just comments
-Volume of participation
-Distribution of participation (between members)
-Effective application to discipline x
-Spelling, grammar, punctuation etc.
-Effective Summary

6.5/10

I send out one evaluation reply to the student who submitted the URL andmembers list and I ask that this student please forward a copy of thisevaluation to the other Blog members. You really need to provide the fullnames for Marc, Andre, and CrystalF so that I can assign their grades.Dwayne Harapnuik PhDDepartment of Educational PsychologyFaculty of EducationUniversity of AlbertaEdmonton, Alberta T6G 2G5Phone: (780) 473-6789e-mail: dwayne.harapnuik@ualberta.cawebsite: http://www.inquisitivism.com

Did anyone submit our blog to dwayne? If so who, and did we get an evaluation back yet?

Andre's Blog Summary

This blog has covered topics on US-Canada relations and trade issues. It has been greatly helpful in providing a number of points of views from different people, and an opportunity for everyone to propose issues that are important to them.

To summarize our sentiments, I believe we reached a consensus that Canada and the US have a effecive and symbiotic relationship, but that Canada must reconcile its international relations across the country.

As far as blogging itself goes, I haven't blogged until this year. There are blogs for everything now! It seems that every politician even has one, not to mention every kid. I think that this is another step of our culture's transition to the electronic age. I am actually using a blog-type webpage for my PHIL 366 class right now, where class members post daily discussions, and the professor posts new resources. The benefits: openly accessible, easily accessed forum where anyone can comment and post constructive discussion that may not be otherwise possible. Also, the orginizational structure of it is, well, organized! Some potential downsides include time assymetry between blog members, i.e. posting frequencies can be variable at times which can slow overall blog growth.

Lastly, sorry about the late post!

Dave's Blog Summary

Prior to this course I had never belonged to any sort of blog group. I knew what a blog was but I didn't really have any idea what one could be used for.

My experience with this blog group has been a good one over all. As an American who has immigrated to Canada I'm particularily interested in US-Canada relations. I wish we had more time to discuss some of the recent issues that have been raised. I found it interesting that we all had similar views on important issues such as the softwood lumber and BSE disputes with the US.

From an educational standpoint I feel that blogging has excellent potential. Through discussions I have recently discovered that in my school most of the high school English department have class blogs set up. This gives students an opportunity to showcase the work that they do. It also makes students more responsible for their work. From what I understand, students, parents and teachers are very happy with the benefits of implementing blog groups into high school classes.

As a math teacher I'm looking for ways to implement a blog into my classes. Maybe someone has some suggestions as to what I could use the blog for and how to set it up for my students.

Crystal's Blog Summary Report

This blog was my first being involved in. I wasn't actually familiar with what a blog was before this class. However, I found it quite user friendly and definately plan on using them in the future. I notice blogs everywhere now that I am aware of them. Even NHL.com has a blog link in the sidebar.
I think this particular blog even allowed it's members to see the difficulties with blogging. I definately noticed that in a classroom setting I would alocate students to their particular blog, because the problems that I found with being booted out of my original blog would cause additional headaches for me as the teacher. I also noticed complaints among participants about member participation and contribution, however this is common with any groupwork. Also, unlike this class, secondary students are not necessarily expected to have internet capabilities readily available.
I am a math Major and there is growing support in the profession for students to write math journals, which allow them to summarize in their own words the concepts they are learning, in order to solidify their understanding and to identify students with misconceptions. I think the idea of the students using a blog as their journal would be very beneficial, because they allow for the students to read the posts of those who understand the concepts well before they themselves have to post (In order to do this I would allow class time in the computer lab of course) .
I think my first try at this will be me posting the topics I want the students to respond to, and getting them to use the comment option to give me their responses.

I myself did enjoy this blog, especially because of my changing personal and family relationship between the United States and Canada. However, more than just enjoying this individual blog, I have become aware of the possibilities to use this tool in teaching.
While this was originally one of the most frustrating requirements of this course, I now feel it may be the most beneficial for me. Thanks to everyone involved for the discussions.

Bob's Blog Summary

Well seeing as Dwayne has said that we can do our own summary on the Blog, I figured that I would get it done now.

I have found this blog to be somewhat enlightening. I have found that most of us seem to share a similar view as to how Canada is being viewed, not only by Canadians but Americans and the rest of the world as well. It is interesting to see Dave and Crystal's opinioins, as former/current Americans, and how they view Canada and it's relations with the US.

I believe that we covered some of the most important issues that are currently plaguing the relations of these 2 great nations. I found that I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments and I think the only thing that I would have liked to see is more arguments on the topics we covered. I think this would have made the blog more interenting.

As a whole, I would say that I enjoyed the use of the blog and can see how they can be extremely useful as a soon to be teacher. I would really like to use one in my classes so that students can use it as a sounding board for ideas, as a place to ask questions of me and the other students, and finally as a place for everyone to help each other out. This kind of blog would help students to understand that others may have the same problem as them, and they can help each other to find the correct answer. It can also be a site where the students can share other methods they have come across to answer questions correctly.

The only draw back I can see is that on occasion this site has been difficult to get on, or was extremely slow. This could lead to students not using the site. Other than that I think that the use of a blog is a great idea.

Strategic Advantage: A Game Theory Perspective

Is Canada a Pushover? Or, has our government been pushing themselves over in the country's best interest?...

It is true that US 'policy', or actions rather, have bent the rules of trade agreements, not to mention international law elsewhere. However, the US is simply acting in the most rational way given its current place in the global environment. In the perspective of Game Theory, it is their 'right to privelege,' being a global leader.

Now, considering the odd trade dispute that happens between the US and Canada - Softwood lumber and Cattle - we have seen that Canada has not made any aggressive moves back, and this is for a very good reason, I would argue. Consider the 'tit-for-tat' strategy, which is what would prevail if Canada acted aggressively each time the US did. I have taken a quick summary from Wikipedia, below:

This strategy is dependent on four conditions that has allowed it to become the most prevalent strategy for the Prisoner's Dilemma:

1. Unless provoked, the agent will always cooperate
2. If provoked, the agent will retaliate
3. The agent is quick to forgive
4. The agent must have a 2/3 chance of competing against the opponent more than once.

In the last condition, the number 2/3 is arbitrary and depends on the payoff matrix of the Prisoner's Dilemma. The important thing is that the competition continues long enough for repeated punishment and forgiveness to generate a long-term payoff higher than the possible loss from cooperating initially.

A fifth condition applies to make the competition meaningful: if an agent knows that the next play will be the last, it should naturally defect for a higher score. Similarly if it knows that the next two plays will be the last, it should defect twice, and so on. Therefore the number of competitions must not be known in advance to the agents.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Without proceeding to go through each step and the associated consequences, I'll just say that the US has more options and bigger guns, and that much of Canada's interests are explicably linked to US institutions, whether it be in industry, or national defense. However, there is one thing here in Alberta that is by far most important to the US: the oil. A good share of it is tied to US firms, but in the end it is in our soil. But would it be rational to resort to cutting the US off of our oil exports? Not likely! It would most definitely do great harm to us, through its effect on US industry that we either benefit or depends on, and also the resulting fluctuations in the financial markets - something that nobody wants to see again after the 70s! So, instead of Tit-for-Tat, we simply play the classic game, weighing our payoffs. When the US plays nice, we do well and they do well; when they play a little dirty, they either maintain their position or do a little better andwe do a a little less well; but, if we choose to retaliate, they are worse off and we are worst off. All in all, to quote the maxim of Game Theory, we are doing the best we can given the decisions/actions of the US; likewise for the US.

Blog Summary

I am not really sure whether a blog summary is to be done individually or collectively as a group. However, personally I truly believe that the use of a blog by teachers would be a great asset. If teachers were to set up a blog for their classes, it would provide an opportunity for continued learning outside of the classroom. As a science teacher, we are encouraged to allow students to learn through discovery and inquiry methods which places much of the responsibility for learning both content and process with the individual learner. By setting up a blog, there would be an open learning community to share ideas and work through problems together. Additionally, the blog does not need to be restricted solely to students, but rather the teacher could also communicate with the students.

Besides learning content through a blog, there are other definite advantages. I think that it may help to build a positive classroom environment. Students will realize that they are not the only ones with questions, and the blog may strengthen relationships between students. If a blog were used in conjunction with a class website, there is no doubt in my mind that students would be better off than using just pen and paper. Students who missed class would be able to catch up quicker and gather information from their friends. I think that if most students bought in to using a blog, it would lessen teachers workload. Students would no longer be just students, but would now take on the role of teacher in helping their friends to learn the material. Furthermore, if parents are made aware of the blog, they would be able to stay aware of their child's current learning.

Obviously, I have focussed on the positive attributes of using a blog for learning. There are drawbacks and disadvantages; however, I believe that the benefits outweigh the costs. What does everyone else think of using blogs for education?