Walking You Through
(Copyright of the image belongs to the original author at http://www.mediabistro.com/content/archives/07/07/25/ladder.jpg Downloaded on Feb 4, 2010.)
I want to designate this page for Class 2010, 10600-243. I have become accustomed to checking the class schedule online myself. I cannot live without it. Once I thought I could not live without somebody.
This blog shall be more important than the previous ones because down the way I intend to turn it into a space for a learning community. Shouldn’t everyone in the class help each other move forward? I am so hugely disappointed with the undercutting I have experienced elsewhere that I am envisioning this project so that each student has a chance to create and to share. Sharing, a caring act on my part, however, does not mean others can legally steal. So the first thing I ask each student to put on their blog is their Copyright Notice.
Designing a website is both a class project in itself, as well as a platform to make learning a self-motivated, and self-accessing process.
I am not asking each student to design it totally from scratch. I always believe one must do what one does best. It is not shameful to use experts’ professional knowledge. Rather I consider it a most efficient way of using brainpower and resources. This is not a Website Designing class, so it is not necessary, nor reasonable, for me to demand each student to design their site totally from ground zero.
The key to learn in a class is not so much how much knowledge a teacher or a professor tells the students but her or his way of dealing with certain issues and challenges. Once one gets that as well as the philosophy behind it, one can go on dealing with many similar issues. In some cases, one can also adapt to new situations.
The ability to adapt, to change, is an important life skill.
Besides the understanding that the life you make is much more important than the life you were given, the ability to adapt is perhaps the second most important message I want to get across.
Be picky. Do not accept anything anybody put on the plate of your life.
I can live with the fact that I do not know everything under the sun. As long as I do the things I love well, I can make a very decent life. Plus, if a woman goes on to beat any man she encounters, how is she supposed to get a husband? Now, that is not a viable life strategy.
Have some fun, and some laughter. Spring is coming. Sooner than you expect.
The Real Xianfeng Mou with Her Authentic Doctoral Diploma (5/17/09) Impostors Must Flee!
(Note: There is a hidden snag. Please click on the image for the larger image if this does not show. Xianfeng Mou)
Very useful links:
Click here to go to Purdue Online Writing Lab.
Click here to go to Facebook.
Posted by tshank123 on March 2, 2010 at 8:41 pm
hi
Posted by Xianfeng Mou on May 12, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Something to myself.
Since I have asked my students to reflect upon what they are taking away from each project and from the class, it is very reasonable for me to do some reflection about the class myself.
I will say something short.
1. The Research Proposal and Presentation is a success. My experiment has achieved its purposes. Everyone knew they needed to do for each research step, and every student also knew bow to pace themselves. They also knew where difficulties might crop up as well as their relative weakness.
I adopt what a Master’s student or a phd student needs to do to convince their academic committee for my freshmen students. But I have asked more detailed questions for a semester-long research project, not a one year or two-year research project.
All of my students should congratulate themselves, for they presented their proposals and research plans for the entire class. Moreover, each member in the class has to complete a questionaire providing evaluations of the key terms in the plan of action.
Both my students and I like this project.
If someone wanted to imitate this project, it is a good idea to increase the grade percentage. I did not want students to feel pressured by the urge for grade but to focus on laying out a really solid plan. So I only assigned 10% of the course grade.
It is more sensible to assign 15% of course grade for it. The students needed some time to get into the mode. Twenty percent would be too much.
But I think in a way students do work for grade only. Students do better for projects worth 20%, but put markedly less efforts into projects worth 15%. We are still controlled or motivated by grade.
2. Another change I have initiated is the web portfolio.
Details to come later.
Posted by watchcloudsrising on January 25, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Dear Hann21921,
Thank you very much for telling me how to unlink the old gmail account from my YouTube account. I will try your method when I can.
it is mainly a result of identity theft. Someone good with technology stole my identity and is claiming every kind of intellectual property to be theirs, hence my challenge.
Thanks a lot in advance!
Wish you a good day.
Xianfeng Mou