Week 5 Journal PSYC 1300-004

Sorry I have been M.I.A. for the past week, when the wi-fi goes down it a foreign country, it is not apparently a simple fix. However, I am back now! This week, we are going to talk about social media, ironic.

Envision a world where you can log into your virtual classroom without leaving your bed, where you can work in real time with fellow classmates; posting information and collaborating on projects. What if you could take exams from your kitchen table, and never have to waste money and gas driving to campus.

Oh, wait. That’s already happening. I am doing it right now!

Regardless of how you attend class, do your assignments, or work with classmates, we all use social media. Don’t think of yourself as the social media “type?” Well, you are reading this, aren’t you? Yeah that’s what I thought…

Personally, I have a private Facebook account, Twitter account, multiple Gmail accounts, this blog, Instagram, and even a really old Neopets account. Social Media takes up a good portion of my downtime, and I bet it does yours too. These days it is hard to ignore social media, everyone wants you to “friend them” on (insert media site name here), and believe me, it gets awkward when you tell someone you don’t use social media. In this day and age, most people my age thinks it’s strange and that you must have something to hide if you don’t use social media.

In higher ed, social media is playing an increasingly important and potentially dangerous role.

Potentially dangerous, you say? We will get to that in a bit…

Most of us that are in college and possibly even high school use some form of online communication to work with professors and classmates between class meetings. My school personally uses Blackboard. This technology enables us to communicate quickly and effectively, work on assignments, and collaborate with each other. This is one of the definite up-sides to social media.

Dangerous, oh yes. Potentially, that is. With social media becoming the centerpiece for many debates, especially surrounding bullying online and suicide, it is important to use it for good, not evil and that can be difficult to do without breaching someone else’s privacy. Also, we all know it is important to keep work and home lives separate. I personally feel the same about school.

While there are many advantages to being so connected to others in this day and age, there are also disadvantages as well as I’m sure many of us know. How many times have you been sitting at dinner with friends and all they do is play with their phones? How many times have you made this offense yourself? I worry about how we continue to rely on technology in both personal and educational settings. Have you ever seen Wall-E? I worry we will all become the zombified humans in the hover-chairs with tv screens glued to our faces.

Until next time,

Kelly 

Week 3 Journal PSYC 1300-004

I'm coming to y'all from MEXICO!

This week, let’s discuss how we learn, what works, and what does not work. I believe myself to be an effective learner. I know what works for me, and I understand that the way I learn may not be effective for everyone else. I’m hoping today that I can perhaps give you some ideas to become a more effective student.

Regardless of the type of material I am attempting to learn, I always utilize four particular learning strategies: flashcards, specific note taking, reading aloud, and outlining.

Let me tell you, flashcards are truly a wonderful tool, more useful that just plain writing things down and it is easier to quiz yourself as well. Flashcards work well in all types of courses- ones where you need to understand the material as well as apply the material.

Specific note taking is a very useful tool to utilize, it basically means taking your notes and organizing them in a specific ways. What I like to do is use different markers to signify different things, and highlight definitions. This strategy is used both in class and while outlining my work at home. As discussed in week 1, I also color code basically everything as well.

Finally, I will read the chapter once to myself, then go back through and outline what seems to be the most important. It’s important to read the chapter once to distinguish what material is “fluff.” After I finish my outline, I will then read the chapter aloud. Sometimes reading aloud is useful because you tend to read more slowly, and it is easy to pick out more details that you may have missed the first few times.

For courses such as mathematics, if I am having trouble understanding a concept, I will use a website called “Khan Academy,” which has useful videos and instructional content that is very, very useful, AND FREE!

As stated above, I know everyone learns material differently, this is what works for me, and hopefully it can work for you as well. I also think it is important to point out that if there are tutoring services made available to you, I sincerely hope you will utilize those, because they can be very, very helpful.

Until next time,

Kelly 

Week 2 Journal PSYC 1300-004

In my opinion, academic transformation is a combination of things, both internal and external.

Internally, the process of achieving an academic transformation begins with realizing what needs to be done and mapping out a path to making those things happen. Basically, a game plan. 

There may be some sacrifices that need to be made in order to achieve an academic transformation, such as social life or work commitments. This is the point where one must evaluate and determine what is most important at this very moment.

Externally, the process of achieving an academic transformation begins with finding what works for you in the way of learning, studying, etc.

Personally, I learn best when I am able to experience it for myself with hands-on application. I also find that I would rather teach myself as opposed to sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture. 

As far as studying is concerned, I find that I am at my sharpest in the early morning, and that I almost always need music in the background to motivate me when writing (like right now)!

It is important to keep in mind that everyone is different and there is not a "one size fits all" approach to learning. 

I learn through visual cues!

At this moment in my life, I feel as though I have never needed to make that transition from a teacher-directed learner to an autonomous learner. From the very beginning of my schooling, I was constantly getting in trouble for moving ahead in assignments or doing things my own way, when I would always end up with the correct end result. High school was the worst, when the teachers attempted to force me into writing a research paper with all the steps (outlining, note card making, editing, restructuring, etc). I found these steps to be unnecessary and always received an "A" on the end project. Like I said earlier, there is no "one size fits all" approach to learning and I believe students in general would be more successful overall if they weren't forced into this sort of approach.

When it comes to being an autonomous learner, there are many areas where I am very proficient, including: 

• Having a realistic view of myself and my academic abilities.
• Setting a high level of academic values and ethics.
• Obtaining the ability to set realistic and appropriate academic goals.
• Knowing my learning strategies and weaknesses.
• Managing my academic behaviors.

With all good, there is also some bad, including:

• The ability to vary learning strategies.
• I think this comes from me being so anal about how I learn and knowing what always has worked for me in the past. I do not want to try and change that up and risk earning a bad grade.
• In the future, I can attempt to break this habit by perhaps studying for an exam in a different manner or taking my class notes in a different way.
• How I utilize (or don't utilize at all) academic resources.
• Every semester we have someone come into class and explain what the learning lab is and how to use it. Have I ever used it? NO, not willingly. Over the summer, we were offered extra credit for going to tutoring. I went, read my book to myself and then talked to tutor, who then signed my paper.
• In the future, and by future I mean in this course, I am going to step out of my comfort zone and work in a group for our Panel Discussions, much to my chagrin.

I am by no means a "perfect student." I know that I have many odd quirks and strange ways of doing things. Hopefully in the future, I can learn to let go a little and just go with the flow, except when it comes to my "game plan," that is non-negotiable.

Until next time,

Kelly