Changes

1. In their humorous treatise on political double-speak, ''Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington'', Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein define 'contextomy' as "a subtle variation on the straw-man argument" where you ''yank'' your victim's words out of context. A straw-man argument attributes an opponent to a position that in fact they do not hold. Contextomy adds the twist that you de-contextualize a quote in order to mistate (or overstate) their position.

1. In their humorous treatise on political double-speak, ''Aristotle and an Aardvark go to Washington'', Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein define 'contextomy' as "a subtle variation on the straw-man argument" where you ''yank'' your victim's words out of context. A straw-man argument attributes an opponent to a position that in fact they do not hold. Contextomy adds the twist that you de-contextualize a quote in order to mistate (or overstate) their position.

An example of contextomy is Mark Warschauer's post, ''OLPC: How Not to Run a Laptop Program''. The premise of Warschauer's article is that the 'OLPC model' is "simply passing out XOs and getting out of children’s way." No planning, no training, no teacher engagement... He goes on to say that this is an ill-advised model that does not work. In the article itself Warchauer never cites an evidence that this is in fact the 'OLCP model', but in a comment he refers the reader to the OLPC mission statement as justification for his straw-man argument. Contextomy.

An example of contextomy is Mark Warschauer's post, [http://edutechdebate.org/one-laptop-per-child-impact/olpc-how-not-to-run-a-laptop-program/ ''OLPC: How Not to Run a Laptop Program'']. The premise of Warschauer's article is that the 'OLPC model' is "simply passing out XOs and getting out of children’s way." No planning, no training, no teacher engagement... He goes on to say that this is an ill-advised model that does not work. In the article itself Warchauer never cites an evidence that this is in fact the 'OLCP model', but in a comment he refers the reader to the OLPC mission statement as justification for his straw-man argument. Contextomy.

I am not aware of any OLPC (or Sugar) deployment that in any way resembles Warshauer's straw man, in the United States or elsewhere. (The largest deployment in the United States is the city-wide deployment in Birmingham Alabama, which has involved extensive engagement of teachers, parents, the local university, libraries, churches, and other community assets. As with most deployments, there is extensive [http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116638 observation and longitudinal data] are beginning to become available.) Frankly, it is irresponsible for Warshauer to ignore these data. If he has any actual data to back up his position, he fails to cite it.

I am not aware of any OLPC (or Sugar) deployment that in any way resembles Warshauer's straw man, in the United States or elsewhere. (The largest deployment in the United States is the city-wide deployment in Birmingham Alabama, which has involved extensive engagement of teachers, parents, the local university, libraries, churches, and other community assets. As with most deployments, there is extensive [http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116638 observation and longitudinal data] are beginning to become available.) Frankly, it is irresponsible for Warshauer to ignore these data. If he has any actual data to back up his position, he fails to cite it.