T E D T A L K

Write a SEEI paper in which you; State the most important concept presented in the TED talk by Erik Brynjolfsson. Elaborate upon why that concept is the most important for you. Exemplify the concept by giving concrete examples (and counterexamples) that help support your previous statements. Illustrate (in words) the concept by creating an analogy or metaphor to explain it.
 Erik Brynjolfsson: The key to growth? Race with the machines
●     http://youtu.be/sod-eJBf9Y0

Gordon Rule Writing Requirement:
This course is used in partial fulfillment of the social science requirement of the State of Florida’s General Education Program, and satisfies a portion of the Gordon Rule requirement. This means that all students are required to complete a “Writing Requirement” to pass this course. Students not completing this requirement will receive a letter grade of “F” for the semester regardless of examination scores. To fulfill the writing requirement, students must earn a grade of 70% or more.

To fulfill the writing requirement, students will be asked to write SEEI papers (minimum of 300 words, but not more and 350 words) for which students will be required to:
1.            State the concept or idea in a single sentence or two
2.            Elaborate on the concept in your own words. Explain it at greater length in a paragraph or two
3.            Exemplify the concept by giving concrete examples (and counterexamples) of the concept
4.            Illustrate (in words) the concept by creating an analogy or metaphor to explain it

GORDON RULE SEEI RUBRIC
The SEEI paper will be evaluated in accordance to The Foundation for Critical Thinking Universal Intellectual Standards. These standards must be applied to thinking whenever one is interested in checking the quality of reasoning about a problem, issue, or situation. Moreover, whenever we analyze, synthesize, or evaluate information the following elements of reason are present: Purpose, Question at Issue, Point of View, Information, Concepts, Assumptions, Inferences, and Implications. When writing a SEEI you must consider ALL of the elements of reason and the content of the SEEI will be evaluated against 5 Universal Intellectual Standards (listed below), along with the conventions of standard edited American English.
 
UNIVERSAL INTELLECTUAL STANDARDS
1.   CLARITY: Could you elaborate further on that point? Could you express that point in another way? Could you give me an illustration? Could you give me an example? Clarity is the gateway standard. If a statement is unclear, we cannot determine whether it is accurate or relevant. In fact, we cannot tell anything about it because we don't yet know what it is saying. For example, the question, "What can be done about the education system in America?" is unclear. In order to address the question adequately, we would need to have a clearer understanding of what the person asking the question is considering the "problem" to be. A clearer question might be "What can educators do to ensure that students learn the skills and abilities which help them function successfully on the job and in their daily decision-making?"
2.   ACCURACY: Is that really true? How could we check that? How could we find out if that is true? A statement can be clear but not accurate, as in "Most dogs are over 300 pounds in weight."
3.   PRECISION: Could you give more details? Could you be more specific? A statement can be both clear and accurate, but not precise, as in "Jack is overweight." (We don’t know how overweight Jack is, one pound or 500 pounds.)
4.   RELEVANCE: How is that connected to the question? How does that bear on the issue? A statement can be clear, accurate, and precise, but not relevant to the question at issue. For example, students often think that the amount of effort they put into a course should be used in raising their grade in a course. Often, however, the "effort" does not measure the quality of student learning; and when this is so, effort is irrelevant to their appropriate grade.
5.   LOGIC: Does this really make sense? Does that follow from what you said? How does that follow? But before you implied this, and now you are saying that; how can both be true? When we think, we bring a variety of thoughts together into some order. When the combination of thoughts are mutually supporting and make sense in combination, the thinking is "logical." When the combination is not mutually supporting, is contradictory in some sense or does not "make sense," the combination is not logical.

GRADING CRITERIA - (80 points Total)
15 points for CLARITY
15 points for RELEVANCE
10 points for PRECISION
15 points for ACCURACY
15 points for LOGIC
10 points for GRAMMAR &