Author Archives: pe1404

Surveys

There are a number of sites that allow you to create and distribute free basic surveys. SurveyMonkey, for example allows surveys of up to 10 questions with up to 100 respondees. It also allows basic comparing of variables.

For something a bit more sophisticated. Qualtrics is available free to all UM students. This is a robust survey package that is fairly easy to use once you get the hang of the basics. It’s also nicely branded with the U-M logo, so it may appear a bit more “official” for your participants.

SurveyMonkey: test survey link

Qualtrics: test survey link

 

 

Hyper- vs. close reading of the news

NYT Op/Ed by technology writer Farhad Manjoo on the experience of reading hardcopy newspapers vs. getting his news online; he makes a provocative argument that doing so actually makes his news consumption more efficient, as he’s not continually checking for updates and avoids the misinformation that often circulates in the early hours of a news event.

NYT: Is social media making us dumber?

Op/ed by science and culture writer Jesse Singal that speaks to some of the concerns that Carr and others have raised about “hyperreading”; he suggests that certain psychological tendencies (tribalism, attribution error, etc.) combined with the kind of partial, fragmentary consumption of information SM engender make for poor public discourse.

Welcome and important info

Welcome to ENG 280; I’m looking forward to meeting you soon and working with you this semester. A few important announcements:

1. Our course website will live here, rather than CTools/Canvas. There is no need to “log in” to the site, but to view the syllabus and other areas you will need to enter a special username and password, which I have emailed to all registered students. Let me know if you need this info.

2. Please take a moment to review the working syllabus to ensure your interest in the course and to familiarize yourself with its requirements. I also recommend downloading a practice reading just to make sure everything is working properly. Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.

See you soon.

DG