*Pre-Salon Prep Notes*

Unit 1- Folk Knowledge

Self-directed Learning

• I was very interested in the different forms in which folk knowledge is passed along from generation to generation. To guide my research and keep it focused I studied things that were personally interesting to me which I could relate to in various ways. This not only helped my understanding of various interests, but also pushed to me study more and find more information. Like Brenda mentioned, it is fascinating to read my first posts and realize how much it has changed and just the way I go about presenting information has changed. My knowledge of blogging and the topic of “knowledge” itself has branched out in many directions.

Others Blogging

• I found it very fascinating to read other posts and see how people tied the knowledge they researched into their own lives. Everything from dance to stick shift driving to tattoos. Seeing how other perceived folk knowledge helped me to understand it better myself. 

Collaborative Learning

• For these first couple blog posts it was really easy to see that there was a struggle as to what we should say in our comments and how to really keep a riveting discussion going, but even in it’s primitive stages we did help each other learn and understand better the things we were studying

Projects/ Activities

• The project for this unit was very enjoyable. I had the opportunity to teach someone how to play tennis and pass on that knowledge in the same way I received. This gave me more insight into folk knowledge than a number of blog posts combined would have. On top of that I spent some time with a Spanish professor learning the ways of cooking an authentic spanish tortilla which was as much and tasty as it was educational. We had a final group interview to end this unit off and this was the first time I had experienced this type of test. It yielded good opportunities and reasons to followup on each others blogs.

Unit 2- Written Knowledge

Self directed

• I dove into the culture of the hittites which was about as foreign as it could come for me. It was great to learn about certain. There were a few insights that came to me as i studied this culture and language. I had always wondered how a language or culture became obsolete or non existent. That seemed like such an odd thing to have happen. As I studied the Hittites and did research on this topic I found little tid-bits here and there that kept me moving forward and allowed me to find answers to such questions.  One thing that really intrigued me from this unit was the comparison of written.

Others Blogging

• It was good to see others insights on their civilizations. There was lots of successes and frustrations due to a lack of information that they could find and what was understandable to them. I tried to read and glance at other groups once a week or every other week.

Collaborative Learning

- It was harder to have quality collaborative learning in some cases in this unit because my claims about my civilization didn’t really matter/make sense in all cases to those in my group. They didn’t know the in’s and outs so it often resulted in a few questions and then positive feedback type of comments rather than discussions where both parties know the background and can have educated comments. I say this in the most kind way. There were some good discussions on things such as advantages to oral vs written or vice versa that was really good. Diana was of a different opinion than me which allowed good conversations and discussions amongst the group.

Projects/Activities

• We filmed a short clip of all of us which allowed us to really get to the important information as it pertained to our civilizations and unit. It was good to see that although we had different focuses, when we talked about the broad topic of oral knowledge we could all offer different inputs and opinions that flowed together. The King Benjamin recitation was definitely my favorite activity of the semester, it really brought the unit to my level and helped me gain an appreciation for oral knowledge and presentation.

Unit 3- Written Knowledge

Self-directed Learning

• As we had some flexibility as to what topics we discussed in our civilizations it allowed for a broader study of my civilization which helped me to get a better overall view of it. I was also able to study something extremely relevant to me which was how written knowledge affected medicinal practices. I was fascinated by the change from oral to written and I have always had an affinity for medicine, so this was topic very enjoyable and interesting to study. The civilization that had the best form of health care was the same one that had a good written medium. I personally was interested in how the life of a scribe would have been in that time and found it intriguing what they had to do in order to make it.

Others Blogging

• I enjoyed others blogs on their cultures and i think everyone was relieved with the flexibility given. I found myself gravitating mostly to those of Mesopotamian cultures because i didn’t really feel like i related with any of the others quite as well. It was good preparation for our projects.

Collaborative Learning

• I felt like I got a good grasp of how written knowledge evolved and the various types when we collaboratively learned in special collections. All the different examples of vellum and scribe work that we were able to see was really great and brought to the for front certain mediums that would have been better than others.

Projects/ Activities

• We gained appreciation for how complex cuneiform is as we and to translate to and from it on to clay tablets. We all felt the pressures of this activity but this brought a once in a life tie opportunity to inscribe a message on clay which I doubt i will do again in my life. It was fun to see and watch other groups at work as well through their follow up posts and comments made as well as the finished products. Everyone appreciated good old fashioned pen and paper as well as english after that.

Unit 4- Print Knowledge

Self-directed learning

• I lined up a time when i could sit in on a tour at the Crandall museum here in provo, our own gem right in the midst of us. This was fascinating, all the words hear in class like print type, press, laid paper, Gutenberg was brought to life from this experience.

Other’s blogging

• I received good feedback on my thesis for my paper. It was great to see other topics and also those that had the same topic as mine and read about what their thought processes were. 

Collaborative learning

• There was a lot of emailing back and forth during this unit which I was very grateful for. Summer and Holland helped me a lot and set me on the straight and narrow path when we brought our papers in for peer review. It was extremely helpful to have face to face interaction for a change.

Projects/ Activities

- The final essay was definitely a project, but the more I got my thesis developed the more excited I was to find out information. typography is vast topic but the focus I had was really interesting to me. It was a personal project which we hadn’t had yet, but i still feel like it yielded similar results which were good ones.