It's a little late but here is my reflections wrap-up. Throughout the semester as I was writing these reflections, I felt myself improving slowly. More so than my writing, I realized that I had changed my way of thinking. For the first couple of weeks, it was difficult for me to write enough on a topic. I had things to say, but they weren't conveyed properly. The depth was shallow and the connections were weak. Sometimes, it felt as though I was writing an essay to please someone rather than my own thoughts.
As the semester progressed, I was was able to organize my thoughts on paper before writing. I was also able to discuss more on topics by exploring them a little deeper and trying to connect them to my own experiences. It was easiest to write when I felt stronger with topics that personally related to me. I also tried to create new ideas and methods of organizing ideas so that I can effectively convey my message across. In conclusion, the four reflections that I picked were the ones that I put the most effort into. The topics connected and resonated within me.
1st Quarter - September: Establishing a Conversation
4th Quarter - December: On classes towards major
Choice - November: Opportunities to meet upperclassmen
Choice - October: Alignment
To be very honest, I had a difficult time choosing the four reflections that I did. There were different merits to each piece that I had written. From the beginning, I had chosen a very informal style of writing. This is actually something that I am unaccustomed to doing. I had chosen to write as though I were there physically speaking to someone in person. I feel that the best way to hold a conversation or to convey a message to maintain a familiar contact. Sure, there are times to be formal, however, daily conversation is exceedingly informal and yet very organized and informative.
Well, it is the end of the semester, but I don't think that it's goodbye just yet. I think that I will continue to keep this blog updated for a while. It is a fun way to speak your thoughts out loud and to clear your head by writing down everything that you're thinking of. I enjoyed the class this semester and felt that we accomplished quite a bit. I certainly learned a lot and changed my views on a lot of things.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
On Cheating
This topic has come up several times in our classes this semester. It is certainly prevalent in all of our class to a degree and gradually becoming more popular. We mentioned Sange theories in connection with cheating that the spread is thanks to reinforcement. As more students cheat and get away scotch free, other student see and follow their example. This is certainly a problem that could be solved by designing for effective change. (Perhaps it could serve as the problem to solve in the next section of our class in the future.)
From the perspective of a student I can see it happening all around me. People are copying homework assignments at the last minute. Large portions of papers are plagiarized. Students are even cheating on exams. I remember once during my sophomore year when I walked into my professor's office hours just to ask a question when I found him, questioning a student who had cheated on his exam. I have heard other stories where due to the large size of the class, students are seated side by side. One just has to peak a little bit to see his neighbor's paper. Moreover, there are stories where the professor just sits at the front reading a newspaper or listening to his ipod.
To put is simply, there isn't an effective system in place which is a deterrence to cheating. Students feel safe enough that they will not get caught. The penalties are harsh if you happen to get caught, however the odds are very low. A few TAs find it too bothersome to check every homework assignment and then question the student to check to see if they had copied it or not. A professor of mine this semester started giving out group homework assignments. Since we are working together anyways, we might as turn in one assignment as a group rather than having someone copy it off others.
When I take an exam, there is one huge deterrence to me cheating. Other than the fact that cheating is wrong, I feel a deep fear from the pit of my stomach from the chance of being caught. This is true of many students. Every time, you raise you head from your paper, there is always a proctor watching you. His eyes seem to penetrate you and read your thoughts. However, there are students who do not feel this fear, or simply do not listen to their conscience. The most the proctor can do is to maintain the tension of an exam and keep everyone aware of the risks of being caught.
I recently had the chance to proctor an exam for a freshman class. I was advised by the professor to constantly be on the watch and pacing around for the entire length of the exam. This was the first time for me to be in this position and to monitor students. I came in with the idea that I will be sharp and immediately be able to spot cheaters with my student perspective. Yet, for the first time, I felt the challenges faced by the proctors. In a huge classroom, with around a hundred students spread around, it was impossible to keep an eye on all of them. I kept walking around the classroom, and realized that the most I could do was to keep the students aware of my presence. If they felt that I was always watching them, they might be deterred from cheating.
Apart from the idea proposed by professor in class, which was to change the questions on every examination, there isn't much more that the faculty can do. It is within each and every student whether to cheat or not to cheat. For someone very determined to cheat, there is nothing to stop them.
From the perspective of a student I can see it happening all around me. People are copying homework assignments at the last minute. Large portions of papers are plagiarized. Students are even cheating on exams. I remember once during my sophomore year when I walked into my professor's office hours just to ask a question when I found him, questioning a student who had cheated on his exam. I have heard other stories where due to the large size of the class, students are seated side by side. One just has to peak a little bit to see his neighbor's paper. Moreover, there are stories where the professor just sits at the front reading a newspaper or listening to his ipod.
To put is simply, there isn't an effective system in place which is a deterrence to cheating. Students feel safe enough that they will not get caught. The penalties are harsh if you happen to get caught, however the odds are very low. A few TAs find it too bothersome to check every homework assignment and then question the student to check to see if they had copied it or not. A professor of mine this semester started giving out group homework assignments. Since we are working together anyways, we might as turn in one assignment as a group rather than having someone copy it off others.
When I take an exam, there is one huge deterrence to me cheating. Other than the fact that cheating is wrong, I feel a deep fear from the pit of my stomach from the chance of being caught. This is true of many students. Every time, you raise you head from your paper, there is always a proctor watching you. His eyes seem to penetrate you and read your thoughts. However, there are students who do not feel this fear, or simply do not listen to their conscience. The most the proctor can do is to maintain the tension of an exam and keep everyone aware of the risks of being caught.
I recently had the chance to proctor an exam for a freshman class. I was advised by the professor to constantly be on the watch and pacing around for the entire length of the exam. This was the first time for me to be in this position and to monitor students. I came in with the idea that I will be sharp and immediately be able to spot cheaters with my student perspective. Yet, for the first time, I felt the challenges faced by the proctors. In a huge classroom, with around a hundred students spread around, it was impossible to keep an eye on all of them. I kept walking around the classroom, and realized that the most I could do was to keep the students aware of my presence. If they felt that I was always watching them, they might be deterred from cheating.
Apart from the idea proposed by professor in class, which was to change the questions on every examination, there isn't much more that the faculty can do. It is within each and every student whether to cheat or not to cheat. For someone very determined to cheat, there is nothing to stop them.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Mutlimedia Connection
This is just a short post to connect my presentation to the course. From the start the objective of our course was "Designing for Effective Change", which is to say we are trying to bring change to the world.
To do so, we identify a problem and then propose a simple (ideally) and effective solution. I wanted to connect the presentation to the class project that we've been working on. Although we can identify the problem with class disengagement and we can propose a possible solution (peer mentoring), we still can't seem to completely solve the problem.
We understand that the mentoring plan could possibly be very effective and it can solve the problem, but there are problems in creating a mentoring program and carrying it through. There are still kinks that need to worked out.
Similarly, the solution to the Asian Carp problem is to kill them. However, there is no effective way to just take care of the carp alone. Poison is known solution and it has worked in the past in other places. Yet, this kind of solution still isn't perfect.
In our goal of Designing for Effective Change, we may often come across a problem where the solution is known and yet we can't do anything to make it work to the best efficiency.
I'm not quite sure how to make my connection more prominent, but everyone can take away a different connection from this presentation and our class. The invasive species could be compared to the spread of polio in Better. I also tried to make the message "sticky", a least a little memorable thanks to the jokes.
To do so, we identify a problem and then propose a simple (ideally) and effective solution. I wanted to connect the presentation to the class project that we've been working on. Although we can identify the problem with class disengagement and we can propose a possible solution (peer mentoring), we still can't seem to completely solve the problem.
We understand that the mentoring plan could possibly be very effective and it can solve the problem, but there are problems in creating a mentoring program and carrying it through. There are still kinks that need to worked out.
Similarly, the solution to the Asian Carp problem is to kill them. However, there is no effective way to just take care of the carp alone. Poison is known solution and it has worked in the past in other places. Yet, this kind of solution still isn't perfect.
In our goal of Designing for Effective Change, we may often come across a problem where the solution is known and yet we can't do anything to make it work to the best efficiency.
I'm not quite sure how to make my connection more prominent, but everyone can take away a different connection from this presentation and our class. The invasive species could be compared to the spread of polio in Better. I also tried to make the message "sticky", a least a little memorable thanks to the jokes.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Mutlimedia Presentation: Asian Carp
So here is my video on Asian Carp. It's been in the news lately and I would just like to point out the issue and question the solution proposed.
This took a looooong time (hours...)to post. I would find a little mistake here and there between the transition from powerpoint to slideshare (especially with the fonts). I also had to figure everything out myself just by search through google.
Anyway, enjoy and please comment if it's too fast and whether I should make any changes.
This took a looooong time (hours...)to post. I would find a little mistake here and there between the transition from powerpoint to slideshare (especially with the fonts). I also had to figure everything out myself just by search through google.
Anyway, enjoy and please comment if it's too fast and whether I should make any changes.
Asian Carp
View more presentations from clock12.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
On classes towards major
I'd like to talk about required classes that one has to take towards their major and whether they are necessary or not. I currently feel that the required classes are a good idea to maintain “roundness” but they shouldn't be enforced very strictly.
This is actually a topic near and dear to my heart. I feel that the current curriculum is restraining and enforced excessively strict. Electrical engineering is closely tied with computer engineering and they are both housed in the same department (ECE). This means that a lot of classes overlap between the two majors. This is convenient when someone actually has interests that cross over but for the others it is actually very difficult. As an electrical engineer, I am well aware that I may never again work with topics covered in the required classes.
It is really frustrating to be forced into a class in which you happen to have no interest. After all, I chose to be a EE not a CompE. I realized that my interests did not lie programming or otherwise and therefore chose a different major. Instead of forcing me into a class, I would at least prefer to chose one amongst many. It's not like I hate all the CompE classes; there was one that I thought was fun. However, that was only one class and I will be taking one more class in the future which I am dreading.
Now moving on to classes outside of our major that are still required. I value classes in the Physics and Chemistry department but we do not need to take so many. Thermal Physics has be the most useless class that I have ever taken. I have never used anything from that class nor do I expect to in the future. This is the same with the chemistry classes, apart from learning the basic knowledge there is no need for the extra classes. If a class happens require advanced knowledge the chemistry class could just be listed as a pre-requisite. At this point the student has the option to choose whether to take the class or not.
Next, I feel that the math classes required for engineers is actually very apt. Calc III is a required basic knowledge that everyone should know. DiffEq is also very important but we so not need three different first-level DiffEq classes in the math department. The ECE department requires us to DiffEQ plus which basically covers one more chapter as compared to the other DiffEq classes. This is very personal for me since I actually took a DiffEq class in a different university while still in high school. However, U of I is unwilling to give me credit for the plus class. There is only a minor difference between the two classes and I don't want to take the entire class again just for the sake of one chapter. Additionally, since I am a junior now I have already covered the difference in material in my other classes. I am confident in my knowledge of differential equations and I feel that I should get the credit that I deserve and not miss out on graduation thanks to a single chapter in a math book. I would be extremely happy if they just gave me a bye. After all, I did take the class (albeit in a different university) and I got an A. I know DiffEq enough to do well in all my current and future classes.
Finally, regarding free electives it's a good idea to have more available as a part of graduation. In addition, we really don't need all the categories like social sciences or humanities. Personally, I have little or no interest in social sciences and a lot in humanities. If I could replace all of my free electives with social sciences with humanities that would be great. Also, I noticed recently that there are classes that do not fit anywhere,notably CHP classes. Even if these classes do not fit in either social sciences or humanities, they should at the very least fulfill free electives. There are other classes that do not fit any category and become black holes in my schedule that suck up my time without giving me anything in return.
To summarize, I don't have any major problems with the current systems, but I would like a lot small changes to occur.
This is actually a topic near and dear to my heart. I feel that the current curriculum is restraining and enforced excessively strict. Electrical engineering is closely tied with computer engineering and they are both housed in the same department (ECE). This means that a lot of classes overlap between the two majors. This is convenient when someone actually has interests that cross over but for the others it is actually very difficult. As an electrical engineer, I am well aware that I may never again work with topics covered in the required classes.
It is really frustrating to be forced into a class in which you happen to have no interest. After all, I chose to be a EE not a CompE. I realized that my interests did not lie programming or otherwise and therefore chose a different major. Instead of forcing me into a class, I would at least prefer to chose one amongst many. It's not like I hate all the CompE classes; there was one that I thought was fun. However, that was only one class and I will be taking one more class in the future which I am dreading.
Now moving on to classes outside of our major that are still required. I value classes in the Physics and Chemistry department but we do not need to take so many. Thermal Physics has be the most useless class that I have ever taken. I have never used anything from that class nor do I expect to in the future. This is the same with the chemistry classes, apart from learning the basic knowledge there is no need for the extra classes. If a class happens require advanced knowledge the chemistry class could just be listed as a pre-requisite. At this point the student has the option to choose whether to take the class or not.
Next, I feel that the math classes required for engineers is actually very apt. Calc III is a required basic knowledge that everyone should know. DiffEq is also very important but we so not need three different first-level DiffEq classes in the math department. The ECE department requires us to DiffEQ plus which basically covers one more chapter as compared to the other DiffEq classes. This is very personal for me since I actually took a DiffEq class in a different university while still in high school. However, U of I is unwilling to give me credit for the plus class. There is only a minor difference between the two classes and I don't want to take the entire class again just for the sake of one chapter. Additionally, since I am a junior now I have already covered the difference in material in my other classes. I am confident in my knowledge of differential equations and I feel that I should get the credit that I deserve and not miss out on graduation thanks to a single chapter in a math book. I would be extremely happy if they just gave me a bye. After all, I did take the class (albeit in a different university) and I got an A. I know DiffEq enough to do well in all my current and future classes.
Finally, regarding free electives it's a good idea to have more available as a part of graduation. In addition, we really don't need all the categories like social sciences or humanities. Personally, I have little or no interest in social sciences and a lot in humanities. If I could replace all of my free electives with social sciences with humanities that would be great. Also, I noticed recently that there are classes that do not fit anywhere,notably CHP classes. Even if these classes do not fit in either social sciences or humanities, they should at the very least fulfill free electives. There are other classes that do not fit any category and become black holes in my schedule that suck up my time without giving me anything in return.
To summarize, I don't have any major problems with the current systems, but I would like a lot small changes to occur.
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