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RWS 280
KEY IDEAS
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WHAT IS RHETORIC?
◼ Aristotle noticed that some speakers in Athens were more
effective in
persuading the public than others. In On Rhetoric, a collection
of those
observations, he offered this definition:
◼ “Let rhetoric be defined as the faculty of observing in any
case all of
the available means of persuasion.” (this is where my interest
lies
in terms of multimodal means of persuasion. Meaning, how
different modes of communication—textual, audio, visual,
spatial—influence audiences to respond in particular ways)
◼ Rhetoric refers to the study and use of written, spoken, and
visual language.
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https://philosophy.thereitis.org/epicurus-letter/
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What Rhetoric is Concerned With:
WHY HOW
RHETORICAL SITUATION—5 MAIN CATEGORIES
◼1. Author
◼ Who is the author?
◼ When reading a text you should always take
a few minutes to research who the author
is.
◼ Who is she, what kind of writing does she
do, what organizations does she belong to,
what is her reputation?
2. AUDIENCE
◼ Who seems to be the intended audience?
◼ Who might be secondary audiences?
◼ How is the text shaped to target those people? Figuring
out where the text was published, when it was published,
what kind of text it is (speech, op-ed, article, song, etc.)
and how it addresses readers can help provide clues to
audience.

◼ We can also ask who is likely to find the text important,
relevant, or useful.
◼ Consider style, tone, diction, and vocabulary. What does
this tell you about the potential audience for the text?
◼ Examine the other authors and works referred to in the
text (if there are footnotes or a works cited page, look
at what is listed there. Just as you can learn a lot about a
person by the people around him, you can learn a lot
about a text from all the other texts it references).
◼ What does the author assume her readers know? This
can help identify the author’s intended audience.
◼ What does the author assume about readers’ age,
education, gender, location, or cultural values?
3. PURPOSE
◼ What is the author trying to achieve?
◼ What does the author want us to do, believe, or understand?
◼ All writing has a purpose. We write to being awareness to a
problem,
make sense of an experience, call people to action, contribute to
an
area of knowledge, criticize/defend a position, redefine a
concept,
complain, clarify, challenge, document, create a beautiful story,
and
entertain (to name just a few purposes for writing).

4. CONTEXT
◼ Context refers to situational influences that are specific to
time, place,
and occasion.
◼ When and where was the text written and where is it intended
to be
read/seen/heard?
◼ We can also consider the context of the author’s life and
work, texts
referred to by the author (or that refer to the author) and the
“conversation” the text is part of.
◼ How does the current context influence our reading of the
text.
5. GENRE
◼ Genres are types of communication that have become routine
and
“conventionalized.”
◼ A poem, meme, lab report, op-ed, and magazine article are all
examples
of genres.
◼ Identifying the text’s genre can tell us a lot about audience,
purpose, and
context.

◼ Genres give us clues about how we should read a text, what
we can do
with the text, and who the audience is.
RHETORICAL
SITUATION
ARGUMENT
◼ In the broadest sense, an argument is any piece of written,
spoken, or
visual language designed to persuade an audience or bring about
a
change in ideas/attitudes.
◼ This is the overall position or conclusion advanced by an
author.
◼ We abstract this from the entirety of the text to arrive at the
position
or conclusion the author wants us to accept.
◼ Arguments are concerned with contested issues where some
degree
of uncertainty exists (we don’t argue about what is self-evident
or
agreed upon). For example?
EXAMPLE ARGUMENTS:

1. Social media is having a negative impact on students’ writing
and reading skills.
2. The opioid crisis in America is partly the result of over-
prescription, but is primarily caused by the rise of
inequality, economic dislocation, and community breakdown.
3. To combat “fake news” social media companies need to make
serious efforts to limit its spread, and schools and
universities must start teaching students how to identify and
avoid fake news.
4. Children should not be allowed to play tackle football until
they reach high school, as their brains are particularly
vulnerable to damage from high impact sports.
5. While it is common to assume that our sense of morality
comes from the culture we live in, there is growing
evidence to suggest we are all born with a “moral instinct” that
has evolutionary roots.
EXAMPLES OF (NON) ARGUMENTS
◼ “Vanilla ice cream is the best.”
◼ “Guns are good.”
◼ Can be changed in order to be an actual argument. But how?
◼ “The sky is not blue—in fact, it’s green.”
◼ We want to make sure that arguments—at least in an
academic setting—move beyond one’s opinions or beliefs.
There needs to be substantive, viable, legitimate reasonings and

evidence in order to perpetuate an argument.
CLAIMS
◼ Claims are the “engine” of an argument.
◼ They are the main assertions or lines of reasoning
advanced by an author.
◼ Claims assert that something is the case, and
(usually) provide some justification for this.
◼ Claims are contestable, and deal with matters on
which there is disagreement and uncertainty.
◼ THINK: Topic Sentences
EXAMPLE CLAIMS
◼ Overall argument: We do not need to have stricter gun laws
put in place.
◼ Claim #1: We do not need to have more gun laws because
there are already enough measures put in place to ensure guns
are obtained ethically.
◼ Claim #2: Having stricter gun laws may cause more “black
market” gun purchases.
Not claims:
◼ I do not believe gun laws will help with mass shootings on

school campuses.
◼ Why isn’t this an effective claim?
EVIDENCE
◼ The component of the argument used as support for the
claims made.
◼ Evidence is the support, reasons, data/information used to
help
persuade/prove an argument.
◼ To find evidence in a text, ask what the author has to go on.
◼ What is there to support this claim?
◼ Is the evidence credible?
◼ Some types of evidence: facts, historical
examples/comparisons,
examples, analogies, illustrations, interviews, statistics (source
& date
are important), expert testimony, authorities, anecdotes,
witnesses,
personal experiences, reasoning, etc.
LET’S PRACTICE RHETORICAL SITUATION
Sandy Hook Promise "Evan"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qyD7vjVfLI

RHETORICAL SITUATION: DISCUSS, PROVIDE
EVIDENCE.
◼ In small groups, discuss the rhetorical
situation and how you came to your
decisions.
◼ Author
◼ Audience
◼ Purpose
◼ Context
◼ Genre
INTERNATIONAL TRADE ASSIGNMENT 2
SEMESTER 1, 2020
I. INTRODUCTION
Assume that you are an economic consultant hired by an
international organization/government to provide your expert
advice on conditions pertaining to international trade in
Argentina and El Salvador. Your analysis will consist of two
separate reports (one for Assignment 1 and the other for
Assignment 2). As an expert, your job is two-fold:
1. You are required to analyse any relevant issue using your
technical skills. This involves utilizing your knowledge in
international trade models as well as inspecting and interpreting
data.
2. You need to communicate your results in an effective way.
The purpose of this exercise is to assess your aptitudes in each

domain. You will evaluate the trading conditions in these
countries (Argentina and El Salvador) based on the scenarios
detailed in each question in this Assignment. Your analysis will
form the basis for a short report to the international
organization/government body--- summarising your
recommendations and the associated rationale.
AI. DATA SOURCE
For your data analysis, you first need to obtain data from the
World Bank (see the link below) and follow the steps described
below. Notice that World Bank regularly updatesits database;
therefore it is crucial to obtain all data as soon as possible. The
data range is from 1998 to 2014.
You need to obtain the country-level data for Argentina and El
Salvador on:
i. Imports of goods and services (in current US$)
ii. Exports of goods and services (in current US$)
iii. GDP (in current US$)
iv. GDP per capita (in current US$)
v. GINI Index (World Bank estimate) from the World
Bank's World
Development Indicators:
(http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-
development-indicators).
[Note that if your browser (such as Chrome) does not open the
web page; try adifferent browser (such as Internet Explorer)]

Please DO NOT attach Excel files to the brief. The policy brief
needs to be precise and short. Avoid unnecessary jargon. Your
policy brief cannot exceed two pages.
International Trade Assignment 2, Semester 1, 2020 Page 1
BI. REQUIRED TASKS
Your tasks involve two dimensions. First, you need to analyse
the data (see Steps 1, 2 and 3 in the next section). Second, you
also need to perform a technical analysis by considering a
hypothetical trading environment based on Ricardian model (see
Step 4 in the next section).
Accordingly, you are required to:
· Provide a visual representation of the relationship between
openness and inequality by plotting a graph (use scatter plot)
that shows the change in openness with respect to GINI index
for these countries over the period between 1998 and 2014
(including all years, i.e., 1998, 1999, …, 2014).
· Establish how being integrated with the rest of the world
affected inequality in these two countries by looking at the
correlation between their openness and GINI index.
· State and explain whether your data findings are in line with
theory (Assume bothArgentina and El Salvador are unskilled-
labour abundant countries).
· Continue your technical analysis from your first report and
state what would have happened to these countries once they are
allowed to trade with each other based on our hypothetical

scenario of Ricardian model.
IV. REQUIRED STEPS TO COMPLETE EACH TASK
DATA ANALYSIS
For data analysis, you need to follow Steps 1, 2 and 3 given
below.
Step 1. Using data you obtained for Argentina and El
Salvador, plot openness (as a percentage) against GINI index
for each nation. Use two graphs, one for eachcountry(as a chart
type: you are required to use scatter plot). You need touse your
openness calculations from Step 1 of Assignment 1). Put
openness (as a percentage) on the vertical axis and GINI index
on the horizontal axis.
Step 2. Using data you obtained for Argentina and El
Salvador, calculate the correlation coefficient (using CORREL
command in excel) between Openness and the GINI Index for
each nation.1 Report and interpret this relationship in up to 200
words and state for which country this relationship is stronger.
[Hint:
1 The Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve
and a hypothetical line of absolute equality, expressed as a
percentage of the maximum area under the line. A Lorenz curve
plots the cumulative percentages of total income received
against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with the
poorest individual. Thus a Gini index of 0 represents perfect
equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality. The
Gini index provides a convenient summary measure of the

degree of inequality.
the GINI is often used as a proxy for the ratio of skilled to
unskilled wages in empirical studies].
Step 3. Assume that both Argentina and El Salvador are
unskilled-labour abundant. First define, Stolper-Samuelson
theorem and then check whether your data findings are in line
with the Stolper-Samuelson theorem. Explain your answer up to
200 words.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
For technical analysis, you need to follow Step 4.
Step 4. In order to conjecture the circumstances in these two
countries under autarky (when there is no trade), consider the
following hypothetical scenario based on Ricardian model.
Assume throughout that those two countries (Argentina and El
Salvador) are the only two countries in the world, at least for
purposes of trade. There are two goods: Hammers and Widgets.
Consumers in both countries always spend half of their income
on Hammers and half of their income on Widgets. The only
factor of production is labour. Each Argentinian worker can
produce 4 Hammers or 2 Widget per unit of time. Each El
Salvadoran worker can produce 2 Hammers or 2 Widgets per
unit of time. There are 50 workers in Argentina and 75 workers
in El Salvador. You need to provide conditions in each country
by stating:
a) Derive the relative demand curve relating the relative demand
for Widgets to the relative price of Widgets. Do this

algebraically, and then show what the curve looks like in a
diagram (put the relative price of Widgets on the vertical axis
and the relative quantity of Widgets demanded on the horizontal
axis).
b) Derive the world relative supply curve of Widgets (put the
relative price of Widgets on the vertical axis and the relative
quantity of Widgets supplied on the horizontal axis).
c) Put in the same figure the relative demand curve for Widgets
that you found in part (a) and the world relative supply curve of
Widgets that you found in part (b). Determine the equilibrium
relative price of Widgets and the equilibrium relative quantity
of Widgets under free trade.
d) Under free trade, which country produces which good(s)?
How many units?
e) Who gains from trade? Who loses from trade? State workers’
stance towards free trade in each country, i.e., do they support
or oppose free trade?
V. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
You need to provide a brief in order to effectively communicate
your findings. In your brief, you must have the following

ingredients:
· Headline: One possible example is: “A Simple Analysis of
Openness for
Argentina and El Salvador: Part II”
· Data Analysis: In this section, you need to present your data
analysis based onyour findings in Steps 1, 2 and 3.
· Technical Analysis: In this section, you need to communicate
your technicalresults based on your findings in Step 4.

Liu 2
Hang Liu
Rws-280
2020/02/18
Digital Natives
Adoption of technology in learning is something inevitable.
Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web is a web article
written by alia Wong 21 April, 2015. The author writes the

article as an explanation of the debates surrounding the use of
technology in learning. Academic institutions are busy
implementing the use of technology in there learning and on the
other hand singing the negative impact of technology on
learning. This ends up creating a confusion in the education
word and hence children, or rather students who are heavy users
of technology but lacks in-depth understanding of how
technology and the internet really works. The author writes this
article targeting the public with high reading levels and interest.
Stakeholders in the education industry could also be a potential
target or even other writers. In this paper, I will evaluate the
legitimacy of some of the significant arguments of the author in
relation to the impact of technology.
The author is tries to disprove the idea of raising awareness on
the effects of technology while implementing the same. He
states that “Educational institutions across the board are
certainly embracing the digital revolution, adopting cutting-
edge classroom technology and raising awareness about the
perils and possibilities of the Internet” (Wong, pg. 3). I think
certainly this is the way to go because as much as technology is
such a good thin, there are perils on the other side. Therefore,
raising awareness on the perils of technology is just but a way
of preparing children and students to be aware of possible
challenges posed by the use of technology hence prepare in
advance. The fact that technology is useful does not mean that
we should overlook its potential negative impacts.
Wong argues that old folks are the main reason for lack of
effective implementation of technology in academic institutions.
To some extent it might be true but at the same time the real
reason is lack of proper training of these teachers. A teacher,
regardless of the age, if given the right training before
implementation of a technological program in schools. I don’t
think blaming old teachers is a credible reason as to why most
institutions are lagging behind in technology. Moreover, I don’t
think that an institution can have such a high number of
technology illiterate teachers to affect leanings through

technology.
One thing that I seem to agree with the author is that increased
use of technology has created a generation of “teens who
immersed in social media but does not have the required skills
to make the most out of online experiences” (Wong, pg. 2). This
fights the notion that digital natives have more knowledge on
how technology affects or rather shapes humans’ experiences
and character. Only a few of them understands the things such
as algorithms are used to in advertising through bringing up of
suggestions. True to the suggestion of the author, programs and
campaigns need to be established to help the young generation
develop an intrinsic view on how the functionality of the
internet and technology in general.
The argument that guardians and parents exaggerate the
negative impact of technology is somehow contemptable. I think
every parent will always want the best for his/her kid. Parents
must have experienced the negative effects of technology
personally or observed it in their kids before concluding on the
effects that technology has on children. Perhaps their intention
is to not to discredit technology but raise awareness and make
sure that their children are protected against any potential harm.
Cyberbullying against children is not something new. In
response to this, parents have had to formulate precautionary
measures themselves to make sure their children are secured
from cyber-criminals and other unnecessary online content. So,
I totally dispute the claims that, “Adults respond to such
incidents with fear mongering and information campaigns”
(Wong, pg. 5).
Thought-out the article, the author seems to criticize the
academic institutions of implementing technology without
guiding the students on the possible effects and potential harm
posed by this technology. I don’t really think that such an
initiative ought to be considered as a main agenda of an
academic institution. Technology is just an asset for improving
the education experience. Perhaps such initiatives ought to be
carried out as separate campaigns or in co-curriculum activities

but not in the main education curriculum. Apart from parental
control, regular seminars, among other initiatives can be
arranged to educate young adults on the influence of too much
consumption of technology and perhaps how they can utilize it
and profit from it.
I agree with the author that technology has a way bigger impact
other than helping people become “savvy coders and prolific e-
book readers”. Through technology, the internet to be precise,
children are exposed to a lot of things which they are likely to
emulate. Moreover, they can be exposed to sexualized content
which at the end of the day has an impact on there morals. I
would agree with the writer that such incidences bring about "a
distorted view of the digital world," (Wong, pg. 4).
In conclusion, there are propositions made by the author that I
find valid and others that I don’t agree with. Things that I agree
with is that increased use of technology has created a young
generation that only knows to use social media but does not
understand the wider scope of technology associated with it.
they have unknowingly become addicts of technology with no
knowledge of the underlying facts about it. Perhaps this is
because of lack of guidance. On the other hand, I disagree with
the author on claims that the old teachers are the reason as to
why technology cannot be effectively implemented in
institutions. Regardless of the age, if given proper training, they
will adopt and get used to it. perhaps, we are moving toward a
generation that is characterized by intense use of technology
and we cannot stop it but rather take the necessary precautions.

Work Cited
Wong, Alia. "Digital natives, yet strangers to the web." The
Atlantic.
1/13/2020 Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web - The
Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/digital-
natives-yet-strangers-to-the-web/390990/ 1/9
EDUCATION
Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the Web
MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP
When Reuben Loewy took up his �rst teaching gig in 2012, he
had a major
the way that kids
perceive reality.
Perhaps that makes the 55-year-old teacher sound like a
dinosaur. What he
discovered is, after all, one of the most obvious realities
shaping education policy

and parenting guides today. But, as Loewy will clarify, his
revelation wasn’t simply
that technology is overhauling America’s classrooms and
rede�ning childhood and
adolescence. Rather, he was hit with the epiphany that efforts in
schools to embrace
these shifts are, by and large, focusing on the wrong objectives:
equipping kids with
fancy gadgets and then making sure the students use those
gadgets appropriately
Today's schools are focusing on boosting kids’ technological
pro�ciency and
warning them about the perils of the web. But something critical
is missing from
this education.
ALIA WONG APRIL 21, 2015
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/alia-wong/
Atlantic
and effectively. Loewy half-jokingly compares the state of
digital learning in

America’s schools to that of sex ed, which, as one NYU
education professor
describes it, entails "a smattering of information about their
reproductive organs
and a set of stern warnings about putting them to use."
Indeed, although many of today’s teens are immersed in social
media, that doesn’t
mean "that they inherently have the knowledge or skills to make
the most of their
online experiences," writes Danah Boyd in her 2014 book It’s
Secret Lives of Networked Teens. Boyd, who works as a
principal researcher at
Microsoft Research, argues that "the rhetoric of 'digital
natives'" is dangerous
because it distorts the realities of kids' virtual lives, the result
being that they don't
learn what they need to know about online living. In other
words, it falsely assumes
that today’s students intrinsically understand the nuanced ways
in which
technologies shape the human experience—how they in�uence
an individual’s
identity, for example, or how they advance and stymie social

progress—as well as
the means by which information spreads thanks to phenomena
such as algorithms
and advertising. Loewy decided that this void could be
eliminated with an honest,
interdisciplinary high-school curriculum for the digital age—a
program that would
fundamentally shift how schools address kids’ virtual
experiences.
Educational institutions across the board are certainly
embracing (or at least
acknowledging) the digital revolution, adopting cutting-edge
classroom technology
and raising awareness about the perils and possibilities of the
Internet. On the one
end are the movement’s champions—the schools where every
child has an iPad or
the education departments with bureaucrats who go by fancy
titles like "Director of
Innovative Learning." In some school districts, virtual courses
are a prerequisite for
graduation, and it’s become almost cliché for teachers to
incorporate Minecraft into
their instruction. Meanwhile, schools are phasing out physical

textbooks,
sometimes replacing them with arti�cially intelligent software.
It’s hardly surprising
that one-third of the country’s students in grades six through 12
use school-
provided mobile devices to support coursework, according to a
2014 report by the
nonpro�t Project Tomorrow.
On the other end are the skeptics, among them the adults who
fear that kids are
being thrusted into a world of cyberbullies and pedophiles. A
2012 Pew Research
survey of roughly 800 U.S. parents and their teenage children
found that eight in
10 parents are concerned about their kids’ Internet privacy,
while seven in 10 said
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/what-
schools-should-teach-kids-about-sex/387061/
http://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/one-to-one-program-rollout-jac-
de-haan
http://www.ccsd59.org/innovative-learning-and-
communications/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/virtual-
education-genuine-benefits-or-real-time-demerits/385674/
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/the-
case-against-minecraft/385678/

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/teaching
-in-the-age-of-minecraft/385231/
death-of-textbooks/387055/
http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/SU13DigitalLearningPlayboo
k_StudentReport.html
http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/11/20/parents-teens-and-
online-privacy/
Atlantic
they worried about their kids interacting with strangers online.
As Hanna Rosin
tic last November about
teenage sexting,
adults often respond to such scandals with fearmongering and
massive information
has helped to develop
a curriculum devoted exclusively to raising cyberbullying
awareness, while myriad
apps have been developed that allow parents to track their
children’s digital
footprints. According to the Pew report, half of the parents
surveyed said they had

used parental controls or other means of blocking, �ltering, or
monitoring their
teens’ online activities.
And then there are the educators who worry—arguably for good
reason—that the
digitalization of classrooms is severely undermining their
pedagogy. At the higher-
ed level, some professors have even published manifestos on
why they’re banning
laptops from their lecture courses, while many K-12 campuses
to this day maintain
no-device policies (though it appears such policies are
becoming obsolete).
According to Loewy, this dichotomy amounts to a major missed
opportunity. Kids
not only need to be pro�cient in how to use digital technology,
becoming savvy
coders and proli�c ebook readers, he explains—they also need
to deeply,
holistically, and realistically understand how the digital world
works behind the
scenes. And that doesn’t only mean realizing that sexting is a
victimizing and

punishable offense with long-term repercussions. Or that social
media can be
addictive and full of predators. While it’s undoubtedly
important to keep kids safe
when they’re online, these focuses give kids "a distorted view
of the digital world,"
Loewy writes. "It is a view that re�ects the fears of adults
rather than the aspirations
of youth."
* * *
Loewy was teaching a summer journalism class for middle-
schoolers in Princeton,
grown up with a
completely different type of relationship to the media," he said.
don’t even watch
television—everything is Internet-based." And while such a
statement might
conjure images of a curmudgeonly cynic convinced that
technology is an assault on
human intellect, Loewy sees that transformation as positive—or,
at least, inevitable.

It’s just that today’s kids need much more guidance on how to
live within this
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/why-
kids-sext/380798/?single_page=true
http://www.nasponline.org/resources/cyberbullying/
deconstruction-of-the-k-12-teacher/388631/
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-case-for-banning-
laptops-in-the-classroom
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-
school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/11/why-
the-end-of-the-school-cellphone-ban-is-a-win-for-poor-
students/382601/
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/11/why-
kids-sext/380798/?single_page=true
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/technology/internet/21face
book.html?pagewanted=all
Atlantic
so many
things online that they
don’t know how to put it into context or how to evaluate it," he
said.
At the same time, "even schools that have called themselves
very technologically

advanced haven’t even begun to explore how they actually teach
[about that
students, but such
education often stops at the hardware. "Curriculum is the
microcosm of what’s
going on in society; I think that curriculum needs to catch up
with the reality."
Boyd, it’s worth noting, draws similar conclusions:
Teens will not become critical contributors to this [Internet]
ecosystem simply
because they were born in an age when these technologies were
pervasive.
Neither teens nor adults are monolithic, and there is no magical
relation
between skills and age. Whether in school or in informal
settings, youth need
opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge to engage
with temporary
technology effectively and meaningfully. Becoming literate in a
networked age
requires hard work, regardless of age.
After his revelation, Loewy, who spent most of his career as a

foreign correspondent
writing for major British and Canadian newspapers, started
developing what he’s
now calling "an interdisciplinary curriculum for the digital
age," a.k.a. "Living
-
school students
(though he says it can be adapted for younger kids, too),
includes a dozen teaching
modules that would be integrated into various classes—from
"Privacy" and "A is for
Algorithm" to "Digital Activism" and "Cyberpsychology." Other
units under
development include "Remix Culture," "Gaming in Education,"
and "Reality—
Virtual/Actual." In some ways, it could be described as the
liberal arts of virtual
living.
�rst unit—"Identity"—aims to give students
insight "into how
their identities may be unconsciously shaped by digital media
and online
the topic, from that

entertained by people like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg,
who insists users
should only have one authentic identity, to the view that
individuals are
multifaceted and prismatic. "We will examine how individuals
craft and express
their identities across multiple online and offline contexts," the
summary says, "and
http://www.livingonlinelab.org/portfolio/
http://www.livingonlinelab.org/
Atlantic
discuss the implications of having different identities, avatars,
and facets of
emphasis that adults
often make on the perils of Internet identity, to show kids that
they’re in a process
of discovery and can play with and explore different personas—
even if that means
an adolescent boy posing online as a 35-year-old woman. And

this, to Loewy, is a
good thing: "It’s a part of experimenting, exploring who you
are, and getting the
opportunity to interact with people you normally wouldn't
interact with."
Meanwhile, in the unit titled "Economy of the Internet," kids
would learn about
the role of advertising in the World Wide Web: how websites
generate money by
unit called
teens analyze
debates about whether digital technology makes users more
open-minded or more
enclosed in their world views, while that on "Digital
Disruption" would use case
studies such as Net�ix and Uber to explore how these forces
destruct and create.
* * *
University of Pennsylvania
English professor Kenneth Goldsmith launched a course this
school year called

"Wasting Time on the Internet," which requires students to
watch YouTube videos,
tweet, and even plagiarize. Explaining the course's objective to
December, Goldsmith said, "it’s [about] understanding that
digital existence … You
know, we’ve become so good at using tools, but we’ve rarely
stepped back to
consider how and why we’re using those tools."
Two years ago, one well-known Florida teacher reasoned in a
blog post that the
country needs "a coherent plan to teach digital citizenship in
schools"—not as an
add-on but as a complement to what’s already being taught in
the classroom. Such
citizenship, she said, "is not about the technology itself but
rather the effects that
arise from its usage." And just a few days ago, the Harvard
Internet-law professor
Jonathan Zittrain posted a video message on YouTube that
coincidentally sounded
a lot like Loewy’s elevator pitch for the unit titled "Wikipedia
and Open-Source

Knowledge." Highlighting the success of the site and lamenting
the ineffectiveness
of American public education, Zittrain—who authored the 2008
of the Internet and How to Stop It—suggested that schools
integrate Wikipedia into
https://www.english.upenn.edu/courses/undergraduate/2015/spri
ng/engl111.301
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/12/wasting
-time-on-the-internet-101/383966/
http://blog.edtechteam.com/2014/11/why-schools-need-to-teach-
technology.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxrMq-
_JUZM&feature=youtu.be
http://yupnet.org/zittrain/
Atlantic
their curricula, asking kids to edit articles and make the case for
their edits. He
continued:
To me, if I think of an advanced civics class, it’s great to learn
that there are
three branches of government and X vote overrides a veto. But
having the civics

of a collective hallucination like Wikipedia also a part of the
curriculum, I
think, would be valuable.
But for various reasons, schools have yet to catch on. Data on
how much, if at all,
schools in the U.S. are teaching these things doesn’t exist, but
it’s worth noting that
even the much more obvious subject—computer science—is still
largely considered
a peripheral course. A 2013 survey of 1,250 educators
nationwide found that more
than a fourth of them worked on campuses that didn’t even offer
computer science.
Meanwhile, national initiatives to modernize schools—through
Center for Digital Education’s "Curriculum of the Future"—
rarely touch on the
liberal arts of virtual living, focusing strictly on topics like new
technologies and
workforce preparation. According to a 2012 report from
Common Sense Media
based on survey of nearly 700 K-12 U.S. teachers, more than
half of them ranked

their students’ digital-citizenship skills as fair or poor; only a
fourth of them said
those skills were taught at their schools.
Adults' resistance to new trends, too, is surely part of the reason
why schools
haven't addressed these needs. For one, Loewy suggests that
many educators don’t
feel digitally literate. A shrinking but still relatively signi�cant
percentage of
educators—especially those who are 55 and older—don’t feel
con�dent with these
new technologies, according to a 2013 Pew Research survey
among roughly 2,500
A.P. and writing teachers. Meanwhile, many teachers simply
feel overburdened by
-fourths of the educators surveyed for
the same Pew
report say the Internet and other digital tools "have added major
demands to their
lives," largely by "increasing the range of content and skills
about which they must
be knowledgeable."
Indeed, experienced and accomplished teachers continue to raise
questions about

schools’ embrace of digital technology, which could mean that
Loewy’s effort is
moot. Nancie Atwell, a veteran language-arts teacher who last
month won the
inaugural Global Teacher Prize, is one of many educators across
the country who
are deeply concerned about the growing role digital devices are
playing in
http://csta.acm.org/Research/sub/Projects/ResearchFiles/CSTAS
urvey13Results.pdf
http://www.centerdigitaled.com/paper/Curriculum-of-the-
Future-How-Digital-Content-is-Changing-Education.html
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum
http://www.globalteacherprize.org/winner
Atlantic
classrooms, primarily because of their arguably negative impact
on cognition and
learning. "Although the world may be digital, it also remains
human," she said.
—give one to every
kid and see what

happens—completely ignores everything we know about what
motivates people to
learn."
—they’re a means to an end," she continued.
"I’m appalled that
we talk about technology as if it’s a discipline or a school
subject or a content area.
It’s a way of developing or displaying knowledge. It’s a little
bit like worshipping a
pencil."
Perceptions like these, according to Loewy, are a large reason
why rolling out the
curriculum is so tricky. It’s a chicken-or-the-egg problem:
Living Online—and the
teacher training that would come with it—could help bring
everyone, from the
skeptics to the overzealous techies, on the same page and
alleviate some of the
concerns and misconceptions about the technology. But it’s hard
to get people on
board if they have preconceived notions, many of which are
well-founded, about
those devices and apps to begin with.

And for now, Living Online is little more than an idea—and
one, critics might
argue, that’s neither feasible nor credible. After all, Loewy is a
Baby Boomer with
very limited experience as a classroom teacher.
But that hasn’t fazed the former journalist, who admitted that
he’s been developing
the program using his own money. (Loewy doesn’t want public
schools to pay for
the curriculum out of their operating budgets—he hopes private
foundations will
foot the bill—but has yet to secure a grant.) Loewy says he’s
devoted the bulk of his
time over the last few years to creating this program, which he’s
been putting
together with the help of feedback from teachers and
professional curriculum
developers via education conferences and the range of support
and sharing sites
available online. He’s currently in the process of registering
Living Online, which
was launched in 2013, as a nonpro�t, and as of now the
organization only has three
board members—none of whom are teachers (and all of whom

include Martin Schneiderman, an IT advisor who works with
philanthropic
organizations; Peter Lammer, who co-founded the IT-security
company Sophos;
and David Loevner, the manager and founder of a global
investment �rm. Loewy
http://www.iaa.com/companyinfo.html
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/company/management/peter-
lammer.aspx
http://www.hardingloevner.com/about-us.html
Atlantic
says he hopes to bring on a group of advisors, including
teachers, with diverse
backgrounds.
including the
number of existing requirements that schools are already
grappling to juggle. Loewy
sees the curriculum as being incorporated into other classes, not
as a standalone

supplement but as an ingredient built into larger coursework.
Still, public-school
teachers today say they are already overburdened by a slew of
expectations—from
the Common Core math and reading standards to additional
state and local
stipulations. Educators across the country have long complained
about their
inability to teach subjects as essential as social studies. In that
sense, it’s hard to
imagine this program becoming a reality outside of the private-
school sector; in
fact, Loewy’s only been able to pilot the modules with private-
school students.
And even if teachers could �nd a way to incorporate the
curriculum into their
classes, they’d have to �nd a way to keep up with material and
technologies that are
single day—it’s not
like teaching ancient Rome, it’s not static," Loewy
think holds back the progress: Every single day there is a new
app, and teachers

[can] become sort of blinded by" its merits and limitations. But
without
understanding the intricacies and dynamics of the Internet, he
continued, "you’re
not taking advantage of everything digital technology offers.
Without the
knowledge, you’re not able to take advantage of the web and
navigate it properly.
You can’t be an informed, responsible, and critical member of
society if you don’t
have the education."
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a
letter to the editor or write
to [email protected]
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http://neatoday.org/2014/09/02/the-testing-obsession-and-the-
disappearing-curriculum-2/
https://www.theatlantic.com/contact/letters/
https://www.theatlantic.com/follow-the-atlantic/

RWS 280
Spring 2020
Due: Upload to Blackboard on Sunday February 23rd by 11:59
p.m. Rhetorical Situation: “Digital Natives, Yet Strangers to the
Web” by Alia Wong
Author:
· Who is she? What kind of writing does she do? What
organizations does she belong to? What is her reputation?
Audience:
· Who seems to be the intended audience?
· Who might be secondary audiences?
· How is the text shaped to target those people?
Purpose:
· What is the author trying to achieve?
· What does the author want us to do, believe, or understand?
Context:
· When and where was the text written and where is it intended

to be read/seen/heard?
· How does the current context influence our reading of the
text?
Genre:
· What do you know about this particular genre?
· How does that influence the message being conveyed?
Claims:
· Remember: A claim is an assertion of truth; statement writers
want an audience to accept.
· Claims are contestable, and deal with matters on which there
is disagreement and uncertainty.
Evidence:
· The component of the argument used as support for the claims
made.
· Evidence is the support, reasons, data/information used to help
persuade/prove an argument.
Claim #1:
Type: Unqualified Claim of Fact/Existence
“But something is missing from this education.”

Evidence:
Type: Quotes from Experts or Experienced Individuals
“Boyd, who works as a principal researcher at Microsoft
Research, argues that ‘the rhetoric of ‘digital natives’’ is
dangerous because it distorts the realities of kids’ virtual lives,
the result being that they don’t learn what they need to know
about online living” (Wong 2).
Claim #2:
Evidence:
Claim #3:
Evidence:
Claim #4:
Evidence:

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