Sometimes this class was at the front of my mind, sometimes it necessarily took it's place on a burner farther back. But I honestly feel like the principles I learned and experiences I had in this class will help shape my entire future.
History Section
In Which I Argue That I My Concern With History Was Effective Even Though It Mostly Did Not Involve My Assigned Century or Always Show Up In My Blog
I was assigned the 17th century as a historical
period, and I read A Brief Introduction
to Descartes, as I was assigned. I used what I learned to make significant contributions to the class
presentation that my history group did. Here is a link to the document that Jen
Joslin made as she and I brainstormed what our group presentation should be. The writer of the Descartes book mentioned the work of Noah Chomsky, linking metaphysical questions to linguistic development. That (and a couple Larry Lessig TED Talks) helped generate some ideas that I had about copyright and fair use, which I describe my blog post "Pop Culture: Our Newest Lexicon."
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| Screenshot from our Control prezi |
Also I considered the urbanization element element of the industrial revolution in a recent blog post called Privacy Concerns and the Fifth Dimension
The major historical events that I discussed were the American expansion West and the development of modern physics. See the following blog posts:
- Developing My Thesis
- Heisenberg's Uncertainty What?
- A Reflective Post
- Remember the Louisiana Purchase?
Core Concepts
In Which I Don't Feel So Vulnerable As the History Evaluation So I Get Right To The Blog Posts
In Which I Don't Feel So Vulnerable As the History Evaluation So I Get Right To The Blog Posts
- Thoughts On Democracy: Then and Now
- Next-Gen of Internet: Virtual Reality
- Unspoken Control and Gender Expectations
- Open Government and Pres. Obama's Change
- Media Digestion
Digital Literacy
In Which I Say Some Things
Consume: I have learned a greater appreciation for TED Talks. I have enjoyed much of what fellow students posted in my +Google stream, though I have not got the hang of it yet when it comes to following the people I'm interested to hear from in +Google (beyond the class, I mean.) Probably that's partially related to the fact that I'm not sure what I want to hear about yet. The eyeball on Clay Shirky's +Google profile picture freaks me out, I will say that. As a pre-comms student, I have already gotten some competency in consuming via twitter and niche websites. One helpful thing I learned was an appreciation for good blogs.
Create: Still on the topic of blogs (which should be called bloogs; wouldn't that be fun?), I am getting better at it. I learned technical tips like inserting page breaks, but more importantly I made progress in finding my voice. I still find it unnatural to post regularly but I hope to overcome that. I am also excited to continue the work I did on a chapter of the ebook and see it through to real publication. The concept of creating "real" things as assignments is fascinating. Dave Eggers figured out how to apply the principle to even younger grades, which he described in a TED Talk.
Connect: I did basic +Google connection with my peers and professors. And I wrote a bloog post about how cool I think the concept is (A Wrinkle In Society). I just haven't taken the next step and really applied it yet. I did reach out once to my peers on facebook by sharing a blog post and asking for feedback. Only one of my friends commented on it as far as I remember (I wan't offended, it was a strange post) but she thought it was very cool and was encouraging. I did also take the chance to ask a David Bornstein a question when he visited BYU, which I recorded in my post Validation From a NYT Columnist.
Self-Directed Learning
In Which I Refer to Another Class I Took This Semester And Ramble A Little
In my world religions class we had the option of taking a multiple choice test after each section or reading a book and writing a reflective paper. I normally choose the test because multiple choice exams are the easiest way out of almost any situation. But I felt like going the extra mile to learn about Taoism so I chose to read The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff. I loved it and began thinking a lot more about human interaction with the spiritual dynamic of life and happened to come across Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and its themes of detatchment, mysticism, and Christianity went right along with that interest. In my reflective paper on Hoff's book I brought in a third book I had already read, C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. The three books helped me gain valuable insights which I would never have come across in a classroom setting. I went a step further and showed my paper to a friend to ask what she thought of it, and discussed the principles with a second friend. That helped me focus the way I communicated what I had been thinking. But I also saw how hard it is to effectively communicate ideas to people not familiar with a particular area of study. (I have come to think that there is a great need for people in our society who can communicate complex ideas from both the sciences and humanities in a way that the average intelligent person finds interesting and understandable.)
The best batch of self-directed learning that happened concerning Digital Civilization was when I watched a couple Larry Lessig TED Talks and came out with a few blog posts as I digested and developed ideas about copyright:
In my world religions class we had the option of taking a multiple choice test after each section or reading a book and writing a reflective paper. I normally choose the test because multiple choice exams are the easiest way out of almost any situation. But I felt like going the extra mile to learn about Taoism so I chose to read The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff. I loved it and began thinking a lot more about human interaction with the spiritual dynamic of life and happened to come across Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and its themes of detatchment, mysticism, and Christianity went right along with that interest. In my reflective paper on Hoff's book I brought in a third book I had already read, C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. The three books helped me gain valuable insights which I would never have come across in a classroom setting. I went a step further and showed my paper to a friend to ask what she thought of it, and discussed the principles with a second friend. That helped me focus the way I communicated what I had been thinking. But I also saw how hard it is to effectively communicate ideas to people not familiar with a particular area of study. (I have come to think that there is a great need for people in our society who can communicate complex ideas from both the sciences and humanities in a way that the average intelligent person finds interesting and understandable.)
The best batch of self-directed learning that happened concerning Digital Civilization was when I watched a couple Larry Lessig TED Talks and came out with a few blog posts as I digested and developed ideas about copyright:
- Right To Consume; Right To Remix
- CC's Cool Mission Statement
- Pop Culture, Our Newest Lexicon
- Media Digestion
Collaboration
In Which There Is No Doubt
If there's one thing I did in this class, it was collaborate. First a presentation about the 17th Century, then one on Control, then an ebook chapter about Intellectual Property, then an event presentation. Some projects went better than others. All required high levels of collaboration with peers, whom I was grateful to report were generally intelligent and helpful. (Thanks, everyone I was in a group with!)
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