According to Webster, the first known usage of "wrap
up" to refer to summarizing or completing something was in 1568. But
I couldn't find much more why about that phrase became synonymous to finishing
and summarizing something. I know why with a film reel, but that
early.... Just thought I would end on a self-directed-learning note.
:-)
I am going to organize my notes based on the unit, a
paragraph for each one. And Alicia and Mike, I love your posts. If
you don't mind I would love to use them tomorrow in addition to my own
reflections.
 |
| See my other post for credit of this amazing picture - Eva Timothy |
Unit One: Folk Knowledge
This was the first unit we did and it
was definitely an experiment. I had no idea what this class was going to
be like, and I was pleasantly surprised. I have really come to love the
blogging forum and the opportunity to learn in unique ways in this class.
But of course, my posts in the beginning exposed my inexperience with the
medium, though I feel like I have the hang of it now, after 4 months, and how
to make great posts (though not everyone is). I felt like the subject of
folk knowledge was serendipitous-ly first because of the simplicity
of studying it as we adjusted to the different environment of the class.
That was nice. For my own posts, I was able to draw on recent
experiences in my own life and other classes to find subjects to research about
folk knowledge. Then, with the Learning/Teaching activity, I got the opportunity
to learn about something that I had always wanted to experience, at least once:
fencing (I got my fighting fix in with self-defense this semester though).
I noticed in a lot of my fellow classmates' posts that the first unit was
really a place where we could talk about ourselves and our life experiences and
what we have learned from them. From Rock-climbing and cooking to make-up
and ballet (don't assign gender roles to these subjects... you may be
surprised), we had varied life experiences and got to know one another through
our posts. We found quickly that our schedules didn't really match up in
anything but this course, which made meeting to do things difficult, but we
managed. Finally, we participated in our first group-professor interview,
and I felt like we had really gelled as a group that had learned from each
other and could continue to do so.
I can't seem to remember if the awesome
bread presentation was from this unit, because it doesn't seem that long ago,
but it makes most sense for it to be here. Just a comment for the whole
class, I loved the guest speakers and lecturers (not that our professors
weren't great), because it really expanded our classroom into the outer world
of knowledge. Just like I came to realize a good blog post combines a lot
of "mediums" or pieces (links, labels, pictures, video, text, good
research, and a better audience) a good class combines knowledge and
experiences from a wide range of places. Maybe that is what I will write
my formal blog post about tomorrow....
Unit Two: Oral Knowledge
I really love my Judaism class, so
their history shows up again at the beginning of this unit for me. Then,
we had more directed learning with the civilizations and topics of oral
learning assigned to us. I felt like in our continuum of
professor-control and self-directed learning, this was a bit on the extreme
controlled side (for this class), where with folk knowledge I almost wanted and
needed more direction to get used to the medium and class style. Phoenicia
was an interesting civilization and i did my best to research it, but it wasn't
my favorite. I didn't really connect with it, like some of my group
members did with their civilizations. Mike did a great job with the Hopi
because of his sister's connection and a genuine interest in something she
knew. Alicia is just a fan of Asia, and she did an amazing job bringing
in the personal aspect to her study of the Cambodian Khmer civilization.
Will really loved the Mayans from missionary service and later because
of their aesthetic appeal. I thought we got into more meaningful
"discussions" and commenting this second unit because we knew what we
were doing and felt more comfortable in our blogging skin and group. This
unit we had the opportunity to make a video group discussion of the unit, and
that was another first for me: making an academic video. We had also
never had a chance to meet outside of class as a group, so it was different to
talk about face to face the things that we had only discussed through the blog
before.
At the end of this unit there was the
post on self-directed learning, and I really appreciated that sharing of views
and educational philosophies. I was raised in a non-traditional school,
so I have a passion for teaching a little differently, and I loved talking
about the college educational system in a response to this post. This
kind of overlapped with the beginning of the writing unit too, with its two
sister posts.
King Benjamin's speech was awesome!!
That's all I have to say about that.
Unit Three: Written Knowledge
I feel like I did (and was able
to by the constraints of the class) more self-directed learning in this unit,
and I appreciated. I also researched a bit more about things I was
interested that related to things we had discussed in class (children's stories
and professor interviews). There was more information on the history and
knowledge institutions of a place starting with and after the invention of a
writing system, so that was nice too, since I had the same civilization as well
(though their writing was more interesting, being instrumental in the
beginnings of the western alphabet). I really liked seeing how our
personalities came out in our blog posts, as I got to know everyone in my group,
I didn't even have to look who posted what to tell who it was. Artistic
works from Will (facsimiles) and Eastern influence from Alicia, then a mesh of
stuff from Mike, Misa and me.
My favorite parts of this unit
were the "collaborative learning" activities and projects. As a
group, we got together at Alicia's apartment to learn about Calligraphy
(because she is an expert) on a Saturday and it was great to do something
hands-on. I also liked our Rosetta Stone project, despite the
impossibility of working with ancient Akkadian in a cuneiform script. For
me, it was more about the process and discovering different resources and
basically my own ignorance than about actual translation and getting it done
perfectly.
Unit Four: Print Knowledge
I really liked this unit.
Mostly because I am obsessed with books as it is (one of those people
that will never own an eBook tablet thingy), and I loved my self-directed
learning. I guess I just love learning too, but that's another
discussion. I liked the field trip assignment, because it is in
accordance with my belief that learning should extend beyond the classroom.
Even the bibliography assignment was cool, even though it was just
dabbling in some rather dull literature (that turned out to be not too awful).
Mostly from the bibliography assignment I learned about a way to research
and find what I want in a different way, with a more obscure topic, and I liked
seeing the other weird titles that my group members found in their bibliographies.
Again, I knew who wrote what very easily. And besides my own
learning, I loved most that Alicia commented on every post, even when no one
else did, and probably no one commented on hers. She is awesome like
that. I didn't really like the collaborative learning on the final paper,
and that whole assignment was a bit of a surprise and not as well organized as
the last unit, or even the beginning of the unit, which was not fun because the
end, the finals are the most stressful part of the year. And I took some
liberties with the assignment, following my self-directed learning on a subject
that started within the guidelines, but finished somewhere entirely different.
A good unit to finish on in my opinion.
Thanks for a great class, where I have learned so many
things I couldn't list them all if I wanted to. And I think I will talk
about one more big idea, one thing I have learned more than anything else...
but I will save that for one last post.... :-)
(I can't go through and link all the posts that are
mentioned in this blog. Sorry, but you will just have to look for them
yourself, on this blog and its parent, Reinventing Knowledge.)
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