Critical Thinking Project Part 5: The Future of Our Social Selves and Networks:

Critical Thinking Project General Guidelines

Grading Rubric CT5 (wiki help)

The final stage of the critical thinking project entails synthesizing all that we have studied this semester, reviewing scholarly literature, and presenting sound reasoning and compelling arguments in support of a position. Specifically, you will thoroughly and critically address ONE of two positions:  Internet technologies, online social networking, and mobile devices are destroying sociability. OR, Internet technologies, online social networking, and mobile devices are evolving sociability. 

• Go to the page you created in the class wiki for your CT5 project (you will find a link to the wiki on our MyGateway class site navigation menu and in the "Assignments" area, or use this link to access the wiki outside of MyGateway--if you are not logged into MyGateway, you'll be prompted to log on).
• Thoroughly and critically address ONE of the following positions drawing from at least 3 outside scholarly resources to support your reasoning (750 words minimum):
• Internet technologies, online social networking, and mobile devices are destroying sociability.

OR:

• Internet technologies, online social networking, and mobile devices are evolving sociability. 

• For this assignment, in addition to drawing from at least 3 outside scholarly resources to support your reasoning, you will also find a peer-reviewed journal article that presents findings from a research study that is relevant to the assignment and your position. Provide a brief review of the study and integrate a hyperlink to the study’s article at the beginning of the review. You may use either a qualitative or quantitative study to satisfy this requirement. In short, you will be going into greater detail when annotating (interpreting for the reader) this resource and when showing how it supports your reasoning. We want to see critical thinking. (250 words minimum). 
• In your article review, you should:
  • State the study’s relevant research questions and hypotheses.
  • Discuss how the study investigates the research questions and tests the hypotheses. Discuss the study’s data and methods. For example, identify whether the study uses its own data or analyzes a national survey such as the General Social Survey (GSS).
  • Clearly and succinctly illustrate how the study’s findings provide support for your larger argument.
• Here is an example of a quantitative study that would satisfy the requirement: “Do Internet Users Have More Social Ties? A Call for Differentiated Analyses of Internet Use.” (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00038.x/full).
• Here is an example of a qualitative study that would satisfy the requirement: “Networked Individualism of Urban Residents: Discovering the Communicative Ecology in Inner-city Apartment Buildings.” (http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6100/1/6100.pdf).

• In your conclusion, after pulling together all of the parts of your larger argument, discuss some of the broader, perhaps even global social implications that can be derived from your analysis and discussion. What does your argument suggest for the future of our social networks and sociability? (250 words minimum)

Finally, you need to review the work of at least four other students and post comments (minimum 125 word--constructive critique) on their wiki pages (you'll find a place to add comments near the bottom of every wiki page). Your Comments are due by Wednesday, May 13 by 11:59 PM. You must email Prof. Keel with the names of the students on whose work you commented and include the text of the comments in the email (no attachments). If email notification is not made, comments may not be evaluated.

For help working on a wiki page, see Prof. Keel's video tutorials on "Working in a Wiki, "making links," and "inserting images" in the Wiki Help folder of the class MyGateway site (Critical Thinking Projects). See also: Wiki Help and Tips and the "Wiki User's Guide." Be sure to review the changes made to the wikis since I last updated these tutorials.

Outside Sources: Peer-reviewed sociology journals (other peer-reviewed social science/humanities journals may be acceptable--ask if you are uncertain), original work by the theorists--not included in the class reading assignments, and other primary source documents, articles and books. Other textbooks--especially introductory texts, encyclopedias of any sort, Wikipedia, online dictionaries, sites like "answers.com," blogs, etc. can be used but will not be accepted as "outside sources" and should not form the basis for your essay. And, don't use "outside sources" that simply repeat information we have in the text, lecture notes, and develop in class discussion--the point here is to go beyond these basics. Before using information found on external web sites, please review the guidelines found at: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webcrit.html to insure the information is reliable.  Better yet, try looking for research and information from the libraries database system (http://www.umsl.edu/services/library/databases/databases.html), it's a wealth of academic research at your fingertips.

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