A6.4: Reflection on Discussion of 9/13/06

1. What was the essential question you brought to the class to share with your group?
Has early implantation proven to be more beneficial than implantation later in development?

2. What was the essential question you left class with (or have arrived at since that discussion)?
How has early cochlear implantation in deaf children been more beneficial for language development?

3.What kinds of contributions did your groupmates use that were helpful to you in shifting, refining, and clearing your thinking?  Give examples.
My groupmates first made me realize that I had not been very clear because I did not say what type of implantation I was referring to in my essential question.  Had I not told them my topic first then they would not have really understood my question.  I had originally thought that my first question was too specific, however once we started talking in our group they made me realize that I could narrow it down more.  I hadn’t thought about using a specific area until Abby said “as in semantics and phonology maybe?” Then, later in our conversation Lacie suggested language development. After our discussion I started thinking about it, and one of the most important goals of cochlear implants is to allow speech and language development, so I decided to focus on language development. (thanks girls)  Having our group discussion definitely made me rethink my essential question.  Several other recommendations were made that had not even crossed my mind, such as comparing adult and child language development.  It was nice to see other peoples perspectives on different issues, and really helped me in analyzing my question further.

4. What kinds of contributions did you use in the discussions about your classmates questions that seemed useful to in helping them shift, refine, and clear their own thinking?  Give examples.
I basically just asked my classmates questions that would possibly help narrow their essential questions.  Like someone in our group asked Alyssa if she wanted to focus on a specific area like language or pragmatics, so I then suggested maybe she narrow it down to a specific population like adults or children.  Also, Lacie’s topic was treating language and speech in dementia patients.  Alyssa asked if she was going to focus on the stages, and then I asked Lacie if she was going to address the therapy for that stage with her dementia patient. 

5. Based on your observations of helpful contributions, make a list of suggestions that might be given to other students who will one day participate in a similar activity.  You might want to think of it as creating a list in response to the following:

In order to be positive and influential in a group discussion online, participants should:
*all actively participate in the discussion
*prepare for the discussion prior to the discussion if necessary
*provide helpful and positive feedback
*make suggestions, do not tell a group member they must change something
*if you don’t understand something, ask for clarification
*be honest, yet aware of others feelings

A6.3: Internalizing Web Evaluations

Evaluating websites in our previous assignment brought me to the realization that almost anyone can publish information on the web.  Knowing this, evaluating a sites validity and credibility is incredibly important.  Until our last class discussion on tapped-in I had never really thought of myself as an author.  I feel like a lot of responsiblity comes with the title of “author,” and I find it to be somewhat intimidating.  Because different people rely on your information to be credible and valid, evaluating our own work is important.  To this point, I am not sure that my site would be considered valid or credible.  Most of the information is about my personal views, thoughts, and class assignments.  Recently, I have added some research information, but I would not really say that my site is yet valid.  I think if people looked at my site as an assignment for another class they would find the information interesting, and if they further looked at my sources they would find that they were valid.  However, I am not sure if it would hold up to the evaluation forms that we used for our evaluating assignment.  Since my site is a work in progress and is not finished yet, this tells me that I need to think carefully about the additional information I add to my site.  I need to provide evidence based information, several reliable research sources, and possibly more information about myself, the author.  I hope to make my site more credible and valid thoughout the course of the class.