ALES 204: The End or the Beginning?

Term is about to end and we, the students of Winter 2012 ALES 204, have been invited to blog about our experience in this class.  I will admit, at the beginning of the term, I viewed this class as unnecessary and a class in which I could put little effort in and still do well.  I was soon proven wrong.  Along with critically literate tweets in every lecture, we were constantly asked to give input, collaborate with partners for mini projects, and generally get engaged with the lecture content.  I began to learn this was not a class I could sleep through or skip, but didn’t regret this fact as much as I thought I would!

The aspect of being engaged at a higher level inspired me to give the lecture content a deeper consideration than I am used to.  For example: Creative Commons.  I had known previously that you always need to cite pictures found on the Internet that you plan to use.  However, I had no idea that there are copyright laws that prohibit you from using some pictures, even if you cite them.  I immediately thought of the implications this would have for me in my academic career as a whole. How many times had I copy-pasted a picture and it’s URL, believing that was enough?  While working through projects like the Wikipedia page I was surprised to find such a small amount of usable pictures, but found flickr to be an incredible resource. We were also taught the proper way to cite any work we use, a technique I continually use in my biology courses. Below this picture I demonstrate how to properly cite, however this is usually found in the Reference section of a paper.

Porter, M. (Artist). (2008). Creative Commons. [Image]. Flickr. Retrieved April 12, 2012, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryman/2799490154/

During the first weeks of this class, I had also questioned the usefulness of some of the topics.  I was not very thrilled to join twitter, and found it pointless and a little bit weird.  After a couple weeks of tweeting during lectures however, I found that it was very effective in motivating me to pay attention.  It was like having a conversation with the class, but without interrupting the speaker.  Furthermore, I discovered how the professional world uses twitter for conferences and important long distance discussions. ALES 204 successfully changed my position on the usefulness of a "tweet"!

Many other useful topics were discussed, along with various online websites.  I learned uses for the internet that I had never thought I would need, or that they existed! Like Audioboo where you can record short sound clips and play them back.  My favourite subjects, and I think the ones that will help me most in the future, were public speaking, CV writing, interview etiquette and professional poster making.  I really enjoyed the time in lab where we could work closely with our TA's and peers to practice these skills.

Overall, my mind set has changed drastically on the subject of social media.  This course has taught me that it isn't just a way to talk with friends and share pictures of your weekend adventures.  It is a way to connect with potentially the entire world and should be taken seriously.  It has taught me how to effectively separate my work life and social life, creating a professional presence on the web.  I realize the era has come where employers can and will google your name to filter the kind of people they want to hire.  I will forever be grateful for ALES 204, Dr. Laccetti and the TA's for bringing this to my attention and helping me to avoid potential problems in the future.  I know that the information I have learned this term will help my career and has helped me gain a new respect for the importants of the web. So, to answer the question that is the title of this post: It is the end of ALES 204 Winter 2012, but most certainly the beginning of my professional and newly expanded relationship with social media.

Here I have included links to my peers blogs I have commented on:

Andi Carlyon

Lynda Forsyth

Stace K

Rosie T

Rosie Templeton

Dogs: Our Reason For Civilization

Let me start off this post by stating dogs are not only “man’s best friend” but are the vary reason we have large communities, cities and civilization as we know it.  Big assumption, I know, but hold on and I will have you believing the same thing!

I didn’t always think dogs were that important, trust me. And when I first heard this theory I was convinced it was pretty far-fetched too.  But the evidence is pretty compelling. Let me start with how I heard this in the first place.

The other day, one of my professors gave what is probably the most interesting lecture I’ve attended.  His name is Dr. Richard Uwiera and he teaches my Animal Science 120 “Companion animals and Society” class.  This specific lecture was on the evolution of dogs as the domestic pets or laborers that they are today. It featured a video from BBC, called The Secret Life of the Dog, which you can view in part here, where various historians, scientists and dogs owners were interviewed. Basically the video had two main arguments as to why dogs are the reason we live as we do.  The correlation of the beginning of large civilizations with the domestication of dogs, and our ability to communicate with these animals unlike with any other species.

The main theory of the beginning of dog domestication is as follows: Humans were hunters and gatherers, leaving bits of game and food behind while they foraged.  Dogs discovered that by following humans they could obtain easy meals.  Humans and dogs began to get closer and closer, until humans got the idea to use dogs to hunt.  As this became more successful, humans could feed larger groups and did not have to rely on gathering, meaning they could stay in one place for longer amounts of time.  Soon larger civilizations could take root with dogs assisting in hunting for food, guarding crops and people and eventually livestock.  And so began civilization as we know it, or so said the historian. However convincing this argument was, I was still not sure that this actually happened. It is only a theory after all.

Monitoring direction of dog's gaze on presentation of human face

Testing 8-week-old puppy's ability to follow pointing

The video then turned to the behaviorists and scientists who described our deep bond with dogs, a bond that is unlike that of any other species.  You may say, “I have a pretty deep bond with my cat.” Well let me tell you why you will never connect with your cat like you could with a dog. First of all, have you ever had the feeling that your dog could sense your emotions? A study featured in this video gives evidence of just that! As humans, our faces are not symmetrical. Each side on it’s own will show a slightly different emotion than the other. So, subconsciously, we read the left side of each other’s faces to have a consistent reference. In this study, dogs were shown faces of humans with different emotions.  Every dog consistently looked first to the left of the person’s face, as soon as it appeared.  Pretty cool I thought. The video further convinced me by pointing out the unique ability of dogs to understand human gestures.  Have you ever tried looking at your cat and pointing at something else? If your lucky they might continue to look you in the eye, or by fluke, find something interesting in that direction. However, if you point at an object in front of a dog, they will immediately look to where you’re pointing to find what’s up. The video showed that even 8-week-old puppies exhibit this behavior.  And with a little work, will even look or go to where you are looking, no pointing needed.  

This ability to understand human gestures is not seen in any other species, not even our closest relative the chimpanzee.  This incredibly unique understanding shows how dogs have evolved so closely with us.  So, if dogs can interpret our emotions and gestures, can we understand theirs?  The video then went on to examine just that. Many people believe they know what their own dog is trying to communicate, but what about with different dogs?  The scientists taped the barks of dogs in different situations. Some were excited to play, anxious at being left alone, tied up and wanting to run, or angry at something.  They then played these barks for various people.  They guessed the situation with incredible accuracy, stating that the high or low pitch of the bark showed anger or excitement.  Pretty cool, hey?

Nian Liu goes into great detail about the theory and importance of communication in her blog post. She makes an excellent point that "Creatures can't live without communication". Communication is essential so it makes sense that two very different species, evolving closely together, would develop some method of communication. Even if it is limited to hand gestures, bark pitches and eye movements. 

This ability of dogs to understand us like no other animals, and our seeming ability to understand their communication, convinced me of our close evolution.  Even untrained puppies showed the ability to understand gestures, where hand-language knowing monkeys could not! This adds a lot of support to the beginning of civilization and the crucial role dogs played. So, are you convinced? 

References:

Cohen, A., & Child, D. (Producer). (2010). The Secret Life of the Dog [Online video]. BBC One. Retrieved April 11, 2012, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pssgh

Pictures are screen shots from above video