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Kittychanley

Help Kitty with Homework!

18 posts in this topic

So, this semester I am currently taking a course titled Islam in the Modern World. The grade for this course is broken up into 4 equal parts, all worth 25%

  • Class Participation - Doing Good
  • Midterm - Aced It
  • Final - Feeling Confident
  • Presentation - Need your help!

The guidelines for the presentation are fairly simple. 15 minutes in the style of your choice (I choose powerpoint) on the topic of your choice, as long as it can be related back in some way to the actual course. The presentation is to be argumentative, not informative, so it must contain some sort of thesis, that feasibly someone could argue the opposite of.

 

I was originally supposed to present on Thursday, Nov 13th. Fortunately for me, on Tuesday, Nov 11th another student approached me asking to switch, so that she would present on the 13th, and I on the 18th. I gladly made the switch, as I wasn't confident on my presentation at that time.

 

But Kitty, you say, today is the 18th! Yes, today was indeed the day I was supposed to present, and I was fairly confident I was ready to do so... but then I woke up this morning to an email that class was cancelled, and I've been rescheduled.

 

So, below is a link to a PDF that contains the slides of my presentation, as well as the text that I intend on reading/saying. Currently the presentation is taking around 13-14 minutes for me to complete, which is ok since the professor is not super strict on the length. I simply ask for your feedback on any points that you think may need clarification or expansion. This is a 300 level course, so my audience is already familiar with the more obscure terms used in the presentation.

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57417181/Islam%20Presentation.pdf

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Hello hello! Unfortunately my knowledge of Islam is very limited (My best friend studies it, so I know more than avarage, but still), but I'll still read it and have a look. One question about the format: Are the slides the slides you are presenting, and the text what you plan to say while that slide is on the screen?

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Hello hello! Unfortunately my knowledge of Islam is very limited (My best friend studies it, so I know more than avarage, but still), but I'll still read it and have a look. One question about the format: Are the slides the slides you are presenting, and the text what you plan to say while that slide is on the screen?

 

Exactly. :)

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Personally I'd remove

 

For example, the internet has drastically influenced jihad oriented campaigns by networks such

as al-Qaeda, making significant changes to the spread of Islamic activism and radicalization.

Without an internet presence, it would be almost impossible for these campaigns to recruit

members from such great distances like the United Kingdom and the United States.

 

Otherwise you are unneccesarily opening a can of worms. Remember your presentation is focused on Islam as a whole, not specifically radical Islam

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Well I must say I got what I expected. A very informative interesting presentation, adressing srveral different arguments.

The only thing I would change is the lack of eye-candy such as graphs, tables, pictures and charts. I was always told that you should never have more than two slides one after another only containing text, but as a biotech guy we have it easier ;)

So all in all, good read but as far as I know university students, they'll be bored.

Hope I helped a bit, and did not upset anybody ;)

EDIT @Palisight I think this presentation would be worse without this slide. As you said Kitty s referring to Islamic world as a whole, and last time I checked ISIS, al-quaida and the like call themselves Islamic.

I don't get why we should put our heads in the sand just to not offend anybody. Sme truths are not nice and fluffy, but this does not make them less important/ not worthy mentioning.

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I mainly put it in to justify the conclusion of

 

Just like its predecessors, such as television and the telephone, it is not the technology itself that is good or bad, but it is instead the manner in which the technology is being used, and who is using it.
 
If the presentation didn't contain any parts about the internet being used in bad ways, the argument becomes that the internet itself is good, instead of how it is being used.
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Well I must say I got what I expected. A very informative interesting presentation, adressing srveral different arguments.The only thing I would change is the lack of eye-candy such as graphs, tables, pictures and charts. I was always told that you should never have more than two slides one after another only containing text, but as a biotech guy we have it easier ;)So all in all, good read but as far as I know university students, they'll be bored.Hope I helped a bit, and did not upset anybody ;)

 

I agree that I could probably use more slides, and that I'm spending a lot of time talking while a single slide is up on the screen. I'll look into breaking it up a bit with some more fancy eye candy. :)

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If the presentation was about 1940s Catholicism, would you cite Catholic involvement in the genocide of Serbians? You probably wouldn't becuase the genocide while commited by Catholics was motivated by Balkan nationalism and politics. The genocide itself had nothing to do with Catholic ideals

 

Your presentation is about the compatibility of the ideals of Islam and the internet. Your presentation includes many points of contention from the restrictive code of Islam and the internet. Your conclusion mentions none of them and only mentions the positive aspects of information spreading

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I personally think that if you took out the part that Palisight referenced, the first question you're going to get is: "What about the use of social media by radical Islam". Heck, even the New York Times writes articles about that exact topic at least twice a month. I think you should leave it in, and if anybody is particularly offended (for no apparent reason other than that you bring up radical Islam) simply explain that you are looking the good and bad uses of the internet. I think you could even add to it that while the internet provides access to information from all over the world, it isn't all necessarily well thought out, or even true. The further you go in seeking knowledge, the harder it becomes to find.

 

EDIT:

Also, the argument about the anonymity of the internet allowing for noncoventional Muslims to weigh in with their knowledge and experience goes both ways. While new ideas by segrated Islamic groups would generally strengthen Islamic teachings, some groups (like radical Islamists) are being segragated for a good reason. Furthermore, because of the anonymity of the internet, anybody can claim to be a reputable |Islamic scholar.

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Kitty can include the paragraph if she wants, but just to point out the actual reason somone would be offended by it

 

The paragraph is equating Islamic radicalism as being part of Islamic activism

 

If you don't understand why that would be offensive to non-radical Muslims, I don't know what to say.....

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But it is part of Islamic activism...More specifically, activism by radical Islamic groups, whose actions in no way represent all of Islam but damage the reputation of the faith (1 bad apple). It is a fact that radical groups use the internet to reach out to people all over the world, just as non radical Islam can use the internet to reach people all over the world. In a critical university setting, such a statement shouldn't offend anybody.

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Hey Kitty, you never told us how the presentation went! Have you gotten the marks back yet?

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I present on the 2nd, the universe for whatever reason really doesn't want me to do this presentation, and keeps bringing up reasons forcing me to reschedule. :P

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Wow, I wish my homework would get extended by 3 weeks! Well, actually, a week would probably be my limit. After that you just want to get it over with and strike it off the list of things to worry about.

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Hahah, that's a bummer :P but You HAVE to tell us how it went when you finally do present it. Everyone will keep their fingers crossed ;)

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Haven't heard back with a grade yet, but I'm fairly certain the presentation went well. The only thing that seemed to trip up the flow was terms like hashtag and RSS feed, which my professor didn't understand so I had to break and give a brief definition. The prof also referred to me as a "Computer Scientist" which was kind of funny since it's true, but a weird way of putting it. The questions that were asked by the class primarily focused on the censorship portion of the presentation. One question that stuck with me that was good for discussion was this:

 

Do you think that as technology progresses, it will be easier for countries to use internet censorship, or harder?

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Here is a question:

 

Does the internet promote teaching/training of homegrown extremists (in this case jihadists) and ultimately encourage them to fight a war in the middle-east as, for example, ISIL fighters? And if so, how and why?

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Oh my, you're presenting about Islam! *happy dancing*

 

*reads*

 

What an excellent essay! Although I am slightly offended by the paragraph mentioned by Palisight for the exact reason, IMO the way you present Islam is great.

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