Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Wrap Up

Woah, this year has come and gone and school is over for the semester. I always assumed taking online courses would be tough, but you format made the class very informational and easy to follow. The links and documents you sent to us really made the class so informative because you got a good sources from both sides of the story. You shed the light on the Trayvon Martin case and found at facts I didn't know about Zimmerman and Martin. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan you could see and feel the struggle of the people in those countries through the information provided. Between learning about the presidential race and republicans and democrats, you have helped explain what the mean and helped me form my presidential opinion.

Many of the skills I learned from this class involved in researching and note taking, along with my typing and sentence structure. You giving us a topic and providing us with information from both parties involved helped me learn to research my topic and get two different stand points. My note taking now has a bulletin type structure similar to how your emails were structured. You reminded me the proper way to form my blog and to make sure to use spell check and not misspell words. Mainly it helped me try to focus on my research and do thoroughly and diversely.

Im not to sure how to answer what I learned about myself this class, because I feel it opened up more questions then answers. It did indeed help me form my political identity, but that is why I'm registered as undecided. As a student I see myself as I always do, I see what I exceed at and try to focus on that while trying to approve in areas I can improve in. What I'd change about the class is I'd put more lively colors and maybe just revise the question asking into a clearer form. The emails did not always have the clearest format and the comprehension questions were very hard to find. What didn't work for me is the unclear context in many of the questions you asked us to write about.

I feel like a lot of these questions are very repetitive and can be answered in fewer paragraphs. What I learned, what knowledge did I get, what knowledge or skill did I learn, and what new skills did I learn can all be pretty much summed up by asking what new information will I retain for the future. A lot of the news was not that mind blowing to me because we can all see world wide news over the internet, which is faster then the TV or newspaper. I feel like the class should have a way more diverse form of questions, because there was a few time I ran into questions that repeated themselves. I feel it is easier to simply ask similar questions on similar topics in one question and then ask who, what, where, when and why form of questions. All the knowledge that I received during the research and writing of these blogs is the information I will take into the future.


As for what my favorite topic to write on , the class itself, is current events. I enjoy writing about current events because we do not know the outcome. It is fun to hear people share their opinions on a topic as its in the making. By reading everyone else's opinions, it not only helps you form your own, but gives you an idea of their beliefs, living situations, and what the feel strongly about. With writing on current events its like an author with an outline and you choose as to how it ends. The fact that if you simply articulate yourself well and express whats on your mind in my opinion, is better then a right or wrong answer. We were not destined for anything in life, it weights on the results of you action and determination. A very great man by the name of Vince Lombardi once said  "The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." Current events are the best because we can determine the result by our actions, not our words. I had a great time writing about this class and I hope you enjoyed reading my stuff.

1 comment:

  1. Stephen,

    I always enjoyed reading your stuff. I like that you write off the cuff. You have a great style. Like usual, I see that you've condensed the answers. Be sure not to cut the edges, though.

    Thank you for the honest feedback. I will take a look at some of the questions and see if they need to be revised. I have to break them down into simple (sometimes repetitive) questions, because many students get confused when one question contains multiple parts. I want to ensure that they are "getting it".

    For people like you, with natural intelligence, it may seem too simple.

    If I've opened up more questions than providing more answers, my job is done. There are no answers for me to give. You will develop the answers over time. But now that you have a cache of questions, you're on the right path.

    I heard a great quote the other day: Great teachers don't tell you what to see, but they show you where to look.

    GR: 100

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