December 12, 2016 - 21:38
At the beginning of the course I had no idea where this course was going. I originally thought this class would be largely focused on environment and environmental issues, which it eventually did, but because the course begun with discussion of culture and identity, I was confused at first. I was thinking about culture interaction at the most literal level. Since then, as I read the readings and listen to the in-class discussions, I started to see the deeper level of the phenomena. I used to think culture as something transparent and distinct, but now I don’t. I see culture now as a bubble surrounding everyone, a bubble that absorbs part of another bubble and expands when they come to interact with each other.
However, I can sense to edge of my learning. I learn fast when the idea or knowledge is consistent with my prior experience and expectations. If the knowledge is inconsistent with my prior knowledge, however, I will argue against it and not listen. I actually find it the same with many of my classmates. But this is not what we should be thinking. Whenever there is a thought, there must be a cause that led to this thought. One cannot deny a though or idea just because it does not make sense to them. If a thought exist and is passing around, then this thought must make sense to somebody, and one must find out why it make sense to somebody but not herself before one tries to deny it.
One thing I like about the readings and discussion is that, the discussions open a new window for me to hear the perspective of somebody else’s even if the readings did not make sense to me. When in group discussions, I tried to be a good listener and a good leader. I will always open up the discussion myself and ask other people in the group what were they thinking, and tried to learn from their perspective, why would they say certain things that I had not even think of. These are all valuable learning experiences.
I learned a lot from the readings, they all provide a meaningful new perspective to look at the world for me, and the fact that these readings are all related to one another further amplify the perspectives. The Monday postings are meant to assist our learnings from the readings, which works great, but sadly I kept forgetting posting. For the ones I wrote they pushed me to think about the topic further and deeper.
The six week project was a play ground for me. I came up with a question and I researched it with my partner. The most exciting part was that we got actual results that made sense. Playing around the data felt great. All was fun.
From this class I had learned a new perspective to look at the world, I had learned how to think. It is different from all the math or science classes I am taking. This is not a skill that can be seen, but can be felt.
I really enjoyed the class. Thank you all for giving me such a great experience.