Module 7: Final Reflection

In this post, I will be exploring the skills and knowledge that I have gained throughout the course, and how I will continue to apply these skills.

When I first joined the class, I was more ineffective at implementing my time. I started projects and did not work on them, causing myself to spend so much time catching up to work. Throughout this course, I learned valuable lessons to keep me not only on schedule, but also efficient when working. By using the tools and lectures in the course, I learned a lot about keeping on schedule and how to organize your time. In fact organizing your schedule would be one of the most effective strategies that I learned from this course. I always had problems scheduling my time to maximize the effort spent in my free time.

After some modules came up that focused on time organization, I began to see my time effectiveness increase exponentially over the course of the semester. In the beginning, I was always late with submissions and working with deadlines, but now I am always on time and I use tools like charting my time to keep me on schedule.

I learned that I have problems with motivation. However, I also learned that some things that you initially think are inherent problems can be fixed with the right technique. For example, I thought I was always going to have trouble with time efficiency and time management. However, I stopped using my time poorly and began to start keeping better track of my time.

I also learned the proper etiquette to writing an academic email. I never knew that there was so many rules, but the Resource:How to Write an Academic Email helped me. For example, making sure to include context for your message is a small thing that I often forget when writing emails to my professors. This lesson helped me to get all of the details correct.

I think that the interactions between students in this course has had a huge impact on my experience with this course. By the usage of comments and discussion boards, I felt the real human connection with my peers. Being able to communicate, read, and critique with others has improved my own writing. I learned that collaboration is very useful in keeping you in check. With others depending on you, keeping up with assignments becomes more incentivized.

I will always use the lessons that I learned in this class in my life. I learned invaluable life skills that are applicable to almost every aspect of the adult life. When I am out in the “real world” I hope that I will stick to the techniques and lessons that I learned in this great course. Being on top of things, and using electronic resources effectively will be very useful to my career field.

Some parting advice I have for all of you readers out there: “Always be thorough with your work.” By checking things over many times and paying attention to the details, you can be successful and efficient.

Module 6

In this module, I learned the important skill of utilizing online resources.

The module talked about using online resources in order to find relevant data and sources. In the module, I learned how to utilize the OSU library site, especially how to narrow down my search. I now know how to effectively use the site in order to find resources that are available on site or digitally. It also helped me to figure out the appropriate database to find specific articles. I also learned how to utilize Google Scholar and how that interacts well with the OSU library site.

In the future, in classes that require research, I should be able to quickly and efficiently locate resources that I need to complete research. In the past, I have had problems with the time it takes to find good sources, with these new skills, my workload should be decreasing by a lot.

For students in the future, you should definitely learn research skills. It will always be useful to find and explore more resources quickly and efficiently. Especially in the computer science field, the ever changing landscape is a difficult thing to keep up to date on, so being able to do research well is paramount.

Module 5: Blog Post

This week’s module is about the notetaking and how to successfully condense information from digital materials like videos and podcasts.

 

The important takeaways from this module is to practice active listening during lectures. This entails truly listening and trying to comprehend the lesson and not just blindly writing things down. In the lecture, some tips that were given were to take notes while listening to the lecture. It will help the student to condense the lecture into the main points of the lesson. It also helps the student understand the message of the lecture.  It can help students to organize the ideas included, and they can revisit the notes later to study for exams or other projects.

I think this lecture was helpful, as many times I have to watch or listen to lectures and often times, I am not sure what to do while watching. Now that I know that there are others that have this problem, I can use this to find a solution. Having a definitive guide to taking notes on videos and podcasts. I am going to utilize the ability of active listening from now on, and I hope it will be very useful in future lectures that I take.

Module 5 – Educational Videos

In this video, the author describes the process of genetic modification to plants and other organisms. The plants are changed on the genetic scale in order to breed traits that are considered beneficial to humans. The video then goes on to describe the potential risks posed to humans by eating GMOs, and thoroughly debunking each complaint with the organisms. The video then shows the potential positives of GMOs. It showed the benefits of genetically modifying resistance to insects and viruses, providing a more nuanced understanding of the concept.

I learned a lot more about GMOs. It is commonly associated with negative images, people getting sick and others profiting from that. However this video helps to provide a lot of information about the topic, even providing a variety of sources to back up their claims. I now believe that we should invest whole-heartedly into the development of GMOs to protect the environment and our sustainability in the future.