ED 5990 Unit Exercises and Discussions
Richard Bloodworth
Unit Three
U3D1 Post an overview of your literature review. This is a brief discussion of your finding so far or an outline of what will be included in your final literature review. Comment on the postings of at least 3 other learners that offers help or asks clarifying questions. All of the books, articles, and information sources listed in the bibliography refer to discussions of the concept of democracy and the use of technology to facilitate democratic procedures. The literature review will involve concepts from and reviews of the information sources listed in the bibliography � all will be referred to but some of the books that will be reviewed include: Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative, Referendum & Recall Citizens As Legislators: Direct Democracy in the United States Direct Democracy in Switzerland Democracy in the Digital Age : Challenges to Political Life in Cyberspace Democracy at Risk Stealing the Initiative: How State Government Responds to Direct Democracy The New Challenge of Direct Democracy A Constitution of Direct Democracy: Pure Democracy and the Governance of the Future ~ Locally and Globally Direct Democracy or Representative Government? Dispelling the Populist Myth Electronic Democracy The Evolution of American Democracy. E-topia Adult Education for Social Change: From Center Stage to the Wings and Back Again Electronic Voting: Benefits and Risks Democracy, Real and Ideal The Social Contract --- Richard
Aronowitz, S., Martinsons, B., Menser, M., and Rich, J. (1996). Technoscience and Cyberculture . New York and London: Routledge. Becker, T. & Slaton, C.D. (2000). The Future of Teledemocracy . Praeger Publishers. Benhabib, S., and Dallmayr, F. (1990). The Communicative Ethics Controversy . London: The MIT Press. Blaug, Ricardo (1999). Democracy: Real and Ideal, Discourse Ethics and Radical Politics . Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. Bowler, S, & Donovan, T. (2001). Demanding Choices: Opinion, Voting, and Direct Democracy . Ann Arbour, MI: University of Michigan Press. Brock, William. (1970). The Evolution of American Democracy. New York: The Dial Press. Browning, G. & Powell, A.C. (2002). Electronic Democracy: Using the Internet to Transform American Politics . Cyberage Books. Budge, Ian. (1997). The New Challenge of Direct Democracy . Polity Press. Caldwell, John Thornton. (2000). Electronic Media and Technoculture . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Castells. Information Technology, Globalization, and Social Development. Chomsky, N. (1994). Democracy and Education. http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/talks/9410-education.html Corrado, A. & Firestone, C.M. (1997). Elections in Cyberspace: Toward a New Era in American Politics. Aspen, CO: Aspen Institute Publications Office. Cronin, Thomas E. (1999). Direct Democracy: The Politics of Initiative, Referendum & Recall . Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press. Becker, T. & Slaton, C.D. (2000). The Future of Teledemocracy . New York: Praeger Publishers. Dafermos, G. (2001). Management and Virtual Decentralized Networks: The Linus Project. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_11/dafermos/#d2 Dewey, John. (1997). Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education . New York: Free Press, Simon & Schuster. Dillman, Don. (2000). Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Designed Method . New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Fossedal, Gregory A. (2002). Direct Democracy in Switzerland. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publications. Gerber, E. R., Lupia, A., McCubbins, M.D. & Kiewiet, D.R. (2000). Stealing the Initiative: How State Gates, Jeff. (2000). Democracy at Risk. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Publishing. Haskell, John. (2000). Direct Democracy or Representative Government?: Dispelling the Populist Myth . Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Heaney, Thomas. Adult Education for Social Change: From Center Stage to the Wings and Back Again . (1996). Retrieved on January 15, 2004 from http://www.nl.edu/ace/Resources/Documents/ERIC1.html Isin, Engin F. (2000). Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City . New York and London: Routledge. Lebihan, Rachel. (2003). Arm Twisting to Hinder Home Electronic Voting . Retrieved on October 24, 2003 from http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000048620,20265293,00.htm MacNamara, O'Donnell. Developing e-Citizens and e-Consumers, an Irish e-Commerce Case Study .http://66.218.71.225/search/cache?p=The+Ecitizen.+Instructional+Technology.,+Lee,+John+K.++&sub=Search&ei=UTF-8&url=fe_aPyZrSDAJ:www.efmd.be/learninggroups/chapter/eisb2001proceedings/pdfs/MacNamara%2520%2520O%27Donnell%2520.pdf Mautner, Michael Noah. (2000). A Constitution of Direct Democracy : Pure Democracy and the Governance of the Future ~ Locally and Globally . Legacy Books. McRae, Hamish. (1994). The World in 2020: Power, Culture, and Prosperity . Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Mitchell, William J. (2000). E-topia . London: The MIT Press. Naisbitt, John. (1997). Megatrends Asia . New York: Touchstone. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. How to Identify and Explore Emerging Issues, Vignettes: Patrick. (2003). Recent Email from a Swiss Citizen . Retrieved on January 17, 2004 from http://www.vote.org/swiss.htm Plato. (1998). Republic . New York: Oxford University Press. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. (1999). The Social Contract . New York: Oxford University Press. Salant, P. & Dillman, D. (1994). How to Conduct Your Own Survey . New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Shamos, M.I. (1993). Electronic Voting � Evaluating the Threat . http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/cfp93/shamos.html Smith, Russell. Electronic Voting: Benefits and Risks . (2002). http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/ti224.pdf Toffler, Alvin. (1980). The Third Wave . New York: Bantam Books. Vago, Steven. (1999). Strategies of Change . Chapter 9: Social Change. Pearson Educational, Inc. Wilhelm, Anthony G. (2000). Democracy in the Digital Age: Challenges to Political Life in Cyberspace . New York and London: Routledge.
http://www.developmentgateway.org/node/130619/?page_id=3647 (worldwide egovernment) from Karen: Hi Richard, Really impressive list of resources in your assignment posting. There is quite a bit of information. Do you have a plan for providing contrasting (or contrarian) viewpoints in your final version of your Literature Review? My reply to Karen: Karen, Thank you for your generous offer! The New York Review of Books is a great magazine � I once subscribed to it � even though it is about books and is not the books themselves, the commentary is very high level. I'll check the newsstand and bookstore tomorrow to see if they have that issue and if they don't, I might take you up on your offer. I will look up those other books as well. Thank you! --- Richard Comment from Howard: Richard, this is an impressive array or sources. It is interesting how even the basic act of voting does not take advantage of the existing technology. People are afraid of fraud with computer voting and many of these people pay their bills over the Internet. My reply: I think people are afraid of anything that is new. They are just going to have to get over that fear! The only thing we have to fear is fear itself (Franklin D. Roosevelt, I think). --- Richard P.S. to Karen's feedback to Richard Bloodworth Fareed Zakaria of the second book I mentioned is a featured guest on Comedy Central's "Daily Show" at 7:00 p.m. tonight.....small synchronicity, yes? I was talking with a friend on the telephone this afternoon after I posted feedback to you, and learned that one of the authors that I mentioneed to you was interviewed over the weekend and the show is being re-run tonight. Hope it helps. Kindest Regards, --- Karen My reply to Karen: Karen, I hope I can watch that as a rerun since I was not able to watch it tonight. --- Richard From Geri: Karen: Thanks for the info on Jon Stewart's show tonight. I don't watch much TV, but I like Jon's 'fake news' show. When I am in New York I like to sit in at TV show filmings. It's much more fun than watching TV. I was at The Daily Show last March. Next Monday I will be in the audience for Colin Quinn's 'Tough Crowd' show. The show is a bit less eloquent, but as a Native New Yorker I like the relaxed atmosphere on the set and the New York style of sarastic humor. When I lived in Manhattan I spent many weekend nights at the 'Comic Strip' comedy club. Anyway, I'll be watching Jon Stewart tonight. Thanks! :^) --- Geri From Geri: Richard: You have assembled an excellent list of resources for your project. Our voting procedures truly need revisions and improvements that should protect our rights as voters to have our votes counted. My reply to Geri: Reply: My reply: From Geri: - Will you be addressing the issue of having a percentage of the electoral votes going to each candidate determined by total votes instead of having all go to one candidate? My reply to Geri: I have always wondered aobut that: why the total number of electoral votes of a state goes to a candidate rather than a percentage based on the number of votes received by the candidates. I have read the Constitution several times looking for that point and I have not seen where it says that all of the electoral votes goes to one candidate. By the way, my idea of Internet voting is a separate issue from the Electoral College so my idea could conceivably coexist with it but the archaic Electoral College at some point in the future will be replaced. --- Richard Comment: - For many years Americans have asked why we are limited to a twelve hour period to cast votes when other countries allow several days or more for voters to cast their votes. Will your project address this issue? My reply: In Athens, GA we can vote during the week before the election day so I plan on voting next week. I will address that issue in my project also. Thank you for your comments, --- Richard Comment from Brad: Richard, Is your focus of Switzerland to show how succesful Direct Democracy can be for a nation? Are there other examples? Will you be exploring the opponents' views of Direct Democracy? You seem to have a great resource list. You appear to be very passionate about this topic, and I hope it proves to be a great project. --- Brad Richardson My c omment to Brad: Yes, I plan to show how it is working in Switzerland and other places and that it can be utilized it the USA also. The books and sources include both sides of the issues -- the federalist and the populist -- of the issue with some of the sources in favor of representative and some in favor of direct democracy. My idea combines both concepts as a sort of compromise between the two positions. The federalist position believes that ordinary people are not capable of governing themselves whereas the populists are suspicious of the authorities and would like to be able to have a government based on the will of the people. The main problem, of course, is: how is the will of the people to be determined? In a representative system someone is elected to represent and think like the majority of the people who elected him which is, in actuality, an impossible task. Someone might think of having a representative as like an actor having an agent -- no one would expect the actor to be looking in the want ads for all of his acting roles so someone needs to take care of some of his needs so that he can concentrate on his art. Perhaps a more descriptive analogy is that a the relationship between the government and the governed is comparable to the relationship of a parent and a child � at what point is the child considered capable of making his own decisions rather than having them made by a parent or authority? --- Richard Comment from Katherine: You have an impressive list. I particularly liked that you included some texts which addressed the question of managing change. For your project to succeed, I think understanding the sociology of how change occurs at a cultural level will be essential. My reply: Katherine, I think you are right concerning the management of change. Technology is the easy part of the concept. The difficult part involves changing habitual thought patterns, psychology, sociology, cultural beliefs and philosophy. --- Richard Comment to Tanneka about her list of sources for colaborative learning, This is a great list of sources. I plan on referring to some of the sources while developing the curriculum to go with my course project. Thank you, --- Richard |
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