Final blog-portfolio

We have now come to the end of another semester, which means that many things, including the class for which this blog exists, are coming to an end. The purpose of this final post is to evaluate my overall blogging experience. Additionally, I have created a portfolio of 4 of what I feel to be my better posts for Professor Arvan.

I will begin with the portfolio. Of the four blogs in the portfolio, one had to be from the first three weeks, and one from the second three weeks so that an accurate assessment of change (and hopefully growth) over the semester can be made.

I wrote this blog on Voting and Handwashing during the second week of the semester. I feel that it was a good post, because I felt that I had something to say, and was able to tie in the concepts discussed in class. A few weeks later, I wrote Intrinsic Motivation. Again, I feel that this was a good blog because I had a worthwhile opinion on the subject. As a general comment, when picking my blogs, I did generally pick out the longer posts, not because wordiness is better, but because the extra length was indicative of my feeling inspired and having more things to say. On the other hand, some of my other blogs were merely “bare minimum” in terms of length, and I usually really struggled to write them.

Let’s now jump forward in the semester. After writing a few posts, I started to settle into a more consistent writing style. One week we were asked to evaluate our view of online writing, which I have done in this post. In it I assessed the benefits and limitations of the blogging format for sharing our ideas. I feel that I was able to achieve an easy, conversational tone in this blog, but still my insight and thoughts on the subject.

Finally, I feel that I exited the blogging world (for now, and obviously excluding this post) with a bang with my post on Freedom and Self-imposed Restraints. This post marked my first time in deviating from the given prompt, and indeed the focus of the blog was to analyze the class’s propensity to stick to the given post to the bloody end, even if it felt restrictive. I would have to say that I think this was my best post, though I guess I am a bit uncertain as to why. Perhaps it was because I finally through aside all assumptions, and wrote a truly reflective and honest piece of writing.

So, as I am nearing the end of the last blog that I will be required to post, what are my thoughts? Overall, I was glad for the experience of blogging, if nothing else because it forced me to do something new. Do I think that I am a better writer because of it? Probably, though I would say that I am just a better blog writer. Thus, my overall writing style didn’t change much, but I have given it more breadth. That is, I have learned how to apply my previous knowledge to a different type of writing.

So, will I continue to blog in the future? I have to be honest and say “probably not, at least in the near future.” However, this at least in part hinges on the fact that outside of this class I really don’t have a blogging audience (except for a select few, who I am sure will be disappointed when I stop blogging!) But, perhaps in the future, when I have a different audience, and something to say, I will take it up again, and at that point I will certainly be glad for the experience that this class has given me.

So, to all of my readers (not that many, I know), "good bye and good luck!"

Freedom and self-imposed restraints

We are now nearing the end of the semester, which means that for me, this is the penultimate (second to last- thank Prof Arvan for the cool word) reflection that I will be “coerced” :) into writing. The overall nature of the blog has been that every w eek Prof Arvan gives us a suggested topic on which to write, though we were also told that we were able to choose our own topic. It is that that I want to discuss today, because, per our class discussion on Wednesday, some very interesting points of view arose.

Of particular interest was the disparity between Prof Arvan’s and our view of the blogs, particularly with respect to the prompt. I will try to summarize some of the interesting points of Wednesday’s discussion, which, quite frankly would have been more beneficial if we had had at the beginning semester.

Let me begin by laying out, as best I can, what I perceived to be the student’s and Prof Arvan’s viewpoint on the blog prompt, as they came to light on Wednesday.

From Prof. Arvan’s point of view, the blogs are a means for us to think critically about a subject, and then put our views out in the open in blog form so that other people can read and comment on our writing and thoughts, hence opening discussion which leads to learning. Additionally, to maintain a focus for the class, the blog was to be on some topic related to the class discussion that week. In order to aid those who struggling to think of a good topic, Prof Arvan also posted a prompt.

Even as I write this (assuming that I got it correct) I marvel that our interpretation of this was so different. Firstly, I believe that I/we would agree that the blogs were to be a way for us to get our ideas on the table. However, despite Prof Arvan telling us repeatedly that we didn’t have to stick to the prompt, most of us tenaciously held on to the prompt, even if it felt constraining, or didn’t interest us. There were probably several reasons for this.

The most important was our misconception of the purpose of the blogging. Given the type of “hard driving, dedicated students” that we are, we view the prompt as “the assignment, to be done whether we liked it or not”. I don’t think that I speak amiss when I say that a lot of us suffer from what I would call “grade perfectionism”. Any class is a thing to be conquered, and the surest way to get a good grade is to just do what the teacher wants. Whereas Prof Arvan wanted the blogs to be a freeing, learning experience, with the prompt being just that, we all viewed it as a mandate. Sure we were given the option to deviate, but to deviate is a dangerous thing- better to just stick with the safety of the prompt, even if we don’t like it.

Clearly, this is an important difference, and one which quite honestly I would have realized much earlier existed. Would my blogging experience have been different if I hadn’t conformed to my self-imposed restraints? Probably, as I would have gotten more of the benefit of the true intent of the blog.

So, while it is a bit late in the semester for this to have a huge effect (though apparently not too late, since the astute reader will realize that I have thrown this week’s prompt to the wind), how can this information be put to good use. Said another way, why was there such a difference in the class’s and Professor’s view on the blogs, and “whose fault was it”. I guess I don’t exactly know the answer, but would have to say that it was probably a shared responsibility. We as students need to get out of the “grade oriented” mindset and focus more on the “learning oriented mindset”. This would make it much easier to try something new, and not worry about failure. I suppose, if we had been paying attention, we could have learned firsthand from the fact that Prof Arvan really didn’t have a clear vision for the class, but still wasn’t afraid to try new things.

That being said, I feel that from the students perspective, the fear came from our lack of vision of where the class was going. Since we didn’t know what was going on, it was easiest to just take it week by week and do exactly as we were told. Finally, as a direct suggestion, even though it was clear in Prof. Arvan’s mind that the prompt was just a springboard, I think that given our preconceptions, he should have made it doubly clear, viz., “This week write about something we talked about in class. If you can’t think of anything, here is a suggestion…….”

Well, that is it. I wrote an entire reflection without the aid/crutch/restraint of a prompt. Thank you. Thank you.

Just kidding. In all seriousness, I wish I had been doing this all along, because I feel that what I have just written is an honest reflection of my thoughts on the subject, and much closer to the overall purpose of this blog. Which means it is now your turn- if you liked/ disliked/agreed with/etc anything I said, let it be known, so that the discussion can begin!

(Disclaimer- I use the collective “we” a lot in the blog to refer to the students in CHP 395/396. However, I realize that not all of the students in the class will agree with what I say, but using the word “we” felt more natural than “I”, especially given the fact that, for the most part, I feel that I am accurately speaking for the class. If that is not the case, I apologize, and please let your opinion be heard!)

Interaction between upper and lower classmen

I have mentioned before in class that I have lived in private certified housing during my entire career here on campus. Additionally, I (and Fred as well) have been an active member in our local church youth group (the same church the people who own Brown House, where I live, go to). My reason for mentioning this is that because of this, I feel that I have been exposed to a unique opportunity with respect to the availability of mentors, specifically the upper classmen being able to help the lower classmen. While I realize that my experience may be somewhat unique, and not applicable in the general sense, I still wish to share and reflect on it.

When I moved in as a freshman, there were three other guys living there. One, who I will call “J”, went to the same local church as me and was a senior. Suffice it to say, it was wonderful living with someone who “knew the ropes” and could help me through freshman year. This was, in my opinion, somewhat of an ideal mentoring situation. The fact that we lived together and got to know each other on a much more personal basis allowed for very free conversation. Instead of an official “mentor” where you meet someone once a week, this was much more informal, and could occur on an “as needed basis”.

Suffice it to say, I felt that I greatly benefitted from living with an upper classman. The question then becomes “was my situation unique, or could it be reproduced?” The answer is somewhat multifaceted. I know that it isn’t completely unique, because Fred lives in a house set up in a very similar manner (as does Joe, if I am not mistaken). However, these are all private housing, and are associated with a particular church, making the people somewhat more homogenous and better able to get along and relate to each other. Although I have never personally experienced it, my guess would be that trying to implement a “Senior-Freshman” mentoring situation in the dorms would be somewhat difficult. I recall others in our class (Sophia, maybe) saying that they did room with a senior when they were a freshman, but that it didn’t work out so well. Again, since I never lived in a dorm, I really can’t speak to how well it allows freshman and seniors to interact. This is merely speculation, but perhaps putting freshman and seniors on the same floor of the dorm would work (or maybe they already do this- I don’t know).

The second (though somewhat related to the first) means by which I interacted with seniors when I was a freshman was through a local church group. As a simple explanation, we are all members of the same national “Apostolic Christian church”, one local congregation of which is located in Champaign. The group, called the ACYG (Apostolic Christian Young Group) is a means for young believers to have interaction with other Christians on the college campus. We are a tight knit group and there is a wide age range of members. Basically, for me the group was/is a fantastic way for me to find good mentors, as I was/am able to directly and personally interact with people older and wiser than me (some of whom might actually be reading this blog!) It should be noted that mentoring is a byproduct, not an explicit goal of the group. The very fact that we do a lot together and are able to get to know each other more personally allows mentorship and guidance from the older to the younger to happen naturally.

The question follow up question is again “how does this apply to other students on campus?” I guess my suggestion would be to find a group and become an active member in it. The more you get to know people and the more you do with them, the more you can learn from them. Also, try to find a group of people who are interested in the same things you are, as it will make getting to know them and getting along with them easier.

(As a post script, I am now in my third year at Brown House, and suddenly find myself in the role of mentor, not mentee. There are two freshmen in the house, one of whom is my brother. While I don’t explicitly mentor them, it still is a natural byproduct of living together. We are very comfortable with each other, and thus it is very easy to have open conversation about a broad range of topics.)

Learning

I have taken many different classes in my lifetime, from here at the University of Illinois, in high school, even all of the way back to middle and grade school when I was homeschooled. I would also say, for the most part, I have learned a lot from these classes. I have also had many experiences in my life, again, most of which I would say I have learned something from. The topic of this blog pertains to the questions of “how do I know I have learned something” and “how can I convince others I have learned something”.

Probably the simplest way of showing that you learned something is to perform some demonstration to prove that you are capable of doing what you said you learned. In the case of school, this is brought forth in the ubiquitous “final exam”, wherein students are required to prove to the professor that they have learned something by providing the correct answers to the questions on the test. However, I personally think that talking about school learning is somewhat dry, so I will try to focus on type of learning with more non-tangible results.

When I say that I guess I am thinking more along the lines of skills such as patience, love, humility, really all of the Fruit of the Spirit, as put forth in Galatians 5:22-23 or other works of righteousness in Colossians 3:12. How do we know when we have learned these skills, and how do we show that to others? Whereas in school we were given written tests, these skills are “tested” by our daily action. I can say that a certain experience, say getting caught in a traffic jam, taught me patience, but how do I prove it? The manifestation of my having learn patience is my ability to be patient with those around me. Thus, we are constantly being tested on what we have learned.

I am struggling with what to write next, because questions such as “how do you ever truly learn patience?” or “how can I be perfectly humble?” and “if so, have I ever really learned these things?” or “if not, then what am I learning?” are running through my mind. However, even as I am thinking this, I am realizing that the exact same questions could be applied to school. “Can I ever really learn fluid mechanics” or “can I truly master thermodynamics?”

I guess I am concluding that any sentence which starts off “I learned …” should probably be reworded “I increased my knowledge…” (or something equivalent, but less dorky) because “learned” is past tense, and indicates that there is nothing else to be learned. I supposed it would be okay to say “I have learned my multiplication tables”, because (hopefully) all of us have perfectly mastered that concept. That being said, however, most of us use the phrase “I learned…” to indicate that there experience helped them to add to their knowledge of a particular topic.

I have muddled around in a lot of topics, so will try to bring some focus to this reflection as I conclude. (I admit that for whatever reason, I really struggled to write this reflection, and realize that even now what I have isn’t that good. However, in his other blog, Prof. Arvan bemoans the fact that students are such perfectionists, so I suppose I will just alleviate his concerns!) Basically, in my mind the answer to the question is somewhat trivial: we demonstrate our having learned something by putting it in action. I can say that I have learned something and may internally believe that I have, but, whether I like it or not, my learning is manifested by the external display of my actions/abilities.

Are general eduation and prerequisite classes important?

Recently our CHP class has been talking about the disengagement pact and student disengagement in general. The idea of the disengagement pact is explained in this article by George Kuh. In a nutshell, the disengagement pact is the idea that students and professors mutually agree to make each other’s lives easier, the professor by not giving the student as much work to do, and hence the student by not giving the professor as much grading to do. In this situation both the professor and student have a role, but even the most dedicated professor cannot (at least for the sake of this argument) force all of their students to be engaged in the class. Said another way, there are some students who are going to be disengaged from the class, either because they dislike school in general, or feel that the particular class they are in is unimportant.

Before I continue, I should give a proper definition of what I am talking about. I would say that all of the students in this CHP class are very good students who care about learning. However, I think I speak for the class when I say that we have all been in classes that we were simply uninterested in, or felt were not applicable to our education. I would venture further and say that for most of us those classes fell into the category of being a gen-ed or prerequisite requirement.

My point for laying this framework is to be able to discuss the question of whether or not it would be beneficial for some of the required courses in a major to be dropped, with students being given the option of taking free electives instead. Although from my introduction you might think I would be in favor of this, I can actually see both sides of the issue, but in general tend to disagree.

The first category of classes would be prerequisite classes for further courses in your major. Since I am in the ME program, I will use it as an example. Mechanical Engineers are required to take a broad range of foundational courses before they ever get into courses specifically in their major. These would be things like physics, calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, statics, dynamics, programming, etc. The argument could be made that since these don’t necessarily relate directly to Mechanical Engineering, they should be optional. Why make students struggle through something they don’t think they will use?

Having played the devil’s advocate, I will now state that I think that this would be a very bad idea. I feel that almost all, if not all of the classes I have mentioned comprise what I would call the multiplication tables of engineering. Even though you might not like them, they really are useful and important down the road, including in your more specific ME classes.

That being said, however, some of you are probably thinking “well yeah- courses in your major, including prereqs are important, but what about general electives?” I am honestly not sure what I think about this for several reasons. First off, due to AP credit, I really haven’t had to take that many gen-ed classes, so don’t have much experience to base this argument off of.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly is the time/experience issue. I can say the engineering prerequisite classes are important because I have seen firsthand that I need them for my specific ME classes. I cannot say the same for the gen-ed classes I have taken, because quite frankly, I don’t have enough experience to know whether or not they were indeed useful. Will Econ 103 benefit me down the road, or would another class have been better? How can I say at this point in my life?

I will try to pull some loose threads together before I continue. In general, the classes that otherwise good students become disengaged in are probably in the category of being pre-reqs or gen-ed requirements. Given this disengagement, especially given that fact that we are talking about very good, motivated students, would it be beneficial to allow more freedom in the class requirements so that students can take classes that they are more engaged in? I feel that this would be a bad idea with respect to the prerequisite courses, but the jury is still out on the gen-ed requirements.

The argument for gen-ed classes is that they allow a student to have more rounded education. Even though, as I mentioned before, I don’t have the experience to have a better view point on this, I do think I see the benefit of broadening your education. I took Geog 101 over the summer because it was a class which was available and which fit into my schedule. Was it my favorite class? Not necessarily. Was I ever disengaged during class? Most likely. Am I glad for the alternative perspective it gave me? Yes. While I might not have perfectly learned all of the concepts the professor would have liked me to learn, I still feel that I got a benefit from the class.

My point then, is that I have benefitted from taking both Geog 101 and Econ 103, even though I wouldn’t necessarily have taken them if not “required” to. I think if I had been given the choice of taking a “free elective” instead of a more directed gen-ed, I still would have taken some random, interesting class. My thought is that the intent, even if not the actual “law” of the gen-ed requirements is to give students some direction and guidelines for doing just that- taking classes which are interesting, yet somewhat useful.

Well, I have blogged for longer than usual, only to come to the conclusion that I like things just the way they are! Call me the “anti-change conservative” if you want, but I still think that a lot of thought and planning goes into setting the requirements for a degree, so why argue against those older and wise then us, especially when down the road we may “discover” that they were right. However, I am sure that not all of you who read this blog are of the same opinion, so I would love to hear your thoughts.

Discretion

Part of this course, in addition to writing our own blogs, involves reading other students blogs. The goal is that we will be able to share further ideas in an online forum setting. While I wish I could say that I regularly read everyone’s blog, I admit that, due to the heavy time constraints on an engineer’s schedule. Thus, when I saw that the prompt this week was to write about other student’s blogs, I was a little nervous, as I generally read the blogs in a fairly passive manner. That is, I don’t usually get terribly caught up and opinionated about the point that the student is making.

That being said, however, the blog by Tiffany last week caught my eye. The topic that the class was to consider that week was the question of how putting our writing online affects our writing. Most of us touched on the fact that putting our blogs online gives us a potentially much larger reading audience then just our professor. I discussed how, even if it is likely that people outside of our classes are not reading our blogs, it at least exposes us to some peer review when our classmates read our blogs.

What I didn’t discuss, and what I feel that Tiffany nicely covered was the global effects of posting things online. We live in a very connected society, with programs like Facebook and Twitter allowing us to communicate instantly with people all over the world. In that sense, then, putting something online is fundamentally different, because now a huge number of people can see it. Those, “other people” can include future employers, and we have all heard of stories of people who didn’t get a job because of something they had posted online about themselves.

In a word, posting anything online requires much more discretion and judgment. I appreciated Tiffany’s viewpoint on her Facebook post concerning her argument with her mom. It can be very easy to write something, and then post it, without considering who exactly will be reading it. I have more than once posted a comment or reply to someone, then an instant later realized how ridiculous it was, or how it could be misconstrued. Fortunately, in many cases it is possible to remove the comment, but, on a different side of things, all of us can probably remember sending an e-mail, which, immediately after we sent it, we wished we wouldn’t have. While I am probably doing a poor job of explaining it, my point is that today’s technology allows us to easily post things which can then be nearly instantly read by many, many people. Therefore, we must be absolutely certain that whatever we did or said is a good reflection of ourselves.

I will close by giving a quick example of how I feel I made the exact error I just discuss on this class blog. A few weeks ago we had to write about the topic of alignment, giving specific examples, if possible. I couldn’t think of any “really good” examples, but did have one situation come to mind, which involved another group that I am a part of. Thinking that “only our class is going to read this blog” I wrote about the story. However, I later found out that other people, in fact people from the group that the blog was about, were indeed reading my blog. Now the situation that I explained in the blog offensive or even negative, but I did feel badly about having used it, given my audience. I ended up removing the post, not because it was particularly problematic, but because I do want to be very careful about what I say online.

So, technology is a wonderful tool for communication, but it must be used with discretion. Programs like Facebook are nice because they allow us to stay connected with people. Our blogs are useful because they allow our classmates to read our writing. However, we must remember, that our post on Facebook can be seen by everybody, not just the friend it was intended for. And anyone can read our blogs, so we need to be careful what we write about.

Online Writing

Although I have written reflections (and numerous other pieces of writing) before, this class is unique in that we are required to post our work on the internet in a blog format. This is vastly different compared to my other assignments, because now, instead of only the professor being able to read my work, anyone in the world can. By nature, a blog is a very open and accessible piece of writing, since anyone who has internet access can read it. In theory, because anyone can read and comment on the reflection, this format should lead to open and free discussion of the topics covered.

I believe that this particular format was chosen because, ideally, it very nicely parallels what I perceive to be the nature of the class “Designing for Effective Change”. By that I mean I feel that the purpose of the class is to bring a wide variety of ideas into the discussion, and hear multiple view points on how they all fit together. In class we are encouraged to not only bring our own thoughts and ideas to the table, but to also respond to/comment on/expand upon the ideas of others. In a similar way, putting our reflections online accomplished the same goal, in that we are able to respond to and comment on other peoples reflections.

The question then, is how well have we been able to mimic the class setting online? I feel that there are two important aspects to discuss for that question. The first relates to the fact that, since our writing is posted online, people outside of our class are also able to read our reflections. In that regard, then, the openness of the internet could potentially be used to really share and spread ideas from quite a large group of people. But, while that may be a possibility, that is certainly not how I have observed things play out, in that, to my observation, very few people outside of our class, if any, have commented critically on our writing. This really doesn’t come as a surprise to me. I admit that if I stumbled across the blog of someone writing for a class I 1.) would feel like an outsider, and probably wouldn’t comment and 2.) probably would feel that I didn’t have the time to get involved anyways. My point then is that if we are trying to get feedback and discussion from people outside of our class, I don’t think it is happening.

Due to the conclusion I reached in my previous paragraph, I don’t feel that I am using the blog format to its fullest potential. I write with the expectation that other people in the class will be reading what I say (which is still a marked difference from writing “directly to” the professor), but don’t really expect people outside of our class (other than a few key exceptions, namely friends of mine) to take much interest.

I mentioned that there are two aspects to whether or not the blog mimics the class setting. The first was how people outside of our class responded to the blogs. The second, then, is how well the people in the class carry on the intent of the class outside of class on the internet. By this I mean, do we read each other’s blogs, comment on them, and have open discussion? I am going to be brutally honest and say that I don’t think we (or at least I) do a very good job. While I would love to be able to thoroughly read, think about and comment on everyone’s blog, the truth is that is simply doesn’t happen, due to time constraints. Then again, maybe I don’t want it to happen, because then the class would have no real boundaries. I guess what I am trying to say is, perhaps it is best that only a few people comment on any one blog. Really, an 18 person free for all in the online forum setting would be a mess anyways.

I have shared some fairly scattered and random thoughts just now, and will try to bring them cohesively together. I think that the purpose of putting our writing online is so that others can read it and provide feedback on it. By in large, only people within our class have commented, and in general only a few people comment on any one blog. I was debating whether it would be more beneficial if more people read and commented, and, while I think that it would be marginally better, it don’t feel that the lack thereof means that the blogs are a failure.

The obvious question, then, is how is my writing different if I know that my at least a few of my peers will be reading it? My answer, at least at this point is: not much. The style of writing is different, in that I use a much more conversational tone, but I don’t feel that the content of my papers is any different. I basically view the blog as being my way of expressing my ideas to the class, but I have more time to fully develop and present my whole idea.

Overall then, I would say that writing online has been a new experience for me and learning one, in that my peers are now reading and criticizing my work. However, whereas initially I wondered what it would be like to have random people reading my writing, I feel that that has worn off, because I don’t perceive that random people are reading my blog. So, if anyone is, please comment, so that I know you are there!

Criticism

Criticism, at its very core, involves one person giving their own interpretation on the quality, or lack thereof, of someone else’s work. When thinking about criticism, two major categories come to mind. The first would be criticism which is purely commentary, usually negative, on someone else’s work. This criticism is not usually intended to be helpful and is simply expresses dislike of the way someone else is doing something. Additionally, the person whose work is in question may not ever even hear the criticism. An example of this would be criticizing the president concerning one of his policies. I would say that we can agree that this type of criticism is not really intended to be constructive, especially given that the president will most likely never hear what we say.

As already alluded to in the previous paragraph, the second category of criticism is constructive criticism, and that is to be the focus of this reflection. As the name suggests, constructive criticism is criticism offered to someone with the intent of helping them improve at something. Unfortunately, despite the best intentions of the critic, giving and receiving beneficial criticism can be quite a challenge. This is because, somewhat by definition, constructive criticism involves telling someone about something that they are doing incorrectly. While part of the criticism will probably involve telling the person about things they are doing correctly as well, there would really be no need for criticism if they were already perfect.

So, if we put ourselves in the perspective of the critic, before we can offer criticism, we must have some standard on which to base it. In my opinion, this is where criticism becomes very tricky. I think it is safe to say that in some cases, like a math problem, there is a well defined right answer, or right way of doing things. In this way offering criticism is relatively simple, as it merely involves showing the person the correct way to do things. Being an engineer, I feel that it would be relatively easy for me to offer criticism to my peers, in that I could sit down with them, check their answers, and if they missed any, show them the method to get to the correct answer.

However, I don’t think that this captures the true essence of criticism. I am not going to be distressed or upset if someone tells me I used the wrong equation; I will just fix the problem and move on. However, if someone tells me I need to do better at work, or become a better writer, I might find the criticism more difficult to accept. Why is this? I think that one explanation is the fact that the criticism is of a much more personal nature. Assuming that I always try to do my best, having someone tell me that I am doing poorly implies that my best isn’t good enough. I think another factor lies in the subjectivity of the criticism. Does the person criticizing my writing just not like my style? Is the manager just being overly picky? Is my choice of clothing really that bad?

What, then, is good criticism? Fundamentally, I would say that it is giving someone advice on how to do better in such a way that they feel compelled and motivated to take your advice. In order to be a good critic, you must have a previous knowledge of the subject on which to base your criticism. If the person being criticized knows that you are knowledgeable about the subject (i.e. aren’t just giving your personal opinion) it gives the criticism more credibility. In most cases, because the lines of goodness and badness aren’t explicitly defined, this knowledge comes from experience in the field. One example would be a manager giving an employee a performance review. Over time, the manager will have seen “good” and “bad” employees and will have a database of qualities on which to base the review. Another example is Professor Arvan’s reviews of our reflections. Being a very avid reader (at least from what I have observed), Prof. Arvan most likely has a very good sense of what “good” and “bad” writing looks like. Unfortunately this still doesn’t eliminate all of the subjectivity that can make criticism hard to accept.

Another major factor in being a good critic is being able to help the person see how they can improve. In the example I already gave about engineering, this would involve making sure the person I was helping understood how to correctly use the equations, where the equations came from, etc. A manager providing criticism to an employee should give specific examples for improvement. A professor grading a paper should give the student specific examples on how their writing could be better. I realize that this is a very left-brained way of thinking about this. Some people might be of the opinion that subtlety is better. That being said, I am describing how I would ideally like to be criticized, whereas someone might have a different opinion.

To summarize, constructive criticism involves helping someone see how they can improve on something. In some instances “right” and “wrong” are explicitly defined, making the criticism fairly straight forward, and in some ways, trivial. In general, though, “right” and “wrong” are less explicitly defined. A good critic then is one who has a deep knowledge of the material in question and can provide objective insight on methods for improvement. Finally, however profound or accurate the criticism may be, it is useless if it isn’t presented in a method which helps the person improve.

Social Responsibility, Love and the Bible

We are all individuals, with our own wants, desires, and interests. We love individuality and uniqueness so much, that as a society we joke about the fact that “everyone is unique, just like you!” The point, though, is that our actions have an effect on the people around us. If I do whatever I want, or just live by my rules, then it would seem that I could create a pretty nice situation for myself. Basically, I could try to create a situation where the world revolves around me, as it were.

The problem with this, however, is obvious. If I get to create my own rules, then doesn’t the guy next to me get to create his own rules? And, what if his rules contradict with my rules? Who is correct? Pretty soon we get into a situation where, even though everyone is doing whatever they want, it doesn’t benefit them, because everyone is also doing whatever they want. Thus, instead of a utopia for me, we have created a completely dysfunctional society, where no one is happy. (Unless I happen to be powerful enough to force people to abide by my rules, but that is beside the point!)

My reason for describing this somewhat hypothetical situation is to show that we as people realize that we have some responsibility to each other, because if we all just disregarded each other, then society would be a mess. The example I gave was farfetched, because it assumed that no one cared about anyone but themselves. I think we would all agree that as some fundamental level we all realize that there are certain qualities of life that we are entitled to. That is, we all basically agree that I shouldn’t kill you, steal from you, hurt you, etc.

I guess I this topic can somewhat be boiled down to the fact that we live in a world with limited resources. Therefore, I should not take away the resources that are intrinsically yours, like life, health, happiness, etc. I would say that social responsibility is the manner in which we use the resource that we collectively share. The environment and natural resources are a perfect (and probably over used) example of this, so I will only mention it briefly, so that you know that I am talking about. We all “share the world”, which means, before I go waste resources, or “hog” them, as it were, I should consider how I would feel if you, or everyone, did the same thing. Another, perhaps less obvious example (and maybe not even a good one) would be the resource of time. We have all been given the same 24 hours (give or take a few seconds) for each day. Therefore, I should consider if my actions are causing you to waste your time.

While this might be somewhat of an abstraction, I think that it has an interesting application with respect to traffic, so allow me to digress for a minute. We are a familiar with the situation where we are driving down the interstate and because of road construction two lanes are reduced to one. And, I would say we are all familiar with the fact that the traffic jam happens before the lane reduction. As soon as you reach the part of the road that is one lane, as a general rule, traffics speed up, despite the fact that you are now driving in one lane instead of two.

Why is this? It is because we are all trying to do what is best for ourselves. We have all been annoyed at the person who, when everyone else is merging, flies down the open lane to “get ahead” of everyone. It is this self serving attitude which causes everyone to try to wait until the last possible minute to merge, thus causing a huge traffic jam. If everyone would just merge way out ahead of time then things would actually be better for everyone, because, if you recall, a soon as everyone was down to one lane, traffic speed picked back up. While this isn’t exactly related to social responsibility, it does give an example of how everyone doing their own thing is actually worse for them then if everyone would just do what was better for everyone. (This actually nicely agrees with the free rider problem that we talked about earlier in class.)

Now, where was I!? Oh yes. At a certain level, we are all responsible to each other, and, in general, doing so we make things better overall. Said another way, we should strive to have a society where everyone put’s each other first. Even in strictly mathematical terms this makes sense. If I do what is best for me, and you do what is best for you, then we each only have one person looking out for us. However, if we all do what is best for everyone else, and then we all have everyone but ourselves looking out for us! (This is directly related to the prisoner’s dilemma. Everyone working together creates the best situation, whereas everyone working against each other creates the worst situation. However, everyone wants to be the “one guy” who gets special privileges, by mooching off of other people, which by nature leads to everyone working against each other, and hence the worst possible situation.)

I realize that the principles I just talked about might not be representative of the way we typically think of social responsibility, but I think that the name still fits. I would also like to mention this principle is such a good one that the Bible teaches it many times. It is no wonder, given the explanation I just gave, that the Bible commands us all to love one another. I believe that this is stated very succinctly in Mark 12:31, where is says “Thou shalt love the neighbor as thyself.” The question then becomes, how do we become a society where we love one another. (let me clarify that I don’t mean this in a fluffy “lets love everybody” sense, but rather in the true definition of a serving love, as set forth in 1 Corinthians 13.) The simple, though incredibly difficult answer, is that it starts with me.

Alignment

The post has been removed to avoid confusion, but I still have a copy of it for my records

Intrinsic Motivation

Our recent discussion in class has focused heavily on the type of things that motivate us. We discussed that in the classroom setting, grades seem to be a very effective and ubiquitous motivator. Although some problems with the concept of grades (i.e. working to “beat the system” and not learn the material) were discussed, we decided that grades were probably one of the most consistent and effective motivators for class work.

However, and somewhat unfortunately, in our discussion we never were able to get past the topic of school to talk about other situations, especially ones where the motivation for doing well was more intrinsic in nature. Surely there are many things that we do and put effort into, not because we are forced to, but rather because we want to.

At the risk of talking too much about school (I’ll touch on other topic later), I do have one experience with I feel is worth noting. One of my favorite classes in college so far has been the CHP course MATH 199, “Mathematics in Art and Music”. It was very clear from the outset of the class that grades were not the focus of the course, and that any student who put effort into the class would get an A. While in some for some this might have provided an excuse to slack off, this was not the case for me. Personally, I felt freed to enjoy the course to its full potential. I love both math and music, so I found the course content to be extraordinarily interesting. Therefore, I ended up working hard to learn in the class, not because of the pressure of grades, but because I truly enjoyed the material and wanted to learn more.

I would also mention that, since homeworks and tests weren’t really graded, per se, I was free to explore the material to learn what was going on, without worrying about getting every little detail right. However, as many of you are probably thinking, because I was interested in the course, even if it would have been graded strictly, I would still have done well. Overall, I was very glad that I took the course, as it gave me the opportunity to learn something new just for the sake of learning it.

I should note that this doesn’t mean that I haven’t learned from or enjoyed my other classes. This class was simply a neat learning opportunity. Also, if the class had been on a subject that I wasn’t as interested in, my experience would have probably been totally different.

I will now turn my attention to other situations, since the discussion of grades and school has been thoroughly beaten to death.

When thinking about things that we do or learn because we want to, not because we are forced to, the concept of hobbies immediately comes to mind. As I have already mentioned, I am interested in music. Therefore, I am motivated to learn new songs on the piano, or learn how to sing better, simply because I want to.

Just stating this, however, brings to mind the difference, as stated in the “Expert Mind” article, between and expert and an amateur. While I do practice the piano, I don’t feel that I am exercising “effortful study” in order to become an expert. Rather, I have attained a level of skill that I am comfortable with, and over time will improve somewhat, though far less that I would if I was constantly trying to push myself to new levels.

I suppose this begs the question of “what type of motivation would that require”. Although I am sure there are some cases of people pushing themselves to the “expert” level, I would say that for most this would require turning something from a casual hobby into a more devoted study. This would probably introduce external motivators, such as the need to create a successful career, or submitting to the requirements of a professional instructor or trainer.

This is not to say, however, that intrinsic or self motivation cannot push people to great heights. On the contrary, I think that internal motivations can be, and are very powerful. My focus in this article, however is on the motivation which will cause someone to want to be good at something without necessarily becoming an expert.

As a final personal example, when I was younger I was greatly motivated to learn how play chess. I read every book I could find on the subject and loved learning new skills and strategy. However, I was never on a chess team or anything- my motivation to read and learn was purely because I was interested in the game. (You might be wondering why I never joined a chess team, and the answer is I am not quite sure.) The point is, for a period of my life (which, unfortunately, has passed) I worked very hard to learn and research something simply because I was interested in it.

Honestly, I could probably talk for many more pages about things that I do due to internal motivation. While we are all very focused on the extrinsic motivation inherent in class work (probably because it takes up so much of our time), there are certainly many things that we do simply because of personal interest.

Reflection on reflections

I have now completed three reflective posts, one on the CHP, one on voting, and one on getting quiet people to open up. I definitely feel that I am learning as time goes on, though I still have work to do. In terms of style, I feel that I am fairly comfortable with the casual, chatty atmosphere of the blog setting. Unlike a formal essay or report, I am able to say exactly what I am thinking or feeling without having to conform to a specific format, tense, voice, etc. A blog also allows me to “have the floor” as it were and lay my entire idea on the table at once.

I do realize, however, that casual shouldn’t and doesn’t mean vague. This is one area that I can continue to improve on. Instead of talking broadly about a big topic, I need to really delve into a specific idea and search it out. I feel that this is something that will come with practice and that after writing more reflections I will be able to look back and see which ones were vague and which ones were more specific, then be able to learn from them.

I would say that out of the three blogs I have written so far, the second (about voting) was the best and my most recent (about opening up in conversation) was the worst. My explanation for this would be that I never really “got in” to the topic of the third blog. While I did try to talk specifically about a topic, I never really got the big picture motivation for the reflection. I suppose I also felt a bit out of place writing on the topic, because, while I am not a quiet person, I certainly don’t reach out to make new friends like some people do. Basically, I didn’t work hard enough to really delve into the topic, which was a combination of not being totally sure about the topic, and being tired, because I typed it late at night.

On the other hand, I feel that my article on voting was one of my better (out of three, so not really that big of a deal!) articles. I realize that I probably could have been more specific, but I did enjoy the topic and felt that I had a lot to say about it. I was able to talk about a specific idea, that of imperfect voter turn out and also so what relate it to the class.

I guess my biggest thing to learn yet, as I have already mentioned, but which I have realized even more by reflecting on my reflections is the balance of how much I need to investigate or talk about a specific topic. I don’t feel that I have a good understanding yet of what is a “surface” reflection vs. what is a “deep” reflection. Our blogs are certainly not supposed to be heavy reading, but also shouldn’t just waffle around about a general topic.

Another thing that I could do better at is relating the blog to our class discussion. In particular, I didn’t quite get the connection between getting people to open up and what we talked about in class. The first 2 reflections were tangentially related to our class discussion, rather than a further reflection of something specifically talked about in class. Then again, we are really talking about ideas and concepts in class, so writing an article about these general concepts actually is applying what we talked about in class. Again, I feel that with more time I will get a better understanding of how this should be manifested in the blog.

Overall, I feel that I am more or less on the mark for the reflections, but certainly have things that I can improve on. (Prof. Arvan- feel free to comment directly on this if you feel that I am misinformed and need to make more drastic changes.) In the future I would like to try to continue to develop the ability to discuss specific topics in detail. I could also do better at integrating the themes discussed in class into my reflections.

As a closing note, one thing that I don’t think I have to work on is style. Especially after reading the other students blogs, I think that it is readily apparent that we have many and varied ways of writing, even on the same topic. While I did adjust a little bit to account for the blog format, I have been developing my writing style my entire life, and, at this point, have pretty well developed how I approach writing!

Quiet people and conversation

The topic for this week’s reflection is the question of how one can get someone else to open up in conversation. I feel somewhat uncertain as to the basis or reason for this question. I suppose one purpose would be to discuss the issue that in any classroom, it seems that there is always a group of people who are content to just sit and listen to everyone else talk.

While the topic of getting people to talk in class might be interesting, it is secondary to the real question of “how do you get quiet people to talk?” That is perhaps a rather blunt way of asking how one can get into a deep and meaningful conversation with someone who generally wouldn’t talk about such things. I suppose one answer to the first question might be “why do you need to force quiet people to talk anyways, just leave them alone.” However, I think that this answer misses the point of the true question. The issue is more how you break down barriers between people so that you can engage in a heart to heart conversation with them.

I, by nature, tend to freely share my feelings and emotions. However, I can think of at least a few people who would instantly clam up if I asked them a direct and personal question. Clearly a more subtle and less harsh approach is more appropriate and necessary.

I would begin by talking about something completely unrelated. A low key, comfortable topic can allow you to warm up to each other in a non-threatening way. At some point, I would then try to guide the conversation to the more personal topic, though still in a very general sense. If the other person is perceptive they will probably realize what I are doing; therefore if they end the conversation they are basically saying that they don’t want to talk about it. At this point trying to push the topic would do little or no good, in my opinion. However, if the other person responds, then I would gradually try to dig deeper and deeper until we reached the heart of the issue.

Pushing someone to talk when they don’t want too can actually make them harder to reach. On the other hand, some people do need a little prodding to “get them out of there shell” as it were. (As a side note, I am certainly no expert on this topic, but am merely trying to pull together some thoughts on the subject.) This is a fine line, and varies with each situation. I know that my brother will bluntly tell me if he doesn’t want to talk about something, but my having asked will in no way hinder our relationship. On the other hand, if I make someone I don’t know very well uncomfortable, it might be very difficult, or even impossible to ever establish a close relationship with them.

In general, I would say that am never going to change a person, or be able to force them to talk to me if they don’t want to, just by somehow saying and doing the right thing. However, if I approach someone in a careful and nonthreatening manner, I may be able to convince them that I am someone that they can trust and talk to. This really is the essence of the topic. Trust must be established before people will be willing to open up to each other.

On voting and handwashing

In class on Monday we discussed the concept of hand washing, and how difficult it is to perfectly implement this seemingly simple task into the medical field. In this reflection we are asked to consider other situations where a large amount of effort has gone into changing/improving something, but the results still aren't perfect. After thinking about this for a little while, the issue of voter turnout came to mind.

We live in a country which is based on the concept of freedom and representation of the people, yet in the 2008 election voter turnout was only 56.8% (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html). Although this number has risen slightly over the past decade, it is still down from the higher, though still depressingly low, 63.1% turnout in 1960. On “off” years, or non-presidential years, the numbers are even worse, hovering around 38%. Why is it that such a low number of people exercise what could arguably be the most important and significant right of the American people?

Although I don’t have the knowledge to talk about them all, many efforts have been made to increase voter turnout. As an example, at least one major effort to combat this is the “campaign” to associate voting with patriotism and loyalty to one’s country. Sure, my vote might have seemingly little significance (more on that later) in the long run, but the very act of voting shows that I care about my country. The question then, is why aren’t they working? Why do only just over half of the registered voters in America turnout to vote on something as important as who our next president will be?

While I don’t have the answer, the situation does rather parallel the hand washing example discussed in class. It would seem that again time and importance are people’s main excuses for not voting. I know from firsthand experience (being a Republican in Illinois), that, more than likely, my vote will not have an effect in changing the outcome of the election. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t vote anyways. It is the thought of “my vote won’t count anyways” which is so dangerous. Do we want our doctor to abstain from washing his hands before he examines us, just because it “probably won’t matter”? This kind of thinking indicates casualness and apathy towards the situation.

This apathy, coupled with the fact that voting takes time and effort, are a deadly combination. If we can’t convince people that there vote is important, then how are we going to convince them to take time out of there busy schedule to go vote. The issue, then, seems to be centered on convincing people that their vote is important. While I certainly can’t prove this here, I do have at least one thought to consider.

Imagine a situation where 100% of the registered voters voted. How could they argue that there vote doesn’t count? Sure, the president elect will more than likely win by a margin of tens of thousands of votes, but does that really matter? Think of it this way. If I, as a Republican in Illinois (I use this for an example- I don’t wish to get into politics) don’t vote because I don’t think it will matter, and every other Republican does the same thing, then the whole situation becomes ridiculous. People don’t vote, since they think that there vote won’t matter because they know that other people aren’t voting, etc. etc. However, if I could somehow know that 100% of the people in Illinois, whatever their political party, voted, then I could rest assured that my vote was at least cast in the situation where it would most likely have a significance. By that, I mean, if all Republicans voted together with one voice, then, regardless of the outcome, they would all mutually know that they had done the best that they could. Therefore, it would seem that a single vote would count, because everyone would vote with the knowledge that they had the full support of everyone else of their particular political view.

As with hand washing, it seems that we again have a situation which seems so simple, in principal, to fix, yet so hard in reality to accomplish. Until we can convince people that every vote counts, voter turnout will always be low. And how do we convince people that every vote counts when people, by nature, tend to automatically round low probabilities to zero? Actions such as making it easier and simpler or even more patriotic to vote will be of little significance until we address this foundational issue.

I feel as though I have only scratched the surface of a very complicated question, which, honestly, I know relatively little about. I hope, however, that the reader of this post will think honestly about their motivation for either voting or not voting. I know that I personally in thinking about the topic have resolved to increase/continue my voting participation, because, although I am very small in the big picture, I am all important in that voter turnout most certainly can’t be 100% until I vote. Now, if we could all just think this way…

Thoughts on the CHP

The other day in class we discussed the CHP and whether or not the class requirements were a perq or a hindrance. Part of the discussion centered on the fact that, in general CHP classes are very interesting and cover a large range of topics, but due to limited availability can be hard to schedule around. For me this rang especially true when I registered for the CHP seminar course. With only about three to choose from, it was tricky to find a class which worked into my already busy engineering schedule and which also interested me.

Therefore, my mindset coming into this class was that it seemed to be the most interesting of the three. I don't say that as a negative, but rather as an honest assessment of the way the CHP seems to work. While students are given all of junior and senior year to fulfill the seminar requirement, it seems a bit risky to just wait until the "perfect class" comes along. (I should note that I am actually very pleased with and excited about this class, as I will discuss later, but since I have the opportunity, I will at least share some observations on the system.) Also, for students like me who are ahead of schedule, this method gives even less time to find a fitting seminar class to take.

I guess my gut feel is that, since they are given a special distinction, the seminar classes are a bit more challenging and involved than the other classes. Perhaps that it incorrect, but if it is the case, it would seem as though you would want this class to be one that you are interested in, not just one that you are taking to fulfill a requirement. I suppose the result of this is that I think it would be beneficial to the student if the CHP offered more seminar options every year, or at least gave information about the classes a semester or two in advance, so that students could make an educated decision on which one to take.

While this may be partly my fault, I feel that I don’t have a good concept for what gives a class the distinction of fulfilling the seminar requirement. This also partly affected my decision of what class to take. While I am a hard worker and am very motivated, I also didn’t want to register for a class, then find out after the fact that I was in way over my head in a class that I really didn’t enjoy, but also couldn’t easily switch out for another one. In a nutshell, I like to know what I am getting into, and while the course description for this class was very informative, I still wasn’t sure what exactly made it different from all of the other CHP classes.

That being said, I enrolled in the class “Designing for Effective Change” in a bit of a step of faith that the class would be interesting and applicable. After attending the first class session I believe that it will be both. Although it can be difficult for some people, myself included, change is something that we can’t get away from and which really is what springs us forward to newer and better things. Therefore, learning the causes behind what makes change effective and successful is very beneficial and relevant. By learning about the very roots of change I will be well prepared to handle, and maybe even initiate the change which will inevitably occur in the work place.

To summarize, I enrolled in this class because I believe it will contain inherently interesting and useful information. I also hope that this class will continue the CHP tradition of being primary being focused on learning and discussion rather than busy work and grades. I have also enjoyed the fact that my CHP classes give me a break from my core engineering classes. Basically, I have really enjoyed the small, Socratic-type setting which allows me to interact with fellow student with a wide variety of interests, but with the same motivation to learn. I hope that this class will be a continuation, and indeed a capstone to my positive CHP experience.

First blog (original, I know)

This semester I am taking a class called "Designing for Effective Change". As part of the class we are required to post our reflective writing online, hence the creation of this blog. Blogging will be a new experience for me, and while I probably wouldn't have pushed myself to try it on my own, I am glad that I will get at least a taste of it this semester. Who knows: I might discover that I really enjoy it and may continue to use the blog after the class ends.