Monday, April 27, 2015
Online Education Review
My experience with online education at OU has been solely through this class and one other last semester. They work particularly well for me because I'm pretty involved outside of class, so not having a specific class time allows me to get work done without having to plan around anything. It's clearly been a positive experience for me because I'm actually taking another online class next semester (Online Programming). While it can sometimes be frustrating to have something due every single day, I think having items due at the least on a weekly basis helps keep students accountable and prevents us from falling too far behind. I know that I would have done better had all assignments lasted through the end of the week, because I get a lot of my homework done on the weekends. I wouldn't say this is a weakness because it kept me even more on top of my game, but maybe something to consider. It definitely depends when the subject is for me when considering an online class. I could never take a math-intensive course online because I have to work through the problems with someone, but for history or literature courses I think they work quite well.
Gen. Ed. Review
I have had a generally good experience with Gen Eds at OU. I came into college with quite a bit of AP credit, so I was able to avoid the very lowest level of Gen Eds. However, the math classes I was forced to take actually led to me taking an additional 12 hours that weren't required in mathematics that will ultimately improve my chances of getting into graduate school. With the Gen Ed. Humanities specifically, last semester I took an online Native Authors of Oklahoma course as well that I think really helped to augment that very math and economics intensive course load I've been dealing with. That expanded my understanding of Oklahoma as a state, while this course has allowed me work with my creativity in a way that I'm not often able to. I really like the structure of the class, especially the way in which students don't have to do every single assignment and can instead pick and choose what works best for them. The reading opportunities are very diverse while still forcing students to get a sampling of literature from a variety of areas. I honestly don't have any suggestions. The only struggles I had this semester were tied to my own laziness, not any problems with class structure or content.
College Writing Review
I'm an economics major, and as such haven't had a ton of experience with writing in college. I came in with all of my English requirements covered by high school classes, so the real only classes I've had that have involved much writing have been through the Honors College. I took Politics of U.S. Economic Policy with Dean Ray and believe it helped me tremendously. We really focused on the purpose of our writing, making sure that the details we included were necessary to expand on the point we were making. This has lent itself well to the occasional research papers I have to write for economics. I've also worked with both the Oklahoma Group and Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth, and have that each of those has helped with my writing. The research we do and presentations we create really emphasize intentional use of language, which has translated directly to my writing. I would say the best part of my writing for this class has been the opportunity to be as creative or non-creative as a chose to be. On a personal level, I didn't particularly enjoy the weekly storytelling because I prefer to really dedicate a lot of time to my writing, and it was difficult to do that every single week on top of the Storybooks. That's definitely a personal preference though, and the extra credit made it so that I didn't have to write those blogs to still be successful.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Extra Reading Diary: Lang's European Fairytales II
This week I read from the Lang's European Fairy Tales II unit. In it, my favorite story was the two parts of the Seven Headed Serpent. These tell the story of a king and his people who arrive on an island, only to discover that it is ruled by a king of its own, a Seven Headed Serpent. This serpent promises to leave them alone so long as they pay homage to him every year. This required ten youths and ten maidens every single year. When they've finally had enough, the people learn how to kill the snake, and the King's son ultimately sneaks into his lair and kills him, freeing the land.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Reading Diary A: Lang's European Fairy Tales I
This week I read from the Lang's European Fairy Tales unit. I was initially drawn to it because I saw it included Puss In Boots, which is a personal favorite of mine, but ultimately found How the Dragon was Tricked to be my favorite. This is partially because I've always found myself interested in dragons, but also because the story was fun to read. It's about a young man who is forced to steal from, and ultimately capture, a dragon. The ways he tricks the dragon are very entertaining though I did find myself feeling bad for the dragon who didn't really seem to have done anything wrong. Overall, a very good story!
Friday, April 17, 2015
Extra Reading Diary: The Brothers Grimm
For my extra reading this week, I finished the Brothers Grimm unit that I started with Reading Diary A. Of the second half of stories I read, my favorite was Eve's Unequal Children. The thing that initially interested me about it was that it didn't seem like it followed the typical plot of a Brothers Grimm story, which, at least in my experience, don't touch on religion much. In the story Adam and Eve are giving birth to children, with some of them being good looking and some being somewhat ugly. Eve learns that God will come to visit, and so she decides to hide her ugly children and only show God her good looking children. When God comes he proclaims that the children will become hugely successful, with some being princes, knights, and counts. After hearing this, Eve decides to show God her ugly children as well. Eve is surprised and dismayed when God declares that they will be a fisherman, a tanner, and a potter, amongst others. Eve is upset about this and questions God, but he explains that it is necessary for people to play all roles on Earth, else there will be no one to sow the food that the prince ultimately eats. All have different roles, but all are equally important. I really enjoyed this story because I thought the theme of equal value is an important one for people to learn. No matter how successful a person is, they still rely on other people in their day-to-day lives.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Reading Diary A: Brothers Grimm
This week I read a story from the Brothers Grimm. I've always been a big fan of these stories because they're so interesting to read when paired with the more popular fairy tales that we all read as kids. I didn't realize that there were many others stories from the Brothers Grimm that weren't adapted into children's stories. My favorite that I read today was Old Sultan. It's the story of a dog - Old Sultan - who is getting old, so the father of the family decides to put him down. The wife talks him out of it, and so the dog hatches a plan with a wolf to interrupt a kidnapping of the family's child. After doing this, the mother and father love the dog again. When the dog refuses to let the wolf steal sheep in repayment, the wolf challenges Old Sultan to a fight. I won't ruin what came next. I really enjoyed this story because it was from the point of view of a dog, and it offered an interesting take on the negative outcomes that can come from laying with a wolf.
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