I learned about geography as something I think I should remember for the rest of my life. I may not remember exactly where the Ottoman and Mughal empires where and when but I will no the general area and where other events where located. I never learned much about geography and where places were or even the general area they were in. Now I know what is around Latin America and Asia.
This year I learned about blogging. I learned about the different ways you can blog like investigate or research more about a topic to explore and connect by tracing something new back to something else we had learned or a personal experience. I feel like I have learned about how to reflect in a more analytical way rather than just summarizing. I looked at my first couple blog posts and they were all mostly summarizing what I had researched or they talked a little about what I thought about the situation. Now, I feel like I can talk in more depth and respond to other people's posts in a more reflective manor. This obviously is partially because I have more background knowledge because I have learned about many different cultures, areas, and time periods over the course of the year. I really like how blogs let you participate so you can get participation in class but you can say it outside of class. For example, if we are having a conversation about something and everyone is participating, then sometimes it is hard to get your opinion in. But with blogging, I could share my opinion and be able to reflect on what others had said without having to try to speak up in class. Also it gives you time to think about what others have said and so you have more time to respond rather than on the spot in class. I was surprised by how much freedom blogging provided. I found the text hard to read at some points, but for homework I could talk about the discussion in class rather than trying to comprehend the text and then saying something weird because I didn't get it.
In fact i almost wish we had more time to learn about the geography of the world. While i was doing my research paper on Cambodia, i found it fascinating to learn how neighboring countries can have such an impact on eachother. If Vietnam had not had its civil war, Cambodia would not have been bombed by the Americans and then Cambodia would not have had the political unrest that led it to the occupation by the Khmer Rouge. In Europe, the proximity of all the countries is bound to lead to war, be it over type of government, religion, or land.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that the text was really bad to read. This is where the powerpoint presentations came in handy. The explanations on the powerpoints really decoded what Strayer was saying in each section, and helped me fully understand each topic of MWH. More powerpoint presentations would have definitely made the learning a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteI think that spending class time to simply convey facts is kind of stupid. We can read all of that kind of information on the internet, or in a book. Class time should be sent conversing with one another, talking about what we think and why, arguing, debating, reasoning, presenting, and just bouncing ideas off of each other. If we aren't doing that, we might as well just learn from a computer screen.
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