Author: devin

Process VS Product

When putting the pieces of a puzzle together there is time and effort going into the puzzle’s construction. There’s always the pre-excitement–going through Amazon or the aisle of a department store and looking at the covers of boxes. There are paintings of landscape reminiscent of Bob Ross or of your favorite movie poster. When you get the puzzle that is 1,000 plus pieces, you know there will be rigorous hours put into it, just to get into the end result. There are people who appreciate the tedious hours and work put into the puzzle. Whether they attack the puzzle alone or with a group, there is a learning curve to puzzles. They come up with their own strategies like getting the border first and then assemble the pieces that are more distinct in the original painting. There is more beauty in the process of making the puzzle than actual puzzle itself.

This can be similar to how instructors should look and value assessment. In “Making the Grade: The Role of Assessment in Authentic Learning” by Marilyn Lombardi, the article addresses how standardized testing can prove to set students up to fail. Even when we look at the SAT and the ACT, the answers are given in a multiple choice format which sets up the notion that only one right answer can be chosen out of 4 or 5 possibilities. In real life problems, there aren’t usually just one solution, but rather there are many of them that could reap different benefits or repercussions.

In the table Lombardi provided on page 6 discusses her viewpoints on Traditional Assessment vs Authentic Assessment. Even the wording on the chart is interesting rhetorically because it implies that traditional assessment is inauthentic, the assessment doesn’t ring true or genuine. In regarding to the previous paragraph, Lombardi compares answers that have a general reliance on forced-choice, written measures (traditional assessment) to answers that promotes integration of various written and performance measures (authentic assessment) which basically states that we won’t be placing students in one confined box.

In terms of my own grading in my English composition class I assess students partly on how well they improve from their original task and their skill set that they come in with. If an essay isn’t “perfect” in my eyes, I’m not going to dock them terribly if I felt like they put time and effort into their papers and saw their drafts got tremendously better over time. I don’t know how this would look exactly in a STEM class, but I’m sure there can be a way to look at performance and improved performance in the classroom. I know that in my high school, my math teacher made us do problems and show our work. Even if we got the answer wrong, she looked at the steps we made. If we were close in our process she wouldn’t completely dock us, but gave us partial credit. I think this viewpoint allowed me to have room for growth in math and not get discouraged if I did get an answer wrong which further emphasizes the point that process and not the product should be valued.

Process VS Product

When putting the pieces of a puzzle together there is time and effort going into the puzzle’s construction. There’s always the pre-excitement–going through Amazon or the aisle of a department store and looking at the covers of boxes. There are paintings of landscape reminiscent of Bob Ross or of your favorite movie poster. When you get the puzzle that is 1,000 plus pieces, you know there will be rigorous hours put into it, just to get into the end result. There are people who appreciate the tedious hours and work put into the puzzle. Whether they attack the puzzle alone or with a group, there is a learning curve to puzzles. They come up with their own strategies like getting the border first and then assemble the pieces that are more distinct in the original painting. There is more beauty in the process of making the puzzle than actual puzzle itself.

This can be similar to how instructors should look and value assessment. In “Making the Grade: The Role of Assessment in Authentic Learning” by Marilyn Lombardi, the article addresses how standardized testing can prove to set students up to fail. Even when we look at the SAT and the ACT, the answers are given in a multiple choice format which sets up the notion that only one right answer can be chosen out of 4 or 5 possibilities. In real life problems, there aren’t usually just one solution, but rather there are many of them that could reap different benefits or repercussions.

In the table Lombardi provided on page 6 discusses her viewpoints on Traditional Assessment vs Authentic Assessment. Even the wording on the chart is interesting rhetorically because it implies that traditional assessment is inauthentic, the assessment doesn’t ring true or genuine. In regarding to the previous paragraph, Lombardi compares answers that have a general reliance on forced-choice, written measures (traditional assessment) to answers that promotes integration of various written and performance measures (authentic assessment) which basically states that we won’t be placing students in one confined box.

In terms of my own grading in my English composition class I assess students partly on how well they improve from their original task and their skill set that they come in with. If an essay isn’t “perfect” in my eyes, I’m not going to dock them terribly if I felt like they put time and effort into their papers and saw their drafts got tremendously better over time. I don’t know how this would look exactly in a STEM class, but I’m sure there can be a way to look at performance and improved performance in the classroom. I know that in my high school, my math teacher made us do problems and show our work. Even if we got the answer wrong, she looked at the steps we made. If we were close in our process she wouldn’t completely dock us, but gave us partial credit. I think this viewpoint allowed me to have room for growth in math and not get discouraged if I did get an answer wrong which further emphasizes the point that process and not the product should be valued.

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Video Games, Learning, and Immersion

Pokémon Go, World of Warcraft, Minecraft. Video games all get a bad rep. It can be a pleasure in which people feel guilty about. I, myself, was a huge World of Warcraft nerd growing up where my parents had to censor my computer usage because they thought that my time spent on it was useless. They thought that it was a mindless activity without any substance. It’s like when my mom would tell me that I shouldn’t eat potato chips And if I was going to eat junk food, then have it be ice cream since it contains some nutrients. The same goes for video games monitoring. Parents like knowing that their child is “gaining” something from their experience. This makes me think of children playing games from PBS kids, where the learning feels too “on the nose.” I hated those games growing up. I wanted to feel invested, a sense of purpose.

Now the question is: what are we truly gaining from the games listed in the very first sentence and how does it correlate to learning within the classroom? When I think of video games, I think of the idea of immersion. I remember playing World of Warcraft and feeling like I was emotionally invested in the character I was playing. It was a role-playing game, where my actions and decisions ultimately reflected the outcome of the game. Whatever I was putting into the game, I received a certain output. It made me think strategically because I knew I didn’t have all the time in the world. I problem solved while leveling, thinking of the most efficient way in doing so.

There was also a sense of autonomy when playing video games. I was fully immersed in this other world, but I also had control of what I’m doing in this virtual world. If I failed at a quest, then I know it’s my doing. I had to think as to why I failed and re-do it. Sometimes there were instances where in the video game I had to interact with on another. This added another layer of problem solving. This world although virtual, felt very much real. The world required mental labor where a player continually keeps finding and solving dilemmas at hand.

To have this idea of immersion and autonomy applied to the classroom, I believe there has to be some sense of purpose that is tied to a student. The space/world in the classroom has to be a place in which a student feels like they can inhabit themselves. They have to think for themselves and recognize other people live in the world. Of course, this all seems very generalized and more like a vision that can’t be put into practice. But by looking at alternative ways of teaching, we can help see that this idea can be put in use. Last week we discussed blogging and the pros and cons, but when you think about it, blogging provides autonomy when students have freedom to write about a topic of their choosing.

By giving students a world of a subject that is being taught, instructors will allow them to continually learn and grow when students are given the tools to help navigate this world.

Video Games, Learning, and Immersion

Pokémon Go, World of Warcraft, Minecraft. Video games all get a bad rep. It can be a pleasure in which people feel guilty about. I, myself, was a huge World of Warcraft nerd growing up where my parents had to censor my computer usage because they thought that my time spent on it was useless. They thought that it was a mindless activity without any substance. It’s like when my mom would tell me that I shouldn’t eat potato chips And if I was going to eat junk food, then have it be ice cream since it contains some nutrients. The same goes for video games monitoring. Parents like knowing that their child is “gaining” something from their experience. This makes me think of children playing games from PBS kids, where the learning feels too “on the nose.” I hated those games growing up. I wanted to feel invested, a sense of purpose.

Now the question is: what are we truly gaining from the games listed in the very first sentence and how does it correlate to learning within the classroom? When I think of video games, I think of the idea of immersion. I remember playing World of Warcraft and feeling like I was emotionally invested in the character I was playing. It was a role-playing game, where my actions and decisions ultimately reflected the outcome of the game. Whatever I was putting into the game, I received a certain output. It made me think strategically because I knew I didn’t have all the time in the world. I problem solved while leveling, thinking of the most efficient way in doing so.

There was also a sense of autonomy when playing video games. I was fully immersed in this other world, but I also had control of what I’m doing in this virtual world. If I failed at a quest, then I know it’s my doing. I had to think as to why I failed and re-do it. Sometimes there were instances where in the video game I had to interact with on another. This added another layer of problem solving. This world although virtual, felt very much real. The world required mental labor where a player continually keeps finding and solving dilemmas at hand.

To have this idea of immersion and autonomy applied to the classroom, I believe there has to be some sense of purpose that is tied to a student. The space/world in the classroom has to be a place in which a student feels like they can inhabit themselves. They have to think for themselves and recognize other people live in the world. Of course, this all seems very generalized and more like a vision that can’t be put into practice. But by looking at alternative ways of teaching, we can help see that this idea can be put in use. Last week we discussed blogging and the pros and cons, but when you think about it, blogging provides autonomy when students have freedom to write about a topic of their choosing.

By giving students a world of a subject that is being taught, instructors will allow them to continually learn and grow when students are given the tools to help navigate this world.

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Blogging & Academic Writing

The very idea of blogging contains a lot of resistance. Even our first day of class when asked, very few people raised their hands to say they enjoy blogging or that they even have a blog. This, of course, makes me wonder, why? Is it for the fact that it forces us to express ourselves—the use of I throughout our piece of writing? It can make us feel too touchy feely or narcissistic. Me. Me. Me. It all sounds very weird when sharing our words to the world, our opinions that are shared to the public is us saying our words need to be heard. In Tim Hitchcock’s article “Twitter and Blogs are Not Just Add-ons To Academic Research” discusses how we can bridge academia and blogging, how blogging is a tool to create arguments. In academia, we are often taught that we should avoid using the first person when making a formal argument, but Hitchcock wants to combat that notion. In fact, Hitchcok says “The best (and most successful) academics are the ones who are so caught up in the importance of their work, so caught up with their simple passion for a subject, that they publicise it with every breadth.” This quote stuck out to me because he’s implying the best kind of argument comes from people who are relatable. They come from people who are passionate and truly care about what they are saying. At the end of the day, we are gravitated to people who are human. Hitchcock discusses how academic humanists have always been a public one. This idea of public is one I find interesting and potentially problematic. The Internet is a space that is not necessary the most safe space, especially in regards to those who are in minority groups. People want to be visible and heard, to have their arguments and stories heard. When I think of Twitter and other mediums of receiving and sending out information, there are anonymous users and harassers out there as well. I recognize that sometimes not everyone can participate in this way of public activism. Blogging is a chance to document and archive information. Hitchcock shares that he transcribes speeches/presentations that he has done in the past. This makes the most sense because he is giving those that don’t have the money or the opportunity to access his original speeches. The Internet is a place to reach and even connect with more people than ever before—people of different backgrounds, social class, and different geographic regions. Just like any kind of writing, blogging is a certain writing style. Similar to academic writing, it takes practice to perfect the craft. Reading Hitchcock’s article I found reassurance for the fact that it, too, is a blog. Reading more blogs can give one more of a feel in how a blog should look and sound like. For me, I’m excited to keep on writing, to keep on blogging, to make Tim Hitchcock proud.

Blogging & Academic Writing

The very idea of blogging contains a lot of resistance. Even our first day of class when asked, very few people raised their hands to say they enjoy blogging or that they even have a blog. This, of course, makes me wonder, why? Is it for the fact that it forces us to express ourselves—the use of I throughout our piece of writing? It can make us feel too touchy feely or narcissistic. Me. Me. Me. It all sounds very weird when sharing our words to the world, our opinions that are shared to the public is us saying our words need to be heard.

In Tim Hitchcock’s article “Twitter and Blogs are Not Just Add-ons To Academic Research” discusses how we can bridge academia and blogging, how blogging is a tool to create arguments. In academia, we are often taught that we should avoid using the first person when making a formal argument, but Hitchcock wants to combat that notion. In fact, Hitchcok says “The best (and most successful) academics are the ones who are so caught up in the importance of their work, so caught up with their simple passion for a subject, that they publicise it with every breadth.” This quote stuck out to me because he’s implying the best kind of argument comes from people who are relatable. They come from people who are passionate and truly care about what they are saying. At the end of the day, we are gravitated to people who are human.

Hitchcock discusses how academic humanists have always been a public one. This idea of public is one I find interesting and potentially problematic. The Internet is a space that is not necessary the most safe space, especially in regards to those who are in minority groups. People want to be visible and heard, to have their arguments and stories heard. When I think of Twitter and other mediums of receiving and sending out information, there are anonymous users and harassers out there as well. I recognize that sometimes not everyone can participate in this way of public activism.

Blogging is a chance to document and archive information. Hitchcock shares that he transcribes speeches/presentations that he has done in the past. This makes the most sense because he is giving those that don’t have the money or the opportunity to access his original speeches. The Internet is a place to reach and even connect with more people than ever before—people of different backgrounds, social class, and different geographic regions.

Just like any kind of writing, blogging is a certain writing style. Similar to academic writing, it takes practice to perfect the craft. Reading Hitchcock’s article I found reassurance for the fact that it, too, is a blog. Reading more blogs can give one more of a feel in how a blog should look and sound like. For me, I’m excited to keep on writing, to keep on blogging, to make Tim Hitchcock proud.

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Week 13: Final Project Progress

I’m doing my project on found poetry. I got the inspiration from Austin Kleon’s work on his newspaper poems. I like the idea of found poetry, because it forces you to look at your surroundings. Instead of looking at nature, you have to look at the world constructed by man. For instance, you can jot down a billboard that had a funky slogan or look at a bathroom and see the weird slang someone carved into the stall walls. You then take all these bits and pieces and place them together to create an entirely new poem.

So far I have walked around the English Department, Shanks Hall, and have took pictures of anything and everything that sticks out to me. Outside people’s office doors, there are funny posters and pictures. There are posters in hallways promoting classes that are being taught in the spring, like one that will be dissecting the Harry Potter phenomenon and a class that will be looking at popular films.

What will be tricky for me at this point is trying to take all these pictures of things and picking out key phrases that I can use in a poem. These phrases will have to be paired together and make some kind of sense. This is something I will be working on in these next few weeks in creating an exciting found poem!

Week 12: Ethics and Personal Ethos

I’m never one to like philosophy. Despite myself being an English major, I hate the idea of subjectivity and interpretation. There is so much gray area, but yet again what major topic doesn’t have a certain gray area? Koofers adds to this gray area. The article talked about how fraternities/sororities have access to the database because they bought a membership. It’s interesting for the fact that one has to pay for this, because there is clearly a demand for it. During my undergrad I remember taking an astronomy class, which was pretty difficult. I’d study hours and hours and I later come to find out that a former high school classmate who was in a fraternity at the time had access to the database of test answers in the class from previous years. Despite that there were new questions that were added, he passed each test with a B or higher. I remember being upset. In my head, he was beating the system. He was essentially buying his way into getting a good grade.

Ultimately am I fan of Koofers? I’ve never used it, but my gut is saying that I don’t necessarily approve of it. I get how flashcards can help a student, etc. I know some English teachers give their students examples of papers in which they can use as a base for their own paper. Is that an equivalent for Koofers providing examples on papers? I’m curious for what people think.

Week 11: The State of Higher Education Today

The idea of education in the modern world is a pressing topic. Although it’s somewhat touched upon in both of the videos, the idea of nostalgia is very much present. The first video ends with a teacher writing on a chalkboard and the second one talks about issues within the educational system. The title of the documentary in itself is called “Declining Degrees” has negative connotations with them.

“What are we missing now in comparison to fifty years ago in the educational system?” This question leads me to believe that we all desire time. College students these days are stressed out, they have a huge amount of homework. There is an ever increasing amount of students who have student loan debt and if only there was more time in which we can both work and study to counterbalance the amount of debt students will have to tackle. There is a sense of aloneness I feel like students have. Here students are in a classroom filled with a hundred others and a teacher won’t know their name when they see them. Then the ultimate question is: will I matter come after graduation? I’ll be fighting for attention in the outside world for a job and I can’t get attention in a normal classroom setting. It’s sad reflecting on college life and ultimately saying “that’s the way it is.”

Week 10: Codes of Conduct

In considering my future career of creative writing, I did my research on just that. Although I could do it on education in general, but I decided otherwise since I feel like we have rehashed quite a bit this semester on the issue of ethics within the classroom. I enjoyed reading the Geologist section for the fact that it proves that there is a specific community of scientists that intertwine with one another. It would be the same as any other profession I guess, but it’s nice to actually read something geared to a certain field.

There wasn’t anything I found that had a similar setup as the Geologists Statement on Professional Ethics for the school of creative writing. When doing a Google search as suggested within the module, the first link that popped up was https://naiwe.com/about/ethics.php. Upon looking at it, you can tell that this isn’t technically a formal document that is home to a list of statements. The question now that needs to be addressed is: why is this the case? I understand that creative writing in general can be subjective so it can be intimidating to define such a field. I think the one link that I was looking at and comparing it to the Geologist Statement, I think a good common ground is to stress on the idea of community. Without having a good sense of community, then the whole career field will crumble in itself. At least for creative writing, we need readers and writers to intertwine, which is kind of cool that the link I supplied stressed on writers and editors and grouped them together.

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