While discussing what it means to learn, I constantly find myself telling my family and friends about what I'm doing in my classes. While at home this weekend, I went in a bit of a rant to my mom about how I really appreciate being able to attend a university that encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning. I told her about how my current classes are phenomenal, and I'm eager to learn more while in my new major. She asked me, "So, are you happy?"
This simple question was answered with a quick response of "yes" but provoked me to actually think about if I am or am not happy in my day to day life. I actually researched the word, "happy" and came across a documentary about happiness, the science of being happy and how our new experiences promote growth and learning to become happier.
Learning isn't just about our A's on tests, our ability to carry out a conversation with a professor, or desire to know more. Our learning is about us. My desire to learn is centered around my passion to help others, which in turn makes me truly happy. Discovering new ways to become an impactful member of my community is a journey that is in no way limited to my classroom education. For example, my English class often discusses how an author of a comic book depicts a character in a particular way to represent how society views certain social groups. After class, I further researched stereotyping over the course of history, and how with new knowledge we acquire we can ensure that our stereotyping response is lessened.
My research and additional reflecting of my class discussion helped when talking to others about being respectful to our peers. The idea of making a community more educated in how to increase not only the happiness of ourselves, but of others as well has made me happy. The desire to learn outside of just a textbook is much more intense when the drive is powered by happiness.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Module 3
The idea of an evolutionary generation as a result of the advancement of technology is constantly being supported by evidence of our use of the tools we are surrounded by. For example, in early elementary school, our classrooms were decked out in posters of animals holding books, comfortable reading areas and shelves clad with classic stories. By grade 6 however, I was taught to type at 20 words per minute, use PowerPoint, create Microsoft documents and I even dabbled in Excel.
As strange as it might seem, I remember writing my first research paper. In 5th grade, our assignment was to give a presentation on a country that one of our ancestors had hailed from. Being obsessed at that point (and now, of course) with my Parisian roots, I chose France. I particularly remember sitting at a computer in the library with a book open on my lap. I had opened a word document and was typing brief parts of my project while I read sections of the book, then switching to Google to further define anything that I was unsure of.
Reflecting on that experience and comparing it to just a short time earlier, I realize the enormous difference. In a few short years I became able to multitask while learning and utilize the internet to enhance my experience. Now, I look at the exponential change from my project on France to assignments I complete now in college. For example, I was absent from my math class recently on a day that we were taught about boxplots. I opened my email to find the notes my professor had sent out at the beginning of the semester as I prepared my notebook. I took notes of my own based on her notes, and used Google's elaborative feature to help with terms I didn't understand. Next, I watched a YouTube lecture on boxplots while I took notes on THAT. To follow, I watched a tutorial on how to assess an equation in order to actually sketch the plots.
The ability to switch between media to help myself learn is amazing. The evolution on how we define "learning" changes as our tools change and we should be taking full advantage of this. Though our classrooms have four walls, our brains do not and we need to utilize that creativity and critical thinking to find our own path to knowledge.
The idea of an evolutionary generation as a result of the advancement of technology is constantly being supported by evidence of our use of the tools we are surrounded by. For example, in early elementary school, our classrooms were decked out in posters of animals holding books, comfortable reading areas and shelves clad with classic stories. By grade 6 however, I was taught to type at 20 words per minute, use PowerPoint, create Microsoft documents and I even dabbled in Excel.
As strange as it might seem, I remember writing my first research paper. In 5th grade, our assignment was to give a presentation on a country that one of our ancestors had hailed from. Being obsessed at that point (and now, of course) with my Parisian roots, I chose France. I particularly remember sitting at a computer in the library with a book open on my lap. I had opened a word document and was typing brief parts of my project while I read sections of the book, then switching to Google to further define anything that I was unsure of.
Reflecting on that experience and comparing it to just a short time earlier, I realize the enormous difference. In a few short years I became able to multitask while learning and utilize the internet to enhance my experience. Now, I look at the exponential change from my project on France to assignments I complete now in college. For example, I was absent from my math class recently on a day that we were taught about boxplots. I opened my email to find the notes my professor had sent out at the beginning of the semester as I prepared my notebook. I took notes of my own based on her notes, and used Google's elaborative feature to help with terms I didn't understand. Next, I watched a YouTube lecture on boxplots while I took notes on THAT. To follow, I watched a tutorial on how to assess an equation in order to actually sketch the plots.
The ability to switch between media to help myself learn is amazing. The evolution on how we define "learning" changes as our tools change and we should be taking full advantage of this. Though our classrooms have four walls, our brains do not and we need to utilize that creativity and critical thinking to find our own path to knowledge.
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