Posts

Maintaining Motivation (Module 7)

Hello there!

This week’s lesson was all about how to keep on going. With long essays, or multiple assignments, or a big exam, you can find yourself having to do work for 5-6 hours in a row sometimes. I’m going to share some of the tools I’ve found the most important to staying motivated and focused the whole time.

First, location, location, location.  Finding the right place to stay and work is essential. Sometimes you need something silent, like a library. Sometimes you need something with some white noise, like a coffee shop. Either way, finding which one best fits you and what you need is the first important step into staying on track.

Secondly, a soundtrack. If you’re like me, you need some music and white noise to stay studying for long periods of time. Making a playlist of songs is the best idea so you  aren’t constantly  changing the song. Also, try to have little or no adds that’ll throw  off  your grove. Staying locked in is important. My favorite app is Spotify, which is also in the lesson 7 power point, because it has a cheap student discount and is super easy to use.

Lastly, make sure you are taking breaks. The longer you study with less breaks, the less efficient your work can be. If you study and work in segments with scheduled breaks, it will help you make the most out of the times that you are working. This information was found from the YouTube video link embedded here if you want to check it out yourself!

 

Hope it was helpful!

Brynn

 

 

Searching and Researching

Hello!!

Sources, sources, sources. In every class, having correct sources and siting your facts is essential. You can’t get away without citing reputable, and trustworthy sources. So, how do you find these? And what counts as reputable?

There are three things to look for when looking at a source, according to E-Learning Companion: Student’s Guide to Online Success. The first is reliability. How trust worthy is this source? Do they post their name and credentials? A reliable source will always post their sources, peer reviews, name and credentials. The second one is quality. A source should be to the point, factual and not biased. Any of these missing is a red flag. The third and final check is utility. It should accurately be able to be used in answering your thesis. If the facts don’t fit it won’t work! (https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/dp/113331631X/ref%3Dcm_sw_r_cp_ep_dp_b1m1AbY68S55G&sa=D&ust=1563118951172000&usg=AFQjCNEcvJzfbUzrn_CtZ4DqI0cwsB9JIA)

 

For when it comes to looking for sources, there are some better ways then just googling what you are looking for. First off, researching is bigger than searching.  I read this in an article by Marc Prensky. Researching comes with gathering all the information you need to make an answer to a question, or a thesis. Searching normally just has a right or wrong answer. I have a Children’s Literature essay due this summer. After writing a thesis, a very important step I take is using Google Scholar. This helps me find scholarly journals which I know are proved to be reliable. I would suggest this for anyone needing professional sources for their papers!  (https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Search_vs_Research-01.pdf&sa=D&ust=1563118951198000&usg=AFQjCNEDKz9Vj_2eozpoCbeH95DyMF-IsA)

 

Thanks for reading!

Brynn

 

 

Web-Enhanced Listening and Viewing Strategies (Module 5)

Hi!

 

If you’re like me, lecture is fully spent trying to write down notes at a million miles per minute because EVERYTHING just seems important. The problem with this though, is how little information I’m actually retaining because I’m just mindlessly writing as fast as I can. This post is going to be about how to take the right notes and how to find videos that’ll help when lecture just wasn’t enough.

After watching the YouTube video, “How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 4 of 5, ‘Putting Principles for Learning into Practice'” I realized that I had been taking way too many notes.  This video (link below) helped me know that I should just be getting the key points and summaries while in lecture, so then, I can also pay attention and interact during class. Then, since I normally like to take more notes after this, I will probably be likely to go and watch a YouTube video after this. So how should I find the right video?

My personal favorite YouTube channels for school help are Khan Academy and The Organic Chemistry Tutor. Both of these are very helpful for my math and chemistry classes. Khan Academy was listed in the Module 5 Lesson Power Point, and I wrote about the Organic Chemistry Tutor in my discussion post. This would be a better time to take all the notes you wish, since you can pause and play a video but not a lecture.

Going forward, I will be more likely to try only writing the important notes in lecture, and focus more on paying attention and interacting with the class and my professor. I suggest you try the same!!

 

Good luck!

Brynn

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9GrOxhYZdQ#action=share)

 

Web-Enhanced Reading and Study Strategies (Module 4)

Hey!!

This week, we are going to be looking at how to use web resources to help with studying and assignments. There are a few that many people already use to study, such as Quizlet. But for people who never have really benefited from using Quizlet, here are a couple more options to help! (All ideas below come from the Lesson 4 Power Point)

 

Bubble.us: This option is an online, free source used to make idea or concept maps. I used this one this week about a Children’s Literature concept and it turned out great! I’ll post the link to mine here, so you can see how it turned out! https://bubbl.us/NTIzMzE1MS8xMDAxMzE5NS8zNmZjZDA4N2U2Y2FmYmM1NjljZjZhODY0MDM1MzVmZA==-X?

 

Dynamic Periodic Table: As someone who has taken Chem 1250, this would’ve been amazing to know about. It’s an online periodic table, but is INTERACTIVE and gives you so much information about each element, and where they are positioned. (https://ptable.com/)

 

Cram: Cram is similar to Quizlet, but in my opinion, easier to navigate. You can browse by subject to find flashcards you want to use, or create a set of flashcards on your own! (https://www.cram.com/)

 

I hope you guys can use these to find more effective ways to study. I’ve already started to use Bubble and love it! I can’t wait to start using Cram for some of my classes in the fall, or even to finish out the summer!

 

Thanks again for reading!

Brynn (:

Efficiency in the Digital Age

Welcome back!

Growing up and going through school with full use of technology has definitely made things easier- but most people don’t realize it can be much harder also. In a world where I can google the answer to any question in five seconds is also the one where by the time my phone is open, I forgot my question and I’m on Twitter. Being efficient and having no distractions relies heavily on ones abilities to cut out distractions and be able to solely focus on the task at hand. Lets think about how to do that.

I, as I’m sure many people can relate, have a horrible habit of procrastinating. This whole week, I kept a time table of how I spent my time. I was actually content with how much time I spent studying. However, one thing I noticed was that I am not very good at being efficient in that amount of time. For example, the work that should take me one hour, will take me two because I’m trying to multitask, or I get off topic. By reading the article, 14 Ways You Can Overcome Procrastination, I realized that by not procrastinating, I can more effectivly manage my time and not need to procrastinate.

In the future, I really want to work on this concept. I feel as if I limit multitasking, all of my work can be done in a smaller amount of time. And if everything is done in a smaller amount of time, then I won’t have to procrastinate throughout the week and can just get it done.

 

Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Brynn.

 

14 ways you can overcome procrastination article –
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/04/13/14-ways-you-can-overcome-procrastination/%231e0d288b17df&sa=D&ust=1561322222689000&usg=AFQjCNEcb4hRbijOEUfUPbeKgcMQAaTBKg

Communicating and Colaborating

Hi, Readers!

My name is Brynn Miller and through this blog I’m hoping to help be informative about ways you can use technology to be extra successful and efficient in classes and going forward.

This week, the main thing I focused on working on was this website! OSU has a super easy way to get started, so just by going to u.osu.edu and signing in, you can create super accessible websites. In two of my engineering classes last year, I used websites for two huge semester-long projects. Although I am familiar with how to use this function already,I have had a TA tell me that they used the website they made to land a job during an interview. They said that by showing them how well they were with technology, that they were able to to efficiently show and communicate their skills just by clicking the link. This is how important skills like this are. This also ties in with how important it is to stick with details such as changing the date and time on your website (to the correct time zone), to show that you are professional.

I thought I’d share more tips I learned through this weeks module, aside from the creation of the website. In Lesson: Module 2, slide 5, it is brought up that “an audience cannot see your face or physically hear your voice or tone”. As a society that is mainly built around online communicating, a lot of times we can forget the importance of body language and tone. Since these two things that play a huge role in communicating and are lost over screen, it is very important to make up for it through thoroughly communicating in your words and writing. Being able to explain your thoughts with no discrepancy online is a very important tool to have, since communication online is only going to become more and more prevalent. I recommend for everyone to work on being able to be clear in what they mean, since it is a challenge to not have body language and tone on the web.

 

Thanks for reading!!

Brynn