Week 4 Reflection – Reading & Analysis

Originally published here.

This weeks assignment helped teach me not to always take for granted what is just written infront of you. Instead it is very important to always ask questions and consider the reliability of a source. Furthermore, this weeks assignment prompted me to criticise Wikipedia, and not just view it as a definite source of fact. I learnt about how it can be so very easily edited, and therefore its articles can become significantly subjective. 

As for the process of this weeks assignment, once again it was collaborative, however this time just in pairs. This collaborative work was much more efficient and successful than previous weeks. Towards the start of the week, I contacted Sana and we arranged a time to work and the google doc, as we both believed working online together at the same time would be a much easier process. Rather than constantly stopping and starting the work. We shared the work fairly and frequently discussed the contributions we would make. Therefore I think be worked together well.

Overall so far on the course, not only is it teaching me how to improve skills important for later life self-lead work, but also importantly, time management skills. It is key to organise yourself effectively in order to be able to complete all parts of the assignments set. 

Our analysis of the article:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jZxnBOopcQlczjDhJImejR-Q2Zt0rnV899y1-FoBB-A/edit

Week 4 Reflection – Reading & Analysis

Originally published here.

This weeks assignment helped teach me not to always take for granted what is just written infront of you. Instead it is very important to always ask questions and consider the reliability of a source. Furthermore, this weeks assignment prompted me to criticise Wikipedia, and not just view it as a definite source of fact. I learnt about how it can be so very easily edited, and therefore its articles can become significantly subjective. 

As for the process of this weeks assignment, once again it was collaborative, however this time just in pairs. This collaborative work was much more efficient and successful than previous weeks. Towards the start of the week, I contacted Sana and we arranged a time to work and the google doc, as we both believed working online together at the same time would be a much easier process. Rather than constantly stopping and starting the work. We shared the work fairly and frequently discussed the contributions we would make. Therefore I think be worked together well.

Overall so far on the course, not only is it teaching me how to improve skills important for later life self-lead work, but also importantly, time management skills. It is key to organise yourself effectively in order to be able to complete all parts of the assignments set. 

Our analysis of the article:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jZxnBOopcQlczjDhJImejR-Q2Zt0rnV899y1-FoBB-A/edit

Week 4- Due 07th April 2013

Originally published here.

How has this week’s assignment improved your skills of reading and analysis?

This week has improved my reading and analysing skills a lot. It has improved my reading skills as the assignment made me read an article that I would never normally read. Also, the sentences and words were complex and sophisticated. These helped me develop my vocabulary as I learnt new words that I will be able to use in future tasks. It has also helped by analytical skills as I had to read the article whilst constantly analysing. It helped to put my previously learnt skills of analysing into practise. Moreover, as the project was a paired task when analysing the article I had to ‘think out side of the box’ so that my ideas and comments didn’t clash with my partners.

Discuss how you and your partner worked together to complete the task.

Overall me and my partner created a good document that I believe was very relevant and valid. Although, we didn’t work great as a team. I think this was because we were both shy to initiate the project and we both were waiting for the other one to start the discussion. Due to this we had a lack of communication and a lack (none) discussion. In the end as I waited until later on in the week my partner started the task and wrote all her ideas and then I developed some of her ideas ad added my own. Our overall result was a success although we had little to no teamwork.

How is the course helping you to become a more in(ter)dependent learner?

Overall I think that the course is helping me to become a more independent learner as it is helping me to schedule my time and organise my week better. Also, it is helping me to be more self sufficient as I am having to research things that I don’t understand in more detail myself instead of just relying on a teacher to help or give me the answers. Although, I still think I need to become a more in(ter)dependent learner as I have found the group tasks hard to start a discussion.

Here is the link to our completed document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qUJvlKmtl07T5Xa727wC96l3enHmcT2wnlbZj59iWBk/edit


#crit101 v2 – Week Five

In week five #crit101 is turning its attention to synthesis and evaluation. The week five page has been updated with the video lecture, reading material and information about this week’s assignments.

This week’s assignment is collaborative and involves video. It should be both challenging and enjoyable. I have tried to include as much information about this in the lecture and on the blog. But as always, should you have questions or need help, please turn to the community and ask.

The weekly Twitter discussion will be on Wednesday (10.04.13) between 6PM and 7PM (BST).

Reflection on Reading and Analysis – Crit101 – Week 4

Originally published here.

This week was much more familiar territory for me. I teach analytical reading and writing and I have been engaged in analytical reading and writing for many years. It was still interesting to go through the process and think about the steps involved in analytical reading and writing. I enjoyed the experince of being taught how to read critically. I hope that the modeling will give me insight on how to teach my own students.

The homework was to engage in a critical reading of a Wikipedia page. It was a challenge for me because it was difficult to find a claim to anaylze. I think that I did find one claim to examine and that made the exercise compelling. The work led to a “meta” project in making an argument about an argument about an argument (turtles all the way down).

It is getting close to the deadline and I have not seen any contributions made from my partner. I feel a little selfish by running with my idea on how to approach this assignment. I know that collaboration would have added a challenge but in the name of getting the work done, I just plowed forward. I did refer to my work in the first-person which seems self-centered and against the spirit of the assignment. I sent an email inviting my partner to the “conversation.” I hope that if she shows up, the first-person language doesn’t put her off.

The work that I like the best this week was by leaving a comment on our professor’s blog post. His piece is about reading and writing critically so I challenged myself to take his work to task. I believe that I made a decent counterpoint to one of his ideas. I think that my contribution adds to the conversation and is not by its nature a criticism or negative.

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