Posts

Hello,

As this class comes to a close, I find that is only fitting to try and describe exactly just how much all of these new study tactics and resources have and will continue to help me along my academic career. Through this course, I have been introduced to a world of new and exciting study strategies and skills, all made available through the integration and use of technology. In addition, all of these new resources that I have begun to work with are all free and available anywhere that I can access an internet connection, which is virtually anywhere in today’s society!

One of the more useful strategies that I have learned through this course is how to utilize online websites such as google scholar and even the Ohio State’s library page to generate citations of various research sources. By utilizing these websites, I have learned that creating an appendix or a bibliography section in a research paper can be an extremely simple task. Most of the websites even have the citations generated already!

In addition to the wealth of knowledge that this class helped me to learn about modern academic technology, I also learned a bit about myself as well. As I had already surmised from my general study habits thus far, I can be quite a procrastinator. I was made painfully aware of this through the multiple online self assessments that I was required to take during this course, where I was explicitly shown to harbor procrastinating tendencies. As apart of the general theme of this course, I resolved to try and fix my problem through the assignments that were required of us in this course. Especially in these past four weeks or so, I have seen my efforts paying off in a huge way. I am resolving to finish most of my assignments a few days in advance, and I always block off time before the deadline of an assignment to visit office hours or to get help in case I run into any unexpected complications. These new tendencies of mine are directly attributed to the various lessons and themes that have been present throughout this class, and I know that without them I would definitely still be in the same state of mind that I was at the beginning of the semester.

As I have mentioned, throughout the course we have had a multitude of skill building activities where we were required to put these new disciplines into action. My most meaningful (and beneficial) experience throughout this entire course would have to be the initial Time Management skill building activity. In this activity, I was required to make a weekly list of all my activities and then plan out a necessary schedule of things that I needed to do for that particular week. I quickly found that I was spending a great deal of time on leisurely activities, and taking entirely too many breaks and rest periods in between studying for my classes. I resolved to immediately try and change these habits, resolving to get less important busy work done as soon as possible in order to free up time for activities and assignments that I prioritized to a greater extent. I also developed my ability to create and manage To-Do Lists, and found that I enjoy both creating them and the satisfaction that I receive when I complete an activity that I set out to do.

Finally, I believe that it is going to be almost impossible to not apply what I have learned over the course of this class in my life in the future. In the future, I plan on attending Medical School, and so I know that my days of studying and putting forth academic work are far from over. I want to take with me the online resources from this class as I know that the websites will be invaluable for the work that I will have to do in the upcoming years. I hope to also utilize the principles that I have gained throughout this class in my upcoming years as a physician, and I hope to never again revert to the lethargic and procrastinatory ways of my past. I will be forever grateful for everything that I  learned while in this class, and I would encourage others to take it as well. You can never learn too many ways to better yourselves!

Thanks for reading!

Hello,

For many young people in college (or even high school students for that matter), writing research or term papers is a commonplace activity. If you are a younger student and have not yet had the distinctive pleasure to partake in this rite of passage, be assured that you will. One thing that I wanted to do with this post was to possibly provide some helpful tips on searching and researching effectively while online.

First off, many search engines have made it extremely easy to quantify and refine one’s searches online. When beginning a search, it is as easy as typing what you are looking for into any search browser or engine and there will be thousands of results pertaining to your query. However, the trick is learning how to weed out the extraneous results and really hone in on what you are truly looking for. For example, when searching on a website such as google, one can access “advanced” search results to further refine their query. Something as simple as looking for articles published before or after a certain date can lower the amount of available results by the thousand. In addition, one can put a phrase or a sentence in parentheses within the search browser to look for results with the exact match as what was input into the browser. Without this simple feature, the website would generate results with any one of the words that one input into the browser, making for a very cumbersome experience looking for potential sources of information.

Finally, these online web browsers and search engines can also be utilized to generate excellent citations in any one of the number of formats (APA, MLA, etc.). One feature that a few universities are adding to their own library websites is the citation/exportation applications, where these citations will actually be generated for you! It is as simple as looking for the “cite/export” box within the website, and then proceeding to copy and paste the citation itself into one’s paper. If there is no such application on the specific website, there are also many different websites that are utilized for the sole purpose of generating bibliographies/appendixes (noodlebib, son of citation, etc.).

I would encourage any and all students to make use of these websites, as well as taking the time to play around with the various search engines that are available today, as all of these are helpful resources that could come in handy throughout one’s academic career. Whether it be through research papers, group presentations, or just a simple study session, these tools will be of great value to them all!

Thanks for reading!

As it has been a theme for many of my blog posts thus far, I believe that there can be an extremely high number of benefits that technology can bring to the classroom setting, and for academics in general. One growing trend that is beginning to sweep the nations schools, especially at a collegiate level, is the practice of actually posting an entire lecture online. Most schools will leave it up to the discretion of the professors themselves on whether not to allow this practice in their own classes, as there have not been any conclusive decisions on whether or not to utilize this teaching method at any major institutes of learning. As it is still in a temperamental phase, there are a great many opinions and studies of research about this topic.

Some of the positive aspects of this type of teaching are that it enables students to view their lectures and notes from almost any setting where there is an internet connection. This presents a great benefit to students that may be sick or may be kept away from school by other means (personal reasons, inclement weather, etc.), as they can now view the lectures as if they were there right along side the teachers themselves. As these videos present crystal clear quality and a variety of digital media devices, every lesson will be an almost one on one instruction and therefore presents quite an incentive for students to vie for this type of teaching device.

Coming from the opposite side of the spectrum, this type of learning could push students to not attend as many of their classes, as there is really no punishment for not attending the lecture itself. However, things of this nature can always be solved on a case by case basis between the teachers themselves, and therefore should not be the sole consideration of not going forward with this approach.

All in all, there can be a great many points made for each side of this argument, however I believe that the positives of this type of teaching device can far out way the negatives. Hopefully, technology will further allow the classroom setting itself to evolve in similar manners in the near future, as there can always be room for improvement!

Thanks for reading!

Hello,

For this blog post, I have decided to write about an educational video concerning one of the topics that a great deal of students have trouble with while in college; Organic Chemistry. As it mostly pertains to science majors, I have decided to pursue this type of educational video as I have seen firsthand the kinds of difficulties this subject can bring. The main summary for this specific aspect of Organic Chemistry lesson concerns the fundamentals of Acid/Base chemistry, and how this works within Organic Chemistry reactions themselves. This video goes on to explain how relative acid and base compounds can affect the molecules themselves, and how these will go on to affect an overall reaction. One of the more important concepts visually presented here is that of Resonance Stabilization and the conjugate acids/bases  of certain molecules. As the video goes on to explain, those compounds that can experience a great deal of resonance after being deprotonated have a much higher acidity component, and are therefore more likely to behave as acids themselves.

As most any student can view this information for themselves in any common Organic Chemistry textbook, this type of video gives a unique approach to the concept of learning the new information. This video, for myself at least, greatly helped me understand the various concepts of acids and bases. As most textbooks will present complicated pictures and grand language, this video provides one with the basic steps and processes of acids and bases with simple language that is read to you so that you can really focus on the concept itself. Finally, one of the greatest ways that this video helps me to gain a better understanding of the topic is that it acts like a movie with commentary that can fully outline the actual steps being done with visual representation at the same time! By physically drawing out the steps as he is describing them, the creator of this video provides one with a unique approach that truly does help a student learn efficiently.

Thanks for reading!

The world of today is quite different. Technology has revolutionized quite a bit in the culture of today, and that is especially true in academics. Fifteen years ago, everyone carried huge textbooks and supplies. The only computers ever found on campus were those supplied by universities themselves, and witnessing a student taking notes on a laptop was completely unheard of. Technology is becoming extremely prevalent within our college settings, and it is very important that students keep up with it in order to maximize their academic progress.

By using online textbooks, students can now purchase those hard to find texts with a click of their mouse, completely avoiding long lines at the bookstore or the ever present fear of their supplies selling out. In addition, purchasing these E-Books can allow students to have multiple books themselves stored within their computers, laptops, or even tablets! As this may seem like a tactic that only benefits these online companies, it is actually proving to be a very resourceful and efficient way for students to learn, as they can now make notes and in text writings during lectures to further supplement their studies!

Finally, the practice of online reading does not have its only benefits rooted in the ease of accessing the text, but it also provides additional features provided by the publishing companies themselves. Often, these companies will produce online study guides, answer sheets, and audio help that are available only to E-Book users. These supplemental study tools are not usually required, however they have been shown to be a great addition to a students studies, and they can make a huge impact in one’s overall progress in a course.

Compiled with the various online study tools and resources around the world today, this once again shows how technology can be used to positively impact studying and academics in general.

As a student in a college setting, there will undoubtably be a time where you will be required to utilize one or more online resources. To some, this may be considered as a factor of intimidation. I know that for myself, the prospect of utilizing online resources to do academic work was not the ideal picture that I had in mind. All throughout high school, and even into my early years as an undergraduate, I was very comfortable with working by myself and relying on hand written assignments and projects as opposed to digital ones.

However, one thing that I want to stress is that the use of technology will only further help you on your way to succeeding while in college. Technological innovations such as sharable documents, group based presentations, and online blogs are becoming extremely popular with todays academics. Most universities even have their own academic based websites where students are encouraged to facilitate group work themselves. It is important that one familiarizes themselves with such technological innovations, as they can greatly increase the efficiency of your own work, and the work that you will undoubtably have to do with others.

One of the most important features of this technology with respect to improving communications comes in the form of online, sharable documents. In programs such as Google Docs and “Prezi” online presentations, multiple ADMINS are enabled to work on a presentation or document. It is in this way that multiple people can communicate their progress, chat, and even work on a project together even if they are miles away! It is through applications such as these that group work can be organized and accomplished on a variety of schedules through the use of technology! I would encourage all to become familiar with and try to utilize applications such as these (and others) in their school work, as these devices have become a staple of my own work while in college and I know that they will continue to benefit me further in my academic career.

Thanks for reading!