Post 334: The Dr. LogoEtho Thread

The Dr. LogoEtho Thread

In Scott Warnock's book, Writing Together, he uses an alter ego of himself called Dr. LogoEtho where he posts controversial topics to provoke students into arguing to teach them good argumentation. In this way, Scott became his own 'Guest Visitor' although his students knew Dr. LogoEtho was actually their professor in disguise.

Warnock writes, "This week, I used one of my favorite OWI threads: the alter ego or provoker. I enjoy taking on the role of "The Provoker", a contradictory voice on Discussion boards. This practice can be pedagogically enjoyable..giving students a focused writing challenge. The Provoker is a rhetorically edgy devil's advocate-type voice on the class Discussions."

It is a game he plays with his students when he wants to present an argumentative writing challenge to his students. As 'The Provoker", he can let his hair down and have more fun with his students instead of just always being the Professor, or the guide to learning. As The Provoker, he would dare students in a provocative argument.

The example he gave in his book was to argue against "Wikipedia is absolutely useless." And students have to argue the opposite of this premise while Dr. LogoEtho keeps arguing that Wikipedia should never be used even for entertainment.

By being a different teacher persona, the teacher can escape the stuffy role of being the professor, and take on a different facade to have fun with the students.

I see many different uses if I were Madame LogoEtho. I would post absurd fallacies and absurd arguments and tell students that these arguments are true and valid. Then, students are supposed to see the absurdity of the fallacies and argue against it. Now, I never thought of using a teaching persona, but I have posted absurd arguments and asked students why these arguments are not valid because they lacked logos, ethos or pathos. I would ask students which of the three appeals are missing thus making this premise a fallacy.

I have also asked students to differentiate between a fallacy of relevance, fallacy of ambiguity and fallacies of presumption.  Once students realize the difference between an actual valid argument and a fallacy, then my students become very adept at seeing fallacies everywhere from TV ads, to social media and the newspapers. 

It is not easy to teach students to differentiate between fallacy and a valid argument and even more difficult to teach students different kinds of fallacies. 

Having a Madame LogoEtho looks like a fun way to teach argumentation, fallacies and writing!