Posts

This week my mom told me a story about an incident that is happening at her work. She works as a paralegal and told me how a county judge, Judge Dankof, put a framed picture of George Floyd in his courtroom alongside several other pictures of prominent individuals. This sparked a fellow county judge, Judge Gorman, to file an official misconduct complaint to the Ohio Supreme Court, even stating the picture was “detrimental to the justice system”. Judge Dankof defended himself by saying “This court’s work profoundly impacts the life and liberty of our citizens and I will not fail in my duty to afford actual, authentic, and real due process of law – essentially fairness – to all our citizens, especially the most vulnerable.” The case will go to the Ohio Supreme Court and until then Judge Dankof will keep the picture in his courtroom.

There are many reasons why this situation struck me so much. One thing is that people who work in law generally look out for each other, especially judges, so for a judge to immediately go to the Ohio Supreme Court without even confronting the other judge about the issue is extremely uncommon. Not only that but the fact Judge Gorman thought this was so outrageous she had to immediately take it to the Supreme Court shows how flawed the thought process of some of our most influential decision-makers are. They see people such as George Floyd not worthy to be hung up alongside other influential figures.  Judge Dankof obviously has good intentions given his statement. He wants people in his courtroom to know that he takes justice very seriously and wants everyone to feel comfortable. Steps like what Judge Dankof was trying to make is crucial to making change in this country. He was trying to break down a long-standing barrier in the court of law and he has met resistance. One of the major problems I see taking place here is the ability of one person who has a flawed view to influence everybody under them. Unfortunately, as it is now there are far too many powerful people who would agree with Judge Gorman and want the picture taken down. We need to make sure people like that don’t end up in positions of power. Hopefully, justice prevails, and the old mindset begins to fade.

Easterling Studios

In module 7 we learned about ways to take what we learned from the course and to stay motivated into the future. I would say for me the biggest limiter to my motivation is distractions. Not only distractions when I’m already working but distractions when I haven’t even started yet but am trying to build motivation to. I have way too many distractions especially when I’m at home. My phone especially is a huge distraction of mine. This module specifically referenced research that when you’re phone is out of arms reach you are far more focused and able to accomplish more. So I’m going to try to keep my phone out of arms reach. The module also talked about taking breaks. Breaks are necessary to maintain focus but one thing I’m going to try is when i do take breaks I’m not going to the the things Im usually distracted by such as go on my phone because then when I’m done with my break thats all i want to do. If I could give any advice I would just say get started on your work anyway possible then keep your phone from arms reach but be sure to take breaks when you need them or else you wont be able to stop thinking about those distractions.

In module 6 we learned about researching information. One of the things we learned was the difference between researching and searching. In general searching has a yes or no answer. Because of this a quick google search should get you to the answer youre looking for in just a couple of seconds. Where as researching doesnt have a definite yes or no answer. Rather you need to do some critical thinking of your own. We also learned about reliability quality and utility of articles we use for research. You can’t simply just look up a question and use the first article you find on the web. You have to look into where youre getting your information from. One thing we learned which I found particularly useful was the info on the reliability of Wikipedia. Personally I love wikipedia because it has info on everything but anyone can add to an article so you have to be careful. It is okay to use it for broad information because the info put into wikipedia is monitored so it is generally correct. But one thing you shouldnt do is use it as a refernce for a research paper. The issue is we just dont know who has this information. It would be different if it were from a know professional in the field. Overall it is just important to see what youre using as reference especially today when everything is on the internet and its hard to tell right from wrong.

In this module we really focused on note taking and how to listen in class, as well as finding good online supplements to online learning. The most useful thing I learned during this lecture was tips to stay actively listening during a lecture. Something I’ve learned that I’ve already begun to use is to really focus on which style of notes I think would be the most effective during the very beginning of the lecture. Getting good at this will help make all of my future notes more clear and easy to understand. I have always believed writing on paper is better than typing on a computer. This module did reaffirm that and even went over the pros and cons of iPad vs paper and pen. Personally for me the convenience of an iPad is something that is just something I cant give up. Also, for me the difference between writing with an apple pencil on an iPad vs writing with pen and paper is marginal enough for the obvious advantage of using an iPad to begin to outweigh the benefit of paper and pen. Overall just about everything we learned is personal preference and up to you to decide what works best, but it certainly is important to try to learn the best ways of understanding and recalling lecture information. If I could give any advice I would just say do what works for you but actively help yourself. By this I mean don’t do something you don’t find effective just because a smart person tells you to do it. Rather, understand things you can do that are proven to help and work with your own methods to create the ideal method.

In this module we learned about courses that have required reading and also ways to help you maximize your brains ability to learn. Out of class reading is something almost every college course has, so learning how to maximize your ability to effectively read is a crucial skill to success. A pretty obvious thing that was mentioned in the lesson was to highlight, but highlight intentionally. Highlight with thought and not just mindlessly. Highlighting is a great way for you to kind of point out to your brain what is useful information and what isn’t. That ties together with the section on memory and how to maximize it. Memory isn’t simply dependent on how long you’ve been studying but on an array of factors such as sleep, diet, exercise, etc. Just studying isn’t doing the best you can do. Little tricks like highlighting or writing things down are great ways to help your brain put that memory into long term storage rather than just seeing at as useless information that it dumps 10 seconds after you learn it. Overall I think the reading and memorization skills really go hand in hand and if both applied properly it could really change the way I do my online classes.

One of the big things we learned this week was how to overcome procrastination. I have been a procrastinator most of my life and the only thing that keeps me going is the fact I always seem to get it done. While I always end up seeming to get things done I do realize how unhealthy of a habit this is and how it can negatively impact my grades. My favorite tip from this whole module was in a response to procrastination and that tip is to “do something, anything!” This is such a relatable tip for me. Once i’m able to get started it’s a breeze. I have already put this into practice and so far it has been going very good! I’ve been able to be somewhat productive everyday of the week. One of the tips that doesn’t work so well for me is to break things into chunks. For me I have a very hard hard time stopping something when i’m not finished with it. So when i’m braking things down I will break them down into tasks that are able to be completed rather than just pausing in the middle of an assignment to be continued at a later date. Overall I think the biggest advice I could give someone would be to just start, I don’t care how just do one productive thing and the rest will follow.

Welcome to u.osu.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

This week we learned about how to communicate on the internet and how to do it effectively. Personally I would say the most useful thing I learned was how to better communicate and motivate other members of a group I’m working with. I think the most important thing to do when working productively with groups is to establish clear communications methods the first time you meet so that its easy to avoid communication errors from then on out. Also establish a leader, any group that wants to accomplish something has a leader of some kind. Not only should you establish a leader on the first meeting but you need to assign roles such as editor. If someone is really struggling to pull their weight you should talk to them first before you go to the professor. I haven’t had any group work that i can apply this too but something I also learned that is important is how to properly manage my time. I have tried recently to get stuff out of the way for the sake of my future self. I don’t quite have the motivation to get things done for the sake of getting them done but if you tell me I can get this done now so I can do nothing later then your speaking my language a little more. So far it has worked extremely well and I really hope I can improve on it.