Self-directed learning
My blogging consisted of tales of music and manners. We were just starting the class, so I wasn't exactly sure what exactly I was looking for as a self-directed learner. Folk knowledge started for me as a kind of foreign subject, one which was really hard to define and I was never really sure where to draw the line between it and other forms of communicating knowledge. My learning brought me to a more clear understanding of just where folk knowledge lies and effects every inkling of our lives. Also, this.
Others' blogging
Alysssa's tattoo post seems to be a common choice for us as a group, but for good reason. I think the unique subject drew eyes immediately. There was also a post on trumpet playing - as a trumpet player myself, I remember seeing the post and actually being able to relate to what was being said.
Collaborative learning
Seeing the thought process of others in folk knowledge especially was important I feel because of how collaborative (in person) the folk knowledge medium is innate of itself. Other than the blog posts already spoken of, the process of getting to know our core group started here. I don't remember an exact meeting other than sitting with each other in class, but it was fun to get to know some people better.
Projects / Activities
Justin taught me how to catch quarters. That was a fun evening. Then, I taught my roommate to competitive pokemon battle. As silly as both of those sound, I think it was the project that helped me most fully find my definition of folk knowledge. While not necessarily things you could make a living on or even use practically, I figured out that lots of folk knowledge is in place for the sole reason of humans being social beings. They provide ways to fit in to the current society.
Unit 2: Oral Knowledge
Self-directed learning
I got assigned the Celts. The Celtic language was actually really interesting to study, and I found a lot of nuances and connections to the modern day that I didn't think still existed. Specifically, I remember being amazed at the influence the Celtic bards had - they basically controlled all of the culture of the Ireland area. The wars were also fun to study about, but they were less orally-knowledgely-applicable-(ly?).
Others' blogging
I remember Diane's troubles and frustration with the Slavs - the lack of information seemed to be pretty overwhelming at the time. The Romans and Hittites were also taken as pet projects, and I recall Kody posting about the final and how it had seemed silly at first but he had come to appreciate the significance it had.
Collaborative learning
I actually had so much to comment on this unit that I wrote an extra blog post outlining my thoughts and connections between oral knowledge and a book that I have sitting up in my dorm. Much in the same way that I got the most out of the folk knowledge unit by speaking in class with the others, I felt like I got the most out of this unit by collaborating in our blog medium, "speaking" with each other and sharing thoughts.
Projects / Activities
The speech. I'm an awful actor, an awful speaker, and it goes to show in my performance during our class video. Even so, I thought the experience was uplifting and informative. Seeing King Benjamin's speech run live really hit me hard just how much oral knowledge can shape a people's way of life, especially after seeing what it did for the Nephites years after he died even.
Unit 3: Written Knowledge
Self-directed learning
My self-directed learning during written knowledge didn't necessarily manifest itself in certain blog posts during this unit, but you'll just have to trust me that I did learn but had a really bad overload mixed with a hint of writer's block. I decided since I already had a really strong base going with the Celts, I'd keep researching into their language, which turned out to be okay since our final ended up being an precursor to the Goidelic I'd been studying - Ogham.
Others' blogging
We lost a group member here (Amanda :( ) so we lost some content being added to the blog. Alyssa's influx of knowledge on the Roman's really was pretty amazing though, and her post on C really klued me in on a lot of kool stuff.
Collaborative learning
While I didn't really get the chance to blog that much during this unit, I still followed the progress of the others in their learning and tried to chime in a couple times. Writing about writing to me felt like discussion of a lot of semantics and such, so I really never felt all too inclined to be super interested (sorry, but English was never my favorite class).
Projects / ActivitiesEven so, getting ready and doing the final project with team misc. gave me an appreciation for the scale of how much of our historical record would not be here or would not be accurate without the concrete writing. And when I say concrete writing, I mean that quite literally. Carving words in stone was quite the task, but with the help of my teammates and the familiarity of the subject in question (again, I had researched Ogham a bit in my personal studies) we got the project done in an admirable fashion.
Unit 4: Print Knowledge
Self-directed learning
My first trip to the library ever was when this unit started. Blogs seemed to elude me but I found the most interest in Chinese and the other Far East countries. The now-esteemed fifth floor was my guide to everything I needed for this unit, from Korean culture and how printing affected it to paper exports and how Europe was led to the Gutenburg press by Asian knowledge. Of all the units, I think I learned the most flat-out fact in print.
Others' blogging
As people buckled down in preparation for finals week and such, I didn't necessarily see the quality in blogs drop but I felt like the need to interact was further down. Not to say that there weren't some cool posts, such as Alyssa's post on how the press and reading were connected, but I just generally wasn't struck by what others were saying as much as what I was studying on my own along with the pile of homework I had been stuck with in the rest of my classes.
Collaborative learning
To be honest, this unit seemed to be a bit more solo-queue. Each person really did their own thing, though I suppose I did manage to communicate with one of my fellow assigned group members to ensure our topics didn't overlap for the essay. It was a refreshing moment in an otherwise individual set of projects and quest for knowledge. My friends were the authors of the websites and books, my study partner the fifth-floor shelves.
Projects / Activities
I wrote my essay on what I had spent the most time in the library studying about. I set out to prove that the culture in the Far East was tailor-made to be the basis of printing, and so it was that they were the beginnings of the change to printing from writing. While not as crazy (Please let this be a normal field trip. With the Frizz? No way! awww...) as some of our other projects, I kinda felt like it was a nice break from the out of the ordinary stuff we had been doing. Just a straight, this is what I know, and now you can know it too, essay that I could clearly state my thoughts on the unit.
No comments:
Post a Comment