November/December Monthly Summary

I commented on groups 1 & 4

The month of November ended a lot more quietly than it started out.  I was much more able to keep up with the work even though I had a lot more personal distractions going on outside school and work.  In terms of the course, after completing my syllabus design I had it reviewed by two different education professionals who provided me feedback on the work I showed them. 

As I have stated, I found the feedback to be a bit weak because they focused on things like providing dates and information about support services and didn't really focus on the content the way I would have liked.  I believe that may have been my fault for not explaining better what I wanted or it also could have been that they were just unfamiliar with the subject matter and didn't know how best to provide feedback.  Either way I found other responses from my classmates and comments from my blog to be more useful.

I also completed my project demonstration for which I used the program Prezi.  This was my first time using that program and I will admit to a bit of frustration with the steepness of the learning curve.  I think if I had a little more time and patience I could have made it a better work but I am happy with what I put together. Reflecting on the work I have done in this class I feel pretty good overall.  I struggled turning theory into practice on some levels but I was also able to take a pretty abstract concept and turn it into something that could be used as the basis of real work which makes me happy.

I would really have liked to focus more on the differences between the ideas of the Brain and the Mind as separate concepts but this project and the time requirements didn't really allow for it.  I think if I continue this research into the next course I might choose to add that component to what I have already done.  Maybe working the two areas together will help me present a more compelling case. 

I also submitted my literary review for consideration at an upcoming conference but sadly it was not selected.  While it is disappointing it was my first time doing something like that and I am happy that I actually took the time to submit.  I will try to do it again with a better body of work in the months ahead.

Overall I have enjoyed this course.  I think it has been a little easier for me to manage than the other course that I am in but that may be because I am working independently here where I am not in my other course.