Formative Argumentative

Formative Argumentative

Write an argumentative essay answering the question: Are students distracted by technology?

Support your claim with details from what you have read.

Manage your time carefully so that you can:

 Read the passages

 Plan your essay

 Write your essay

 Revise and edit your essay

Be sure to:

 Include a claim

 Address counterclaims

 Use evidence from multiple sources

 Avoid overly relying on one source

Your written response should be in the form of a multi-paragraph essay. Remember to spend

time reading, planning, writing, revising, and editing.

Source 1

Why a leading professor of new media just banned technology use in class: Reported by Valerie Strauss, September 2014

Clay Shirky is, as he explains below, a “pretty unlikely candidate for Internet censor.” Shirky is a Professor of Media Studies at New York University, holding a joint appointment as an Arts Professor at NYU’s graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts, and as a Distinguished Writer in Residence in the Journalism Institute. He is a leading voice on the effect technology has had on society — and vice versa — and has been writing extensively about the Internet for nearly a decade.

For years Shirky has allowed his students to bring laptops, tablets and phones into class and use them at will. But he just told students to put them away. He explains why below in a piece that first appeared on medium.com.

By Clay Shirky

I teach theory and practice of social media at New York University, and am an advocate and activist for the free culture movement, so I’m a pretty unlikely candidate for Internet censor. But I have just asked the students in my fall seminar to refrain from using laptops, tablets, and phones in class.

I came late and reluctantly to this decision. I have been teaching classes about the Internet since 1998, and I’ve generally had a laissez-faire attitude towards technology use in the classroom. This was...