Unit 04

Unit 4:
Communicating via the Internet
 Unit 4: Assignment #1 (due before 11:59 pm Central on THU JUN 25):

  1. Watch Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video, “How Is the Internet Changing the Way We Communicate?” [a transcript of the video is available here].
  2. Read Codova’s (2019) tweet (and its response tweet).
  3. Skim read Jaschik’s (2017) article, “Michigan State Will Ban Whiteboards from Dormitory Doors,” for an example of how brief forms of anonymous communication have been used, sadly and unfortunately, for bullying for decades (prior to the Internet).
  4. Read David Kirp’s (2017) New York Times article, “Text Your Way to College.”
  5. Go to the Unit 4: Assignment #1 Discussion Board and make a new post, of at least 200 words, in which you
    1. first, answer the question of whether the Internet is making our communication briefer;
    2. second, answer the question of whether the Internet is making our communication less formal;
    3. third, explain what it means to prefer intransient communication over transient communication;
    4. fourth, explain what it means to prefer asynchronous communication over synchronous communication; and
    5. fifth, identify and describe a specific situation, either from Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video, David Kirp’s article, or your own life, in which there was a preference to communicate asynchronously.

Unit 4: Assignment #2 (due before 11:59 pm Central on THU JUN 25):

  1. Read “How To Email A Professor.”
    1. To appreciate the value of students proofreading their email before they email their professors, see this Tweet by a University of Illinois professor (reporting an email he received from a student — and a followup with a happy ending about proofreading!
      • Related, but not required, to appreciate the statistical reason to not ask a professor for a grade bump, watch Andrews’ (2020) lecture video “When Continuous Measurements Become Discrete.” [a transcript of the video is available here]
    2. Show (via email, text message, Facebook, or another communication medium) the How To Email A Professor to five other college students (they can be UW-Madison students or students at other colleges).
    3. Ask each of the five students to identify which of the suggestions they were the least familiar with prior to their reading the document AND which of the suggestions they were the most familiar with prior to reading the document.
  2. Go to the Unit 4: Assignment #2 Discussion Board and make a new post, of at least 200 words, in which you provide a summary of the five students’ responses by
    1. listing each of the five students by their initials (e.g., GS) and
    2. then telling us which recommendations each student was the least familiar with prior to reading the document and which recommendations each student was the most familiar with prior to reading the document.

Unit 4: Assignment #3 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI JUN 26):

  1. Read all the other Chat Groups’ summaries of their Unit 3 Chat (on challenges faced by colleges and college students). These summaries will be reproduced on the Unit 4: Assignment #3 Discussion Board, when they are available.
  2. Write one reply of at least 200 words in response to the Chat Group who identified challenges and proposed solutions most similar to your Chat Group.
  3. Write a second reply of at least 200 words in response to the Chat Group who identified challenges and proposes solutions the least similar to your Chat Group.

Unit 4: Assignment #4 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI JUN 26):

  1. Read from Professor Gernsbacher’s (2014) article, “Internet-Based Communication” the section titled, “Example Internet-based Communication Research Program,” which starts at the bottom of p. 368 (p. 10 of the pdf) and ends at the bottom of p. 369 (p. 11 of the pdf).
  2. Read two pages from Pew Research Center’s (2017) study, “Personal Finance Questions Elicit Slightly Different Answers in Phone Surveys than Online.”
  3. Go to the Unit 4: Assignment #4 Discussion Board and make a new post, of at least 200 words, in which you speculate why research surveys conducted via text message rather than conducted via telephone are more accurate. That is, when research surveys are conducted via text message rather than via telephone
    1. why do you think respondents are less likely to straightline?
    2. why do you think respondents are less likely to satisfice?
    3. and why do you think respondents are less likely to fall prey to socially desirable responding?

Unit 4: Assignment #5 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN JUN 28):

  1. Meet online with your small Chat Group for a one-hour text-based Group Chat at a time/date that your Chat Group has previously arranged.
  2. Prior to your one-hour Group Chat, ALL members of your Chat Group must do the following:
    1. Read Bogle’s (2017) article, “It’s Been 25 Years Since the First-Ever Text Message and the Kids Are Alright.” The Bogle article is a popular press article that previews some of the research that individual Chat Group members will also be required to read.
    2. Read Stromberg’s (2014) article, “OMG! Texting Doesn’t Actually Hurt Kids’ Grammar or Spelling Skills.” The Stromberg article is also a popular press article that also previews some of the research that individual Chat Group members will be required to read.
    3. Read the abstract from Tagliamonte et al.’s (2016) article, “So Sick or So Cool? The Language of Youth on the Internet.”
  3. Prior to your one-hour Group Chat, individual members of your Chat Group must do the following:
    1. If your last name comes last alphabetically in your Chat Group, read Plester et al.’s (2008) article, “Txt msg n School Literacy: Does Texting and Knowledge of Text Abbreviations Adversely Affect Children’s Literacy Attainment?”
    2. If your last name comes first alphabetically in your Chat Group, read Wood et al.’s (2011) article, “The Effect of Text Messaging on 9- and 10-Year-old Children’s Reading, Spelling and Phonological Processing Skills.”
    3. If your last name comes neither first nor last alphabetically in your Chat Group, read Kemp’s (2010) article, “Texting versus txting: Reading and Writing Text Messages, and Links with Other Linguistic Skills.”
  4. Begin your one-hour Group Chat by having each Chat Group member tell the other members of your Chat Group about the article they read (in requirement c. above)
    1. Explain to the other members the study’s methodology: How many students were recruited to the study? What tests were administered in the study? Why were these tests administered?
    2. Explain to the other members the major results of the study: What did the researchers find?
    3. Explain to the other members what the major results mean.
  5. During each Chat Group member’s description of the study they read, other Chat Group members should ask questions the member describing the study they read.
  6. Then, as a group, come to a conclusion about what the different studies mean. What, for example, would you tell a parent who is concerned about their child using textisms in their text messages and wondering what that means for their child’s vocabulary, grammar, and other aspects of linguistic skill in their non-text message writing?
  7. At the end of your one-hour Group Chat.
    1. Nominate one member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Chat) to make a post on the Unit 4: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that summarizes your Group Chat in at least 200 words.
    2. Nominate another member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Group Chat using the browser Chrome on their laptop, rather than on their mobile device) to save the Chat transcript, as described in the Course How To (under the topic, “How To Save and Attach a Chat Transcript”).
      1. Then, this member of the Chat Group needs to make a post on the Unit 4: Assignment #5 Discussion Board and attach the Chat transcript, saved as PDF, to that Discussion Board post.
      2. Remember: To attach the Chat transcript, saved as PDF, click on the word “Attach.” (Do not click on the sidebar menu “Files.”)
    3. Nominate a third member of your Chat Group (who also participated in the Chat) to make another post on the Unit 4: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that states the name of your Chat Group, the names of the Chat Group members who participated the Chat, the date of your Chat, and the start and stop time of your Group Chat.
    4. If only two persons participated in the Chat, then one of those two persons needs to do two of the above three tasks.
    5. Before ending the Chat, arrange the date and time for the Group Chat you will need to hold during the next Unit (Unit 5: Assignment #5).

Unit 4: Assignment #6 (due before 11:59 pm Central on SUN JUN 28):

  1. Complete the Unit 4 Review Sheet (which is a fillable PDF; refer to previous Units’ instructions for how to download, save, rename, and fill in a fillable PDF).
    1. Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit04_CourseReview.pdf; then fill it in.
    2. Remember that each Review Sheet in this course will be cumulative (e.g., the Unit 4 Review Sheet covers Units 1 through Unit 4), so be sure to fill in ALL pages.
  2. Review the Term Project Instructions. If you have any further questions, feel free to email Professor Gernsbacher.
    1. Settle on one project and one presentation media.
    2. If you’ve chosen to do the Whole Course option, begin preparing the previous units (i.e., Units 1, 2, and 3).
    3. If you’ve chosen to do the Deep Dive option, begin your research.
    4. Compose at least 200 words describing which project you’ve chosen, which presentation media you’ve chosen, and what work you’ve done so far (preparing previous units if Whole Course or beginning your research if Deep Dive).
    5. Save your 200-words as a PDF that is named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit04_TermProject.pdf.
  3. Go to Unit 4: Assignment #6 (which is an Assignment link, not a Discussion Board) and
    1. use the “File Upload” tool to attach/upload your completed Unit 4 Review Sheet (click “Choose File” to attach/upload your filled-in PDF);
    2. click on the “+ Add Another File” to attach/upload your 200-word composition about your Term Project (saved in PDF); and
    3. immediately after submitting your assignment, check to make sure that your filled-in PDF is really filled-in (isn’t empty) and that your PDF about your Term Project is also attached and complete.

Congratulations, you have finished Unit 4! Onward to Unit 5!