3) Which concept was interesting?

I will have to say learning about fallacies was the most interesting thing. After looking at fallacies, it has actually changed the way I argue or talk. Now and then, I am more aware of what I say and I try avoiding fallacies (unless it is not for an argument, just for fun). For serious arguments, yes I do avoid using fallacies. I particularly liked the fallacy section because it really evaluated what arguments are good or bad. For example, it talked about subjective vs objective arguments. Sometimes, I use my own opinions to actually describe a nature of something when in fact, it is really a fallacy because my definition is bias. Basically, watching out for this fallacy really helps people know that their opinion may not be true and that everyone is different. In other words, it is actually good to use objective claims, or whatever is true, to support your argument because objective arguments are actually less biased.

2) What did I think of the class?

First of all, my most favorite thing about this class is the blogging! I love blogging (I own several of them) but I have not blogged in a long time. After taking this class, I realized how much I miss blogging and actually made one for myself the other day recently. Another thing I liked about this class were the blogging topics. They really make you think, and the topics generally fun as well. In a way, I did not see the blogging portion of this class stressful. The only thing that was stressful was not procrastinating but hey, it's actually good for us to stop procrastinating. In other words, there I cannot really complain about the 12 hour waiting time to post blogs.

One thing I did not like about this class (even though it honestly is not a big deal for me, i am just looking for something to dislike about the class. lol) is the fact that we had to e-mail each other. There were some miscommunication with the e-mailing (sending as draft instead by accident instead of e-mailing, cluttered mailboxes, etc) but overall, it was not even that bad. The reason why I am complaining because I actually used the sjsu6 blackboard site thing last semester for an online class which had a discussion board. I actually liked the discussion board feature and became too used to it.

As of now, I cannot think of any way this class be improved, but as I said in the previous paragraph, it would be really nice if the class were provided some type of forum/discussion board to discuss the projects with each other. It saves us from having a cluttered mailbox. :3

1) What I learned

For the most part, I generally learned very useful critical thinking terms. Some terms were things I were really familiar of but I never actually were very aware of them. For example, the types of reasonings, such as reasoning by analogies, or the fallacies, such as proof substitute, were things I noticed using a lot before taking this class.

I also liked the section about strong or valid arguments because it actually went into detail on what arguments are actually good and what are bad. After learning that section, I had a better feel about my arguments. I even gained more skills in evaluating thoughts made by other people and were able to notice whether their arguments were good, bad, or valid.

We also learned more about group communication. I actually liked the concepts in the group communication book because it helped me become more aware of what actually makes a good group. There were some things, such as interdependence, that I was aware of but did not really put that much thought of the importance until reading this book. The section about norms was actually something I could relate too and I liked reading that section as well.