Lazy Tokrophers

Here's the link to your homework lazy bones!

http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=1121


Do the quiz from the above link to see how emotionally intelligent you are and reflect on the results in your blog for this week.

Fallacies blog homework

For this week's blog work, I want you to find 5 examples of logical fallacies on the internet. They can be from any forum you like – the news, the blogosphere, twitter etc…all you have to do is copy them into your blog, identify the fallacy and reflect.  As I mentioned at the end of the lesson, there are several other types of fallacies out there, so if you'd like to do a little extra research you can use any type of fallacy you can find.

Sorry for the wackiness today...my brain hurts.

TTFN

TOK Essays

Ok kiddos, just as a reminder: 

Your holiday homework is to write your TOK essay on the title you chose.  You have until January 14th to write a 1200 to 1600 essay on the prescibed title of your choice.  It must contain page numbers, referencing and a bibliography (preferably one that does not cite TOK lesson material :-)) 

Have a great holiday and we'll meet back on January 8th. 

TTFN

PS -  no bloggy-wog work for the holidays!

Are our senses deceiving us...blip blip blip...

So we've finished off sense perception and I've left you all wondering whether or not our reality is 'real'.  I forgot to tell you that you are to check out the Matrix site I had you copy the address down for.  For those who are interested, here's a list of various sources that're out there to explore how our senses and perception can create different realities:

Film
Memento
The Matrix
The Truman Show
Dark City
The Thirteenth Floor
TV
The Prisoner (1960s tv show - brilliant!!!)
Lost
Star Trek 'The Menagerie'
Quantum Leap
On the Net
Simulated Reality Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality
Simulism Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulism#Precedents_in_popular_culture
Games
World of Warcraft (video game)
The Sims (2 and 3)
Books
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Time out of Joint by Phillip K. Dick

So here's your blog homework for next week.  Answer the following in your blogs:
1)  Which of the problems of perception limit human knowledge the most and the least? Why? Give examples.
2)  How might humans overcome these problems? What forms of technology do we use already? Do these forms have their limitations also? What other ways might we use?
 
TTFN

Perception - Our Senses

Well I think I've managed to draw you all back into loving TOK again with our perception lesson.  We have one more next week and then we get to do some more TOK essay fun...

But for now...let me just give you a bit more to ponder.  For your bloggy wogs this week, I'd like you all to read the wikipedia article on the isolation tank - follow the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_tank#History

Then, read an article on sense deprivation at Guantanamo Bay from 2002 - follow the link: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/01/27/story484486728.asp

When you've read that, then read about death row in the US and sensory deprivation - follow the link: http://www.mcia-inc.org/resources/wilson_bad_juju_v2.pdf

On your blogs, I would like you to discuss the effects of sensory deprivation - What are its benefits?  Is it a form of torture?  Does the work on sense deprivation lead you to any conclusions about where you stand on the sense perceptions spectrum...are you a realist, idealist, representationalist or phenomanalist now?

TTFN

PS: Here's the colour blind test from today's lesson:
http://www.eye2eyeopticians.com/COLOUR-BLIND-TEST/colour-blindness-tests.htm

Missing TOK again :-(

Well, I completely forgot last week that we were not going to have more TOK loveliness this Thursday because of our Inset.  Big BOO!  And we are just about to get onto the best WOK of all...Perception!!!  Well in lieu of that lesson, here's a nice little 1970s cartoon of the late, great Plato's Allegory of the Cave - perhaps the best explanation of why our sense perceptions are not the best to give us a picture of reality. 

Don't you just love the narrator's voice...classic.

Blog homework for this week - Rank the 5 senses in order from most important to least and explain why you've ranked them in this order.  Reflect on whether or not you think your #1 sense has always been the most important.  Finally, ask your subject teachers which of the senses is most important in their line of work. Make a record of this in your blog - names of teachers do not need to be included, just subject areas.

TTFN

Knowledge Issues

Ok kiddos, I think we ended on a sour note as you were definitely not buzzing after that lesson.  The KI's are intimidating when you begin, but like I said in class, the more you practice with them, the more comfortable you'll start to feel.  Just think, in a few weeks time, you will be recognising the KI in everything  :-)

So on to your blog work...guess what...more KI!  In your blogs, I'd like you to replicate the table we did in the lesson with the exam title you chose to plan.  Work it up through the table to write what your KI is.  I'd also like to make this a bit of a workshop homework, so please take a look at what each other has done, give some feedback in the comments bit below each other's posts.

TTFN