The first week of blogging for UWP 101 has come to an end and I have to admit that the experience so far has been very unique and entertaining. When I first read about how the class would be structured, I was just ecstatic that I wouldn’t have to churn out ten page papers on topics I’m not the least bit interested in. Being a sociology major, it seems as if all we ever do is read some incomprehensible book and write an essay or term paper about it. Just last quarter I had to write two 10-page papers for two different sociology classes. When I first signed up for this class in May, I was thinking to myself, “I know it’s a requirement, but do I have to keep writing bs papers that nobody really cares about?” After looking at Chris’s blog and attending the first day of class, I was very intrigued. This was an extremely uncommon method of allowing students a larger sense of freedom in composition. It was also a very welcome change from writing ridiculous term papers. Judging from the amount of people on the wait list it seems as if others had the same train of thought. Either that or people wanted to finish UWP early enough in the day to enjoy the scorching hot Davis weather.
The class discussions are very casual and rather spontaneous. One such example was the decision to use a random number generator to determine what word or words we would discuss in class. Never before in an English class had a TI-83 graphing calculator been the deciding tool for our discussion. Dialogue is very easily created as well. Everyone in the class has their own opinion and interpretations and the discussions are very friendly and non-combative. It is very helpful for people like me, who do not like speaking up in class.
Although it has only been one week into the class, I am looking forward to blogging more and reading more of my classmates’ blogs. It has been very enjoyable seeing the use of movie quotes or reading about waiting in line for shoes. Hopefully the interest in this blog and this class will not wane as we venture further into the summer session.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Are we smarter than a 5th grader?
I'm sure many of you have heard of the game show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?." For those who haven't, the premise of the game is to match your wealth of knowledge against a group of 5th graders. If you answer a question correctly, you win some money. Sounds simple enough right?
That's what I thought until I heard some of the questions. The knowledge these 5th graders have is far more advanced than what an average 5th grader possesses. Are we really mentally inferior to a 10-year-old child? Or is the idea of what comprises knowledge different between different groups of people?
According to the book, knowledge is information or data which can be stored or retrieved. In this sense, it is just regurgitation. We read a textbook, memorize some insignificant facts, and write them down on a piece of paper to demonstrate our "knowledge" of the material during an exam. But if you're like me, you forget everything you were tested on 5 minutes after leaving the test. Knowledge can be a devastating weapon that can be utilized. Through knowledge, the A-Bomb was constructed and caused immense damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. At any given moment, a nuclear war may start and life on Earth would probably cease to exist. On a lighter note, knowledge can bring back nostalgic memories. On a recent vacation with my family, I was watching cartoons with my 5-year-old niece. They happened to be airing Tom & Jerry at the time. While watching, I reminisced about my childhood and watching all the classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Flintstones, Popeye, Jetsons, etc. My niece asked me what she was watching so I explained Tom & Jerry to her briefly. After it ended, we looked for more cartoons to watch and we ended up on some contemporary cartoon that I had never seen or heard of. Not surprisingly, she knew exactly what it was and I could only nod and hope she can't already solve complex derivative equations because I sure as hell can't.
What knowledge is to each person varies based on their individual perspective. I think knowledge is subjective and consists of information gathered from our prior experiences. In terms of overall knowledge, we as college students are deemed to be fairly intelligent. In some cases though, we are not smarter than a 5th grader. We may not even be smarter than a soon-to-be kindergarten student. I know for sure I'm not.
That's what I thought until I heard some of the questions. The knowledge these 5th graders have is far more advanced than what an average 5th grader possesses. Are we really mentally inferior to a 10-year-old child? Or is the idea of what comprises knowledge different between different groups of people?
According to the book, knowledge is information or data which can be stored or retrieved. In this sense, it is just regurgitation. We read a textbook, memorize some insignificant facts, and write them down on a piece of paper to demonstrate our "knowledge" of the material during an exam. But if you're like me, you forget everything you were tested on 5 minutes after leaving the test. Knowledge can be a devastating weapon that can be utilized. Through knowledge, the A-Bomb was constructed and caused immense damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. At any given moment, a nuclear war may start and life on Earth would probably cease to exist. On a lighter note, knowledge can bring back nostalgic memories. On a recent vacation with my family, I was watching cartoons with my 5-year-old niece. They happened to be airing Tom & Jerry at the time. While watching, I reminisced about my childhood and watching all the classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Flintstones, Popeye, Jetsons, etc. My niece asked me what she was watching so I explained Tom & Jerry to her briefly. After it ended, we looked for more cartoons to watch and we ended up on some contemporary cartoon that I had never seen or heard of. Not surprisingly, she knew exactly what it was and I could only nod and hope she can't already solve complex derivative equations because I sure as hell can't.
What knowledge is to each person varies based on their individual perspective. I think knowledge is subjective and consists of information gathered from our prior experiences. In terms of overall knowledge, we as college students are deemed to be fairly intelligent. In some cases though, we are not smarter than a 5th grader. We may not even be smarter than a soon-to-be kindergarten student. I know for sure I'm not.
Monday, June 23, 2008
New Keywords, Same Attitude
After a very uneventful day in class, I headed over to purchase the textbook for the class. I decided to head over to the off-campus bookstore as books tend to be cheaper there. Unfortunately, they were out of stock. I was reduced to purchasing the book from the UC Davis Bookstore. The mess of books lying in random piles made the book impossible to find. In fact, it was for awhile. The UWP books were in two different sections randomly organized. Four other classmates were there unable to find the book as well. We asked the student assistant if the book was in stock. According to the database, they were, but even he could not locate them in the clutter. The manager was asked to help but she seemed far more interested in her own affairs than to attend to the needs of the students. She helped us eventually locate the books, but she was muttering to everyone within range at the incompetence of college students unable to locate a book. We looked at each other sheepishly and talked about the rudeness of the manager before heading our separate ways.
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