GSIAS English III Zoom meeting ID: 582-986-562
2020.06.10 & 17
Sessions during these two weeks were composed of presentations from everyone in class on their areas of interest or expertise. We heard and saw interesting and useful information about problems and possibilities all around the world. If you have not yet done so, please email any documents related to your presentation (scripts, PowerPoints, etc.) to me ASAP.
And let's take a few minutes next week for some brief one-on-one feedback and farewell comments as the semester comes to a close.
Please sign up for a 10-minute conversation with me on this Google document.
Thanks for a great semester,
JBH
2020.06.03
Hey class,
The instructor always get the last word in class discussions, especially when he puts it on the class web page. But if you are at all interested in learning about some voices on the issues we’ve been talking about that are not generally heard by most people on Mainstream Media or online…
Douglas Murray covers some of the things we were talking about regarding Twitter, YouTube, and online bias with more data-based arguments here: https://unherd.com/2020/05/the-sinister-bias-of-youtube-and-twitter/
As far as the ongoing protests and looting in the U.S., British podcaster Zuby posted something interesting the other day: “You still think this is about black lives?” https://youtu.be/zP0uoOjOr5Y
This was after this video in which he made it clear that George Floyd was murdered https://youtu.be/-jINiEOE2sQ
Another black conservative voice is Larry Elder. Here he is talking about police shooting statistics and race with left-liberal turned classical liberal (libertarian) Dave Rubin in 2015: https://youtu.be/phPXTWJhnYM . The numbers haven’t changed much since then.
Eric July is a more libertarian black voice. His opinion? The problem is statism, not racism: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2592065794366012
My point is that there are lots of intelligent people out there who don’t agree with TPTB (the powers that be) in today’s mainstream media (CNN/BBC/NYTimes/Washington Post and others) or Silicon Valley’s TPTB (Google/Twitter/YouTube/facebook and others). Be careful you are not getting all your information from the echo chamber of approved opinions.
See you next week,
JBH
2020.05.20
In class, we got started with an excellent Word, Quote, and Joke of the Day. Then we moved on to an extra-special newsbriefing session, noticeably free of COVID-19 stories for a change.
Toward the end of the session, we talked about the next presentation assignment, which will be our last in this class. Please see the 05.13 entry for details.
Before next week’s class, please submit a brief proposal (one page or less) regarding your presentation topic as a discussion post to the class Canvas discussion area. I will send out invitations to Canvas soon. It's easy to read the instructions (or not) and post a discussion topic there.
Use "Your Name/Presentation Proposal" as the subject of your discussion post . You will be asked to share your presentation with the class Week 13 and 14, June 10th and 17th.
We finished off class looking at the beginning of a classic presentation on working with data by master presenter of statistics, the late Hans Rosling. Take a look at the mini-lesson that included that video on the Six Minutes Presentation website. We stopped at about 8 minutes and 30 seconds in. We will talk more about the video and presenting next week in class. Also, please bring words, quotes, jokes, news briefing items, and be ready to talk about your proposal.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.05.13
We wrapped up our presentations on the post COVID-19 world during this session.
Next week (May 20), we will start off with our usual Word, Quote and Joke of the Day, along with a news briefing. But we should also take a few minutes to start thinking about parameters for our next presentation.
The next assignment will be sharing information on a problem or topic related to our specialization and or area of interest that is worthy of a 10- to 20-minute presentation to the class. Open-ended? Yes. Share something interesting that you are passionate about related to international relations.
Please start thinking about a brief research proposal you can share with us soon. It’s not required for next week, but I should look something over as soon as possible after that. I want everyone to be set on a topic and working on it as we go through the rest of this month toward presentation day (to be determined).
Much like the other assignments in this class, this one should focus more on clear communication and drawing audience interest rather than aiming at elevated academic discourse.
Since we are specialists in a variety of areas, the topics we share should be familiar enough to be clearly understandable by everyone without going too far into specialized knowledge that we do not all share. If you must do a deep dive into your topic, please try to make sure your brief background information is clear enough for us all to understand and not something only a specialist in the field would have an interest in.
As always, interesting counts. Not just in this class, but in every class.
Also, please take a quick look at the Six Minutes presentation website. We will be looking at it overall, as well as focusing on how to present with statistical data and visuals. If you find something there that you think we should talk about in class related to great presentations, bring it to our attention.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.04.29
Class plan:
1. WQJ
2. Post-Coronavirus Predictions: What will the New Normal look like?
Please email me an outline/script/whatever you have written up for your presentation, preferably before class.
We will continue our post-Covid 19 predictions when we meet again May 13th.
Enjoy your exams!
JBH
NOTICE: Since Wednesday, April 15th is election day, we will not have class on that day.
Go vote or do something else useful.
We will meet again on April 22nd.
JBH
2020.04.08
1. WQJ
2. News briefings
3. Discussion of future predictions in the COVID age. We looked at Economic, Health, Travel, Globalization, Education, Social and Cultural, and Foreign Affairs.
I’d like to keep building on these topics. In teams of two or three please use the ideas we talked about in class and more to create short presentations on the short, medium, and long-term effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. Give reasons and evidence for your answers. This is not a work of science-fiction. Imagine your were working for a think-tank or NGO that really needed answer to the important question of how our lives are likely to change in the future.
Next week, everyone please present a news briefing. We will also talk more about your team presentations. We should have them ready to present to your classmates on April 29th.
See you in class!
JBH
1. WQJ
2. News briefings
3. Discussion of future predictions in the COVID age. We looked at Economic, Health, Travel, Globalization, Education, Social and Cultural, and Foreign Affairs.
I’d like to keep building on these topics. In teams of two or three please use the ideas we talked about in class and more to create short presentations on the short, medium, and long-term effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. Give reasons and evidence for your answers. This is not a work of science-fiction. Imagine your were working for a think-tank or NGO that really needed answer to the important question of how our lives are likely to change in the future.
Next week, everyone please present a news briefing. We will also talk more about your team presentations. We should have them ready to present to your classmates on April 29th.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.04.01
We started our session today by going over a few guidelines for using Zoom. One of those guidelines suggests that students be "present" in class, on camera and using a mike, if at all possible. In addition, students presented an excellent Word, Quote, and Joke of the Day.
We then went into our full news briefing session, which was again fairly Corona-centric. This week, more global news focused on side-effects or secondary effects of the growing pandemic, which led us to next week's discussion topic (see below).
For next week's session, we divided the class into two groups. The first will bring topical, discussable news briefings as usual. The second group was tasked with working together to create a discussable topic for the class related to predictions about the future -- what do you see as the "New Normal" after the current pandemic. Will life continue much the same as before? What do you see as likely aftereffects, economically, geopolitically, regionally, foreign relations, daily life, etc.?
Imagine that you are a working group or task force assigned by an NGO to research and study how things might change in the next 1-5 years as a result of the current situation. Bring some ideas for everyone to discuss.
See you next week,
JBH
2020.03.25
After presenting our Word, Quote, and Joke of the Day to our Zoom classmates, we immediately got started on a News Briefing which, not unusually, focused mostly on the Coronavirus world situation. A dozen students, each with their own take on the ongoing pandemic, shared world events for almost the entire session.
We wrapped up on time, with plans to do a more varied selection of topics next week if possible, and the professor will post the semester's first major presentation assignment in the near future.
Remember your Word, Quote, and Joke of the week.
See you in class!
JBH
2020.03.18
Coronavirus and all, our class got off to a good start with an online Zoom session of the entire class. After tracking first day attendance, we took some time to introduce ourselves in our virtual classroom.
Next, we moved on to a brief course overview, and the instructor shared information about the course for this semester.
Next week, we'll be presenting News Briefings after our Word, Quote and Joke of the Day opening routine. Please get me your contact info ASAP so you can coordinate which international news stories you'll be sharing with the class. They should be interesting, current and internationally important. Controversial news that might lead to discussion or something including interesting language use are especially good choices. Be prepared to spend 3-5 minutes talking about your story and please don't just read the article aloud. Make sure not to cover the same issue as a classmate.
Next week's Zoom class will be at the same link as this week's class.
Also, remember to have your Word, Quote, and Joke of the Day ready at the beginning of class.
Thanks!
JBH
Our first session will be online at this link.
Please be on time.
Thanks!
JBH
