Comments on: Dissecting Trolls

By: Dana Huff

Dana Huff — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:48:16 +0000

I was taking a wait-and-see approach before commenting, but if you’ve visited the YouTube video I linked, you may have noticed that the argument about Star Wars has largely stopped. A student of mine couldn’t stand it and left a comment apprising the other YouTube commenters of Joseph Campbell’s research, and the commenters promptly began arguing about whether or not Tolkien’s speech is intelligible.

By: Dana Huff

Dana Huff — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:48:05 +0000

I wouldn’t worry overmuch about folks not joining the wiki. The same thing happens to me when I make wikis for conferences (GISA and GCTE). Happy holidays, Jan.

By: Jan Collier

Jan Collier — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:14:48 +0000

Thanks, Dana. I just showed these videos at a Web 2.0 conference for novices (of which I am a member!), and I created a wiki for the conferences for the members, and not one has ventured on to join! You are still my online mentor!

By: Dana Huff

Dana Huff — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:29:36 +0000

Jason, I made sure I was logged out and clicked on the assignment. It’s not available to download, but I was able to print it.

By: JasonP / InnerEd

JasonP / InnerEd — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:44:26 +0000

Dana,

That sounds like a great lesson plan, and yes, I bet your students could do better. One thing: the assignment on scribd that you posted seems to be password-locked.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:33:29 +0000

Hi,

That is so interesting. I just watched a show on the history channel that uses Campbell to dissect Star Wars. I did a quest project last year that involved my kids learning about the Hero’s journey and then creating our own hero stories. We read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Araby as our literary examples and watched The Goonies as our visual example. The kids just loved it. I really like that assignment idea. I haven’t read The Hobbit in years…

By: Dana Huff

Dana Huff — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:00:30 +0000

My pleasure, Lee Ann. It just struck me as I looked at the comments that these students had learned all about ethos, logos, and pathos, and were capable of making much better arguments than the ones I was reading.

By: Lee Ann Spillane

Lee Ann Spillane — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:14:57 +0000

Hi, Dana,
What an interesting argumentation assignment. It reminds me of something Jeff Wilhelm said at NCTE: “The only resource you have to teach your kids something new is what they already know.” Certainly my students know commenting and you’ve shown me how I can make commenting the bridge to teaching students argument and fallacies. Thank you!