Expected Preparations:

  [FND]
Journal 		 
  The units listed above are part of this course and contain important preparatory material.  
Keywords: Instructions for authoring a collection of course-related insights
Objectives:

  • Continuously self-reflect on the meaning of the course contents.

  • Question and develop your own attitudes about the course and the field.

  • Concisely record essential insights.

 Outcomes:

  • Develop an understanding of what makes a learning activity meaningful;

  • Identify and summarize the most meaningful learning experiences in the course;

  • Author a collection of insights that can remind you of your course experience.

Deliverables:

Your insights! document in your shared Google Drive folder.

Evaluation:

Your insights! page will be evaluated by the instructor at the end of the course for course marks. See the syllabus and the marking rubrics for details.

Contents

In paralell with your other work, you will maintain an insights! document in which you collect valuable insights and learning experiences of the course. Through this you ask yourself: what does this material mean - for the field, and for myself.

 

Big whirls have little whirls
that feed on their velocity,
and little whirls have lesser whirls
and so on to viscosity.

Lewis Fry Richardson(W)

 

It’s rare that a fundamental insight is formulated so memorably, but it is so very valuable to step back and ask yourself: what was really important about what I just did? What is the one thing I should remember? Maintaining such a high-level perspective goes a long way to ensure that your learning effort turns into something valuable. Begin an insights! document that collects your most important ideas about this term. Be concise and succinct - focus on the essence of your experience. And if you can put it into rhyme - all the more memorable.

Consider the marking rubric: continuous engagement is important, as well as successfully grasping the essence of what you are doing. You are welcome to share ideas with others, and even to quote, but you must give credit where appropriate. Be very careful not to plagiarize.

Task…

  • Create a new Google doc named insights! in your shared Google Drive folder.
  • Edit the page to give it a meaningful structure.
  • As with all course-material, add a CC (Creative Commons) license link to the bottom of the page.
  • Whenever you make an interesting observation about the course, the material, or something else that you find inspiring, add it to your page.

You can write only your insight, but it may be more valuable to add a bit of context. You may certainly review and revise, strenghten or discard insights throughout the term. And you are encouraged to share the document with others students in the course and learn about their opinions. However: be mindful that your insights are your own, personal, unique reflections. I could imagine at least one significant insight every other week.

You can have a look at the insights document in the shared Google Drive example folder for a formatted sample.

Questions, comments

If in doubt, ask! If anything about this contents is not clear to you, do not proceed but ask for clarification. If you have ideas about how to make this material better, let’s hear them. We are aiming to compile a list of FAQs for all learning units, and your contributions will count towards your participation marks.

Improve this page! If you have questions or comments, please post them on the Quercus Discussion board with a subject line that includes the name of the unit.

References

Page ID: ABC-Insights

Author:
Boris Steipe ( <boris.steipe@utoronto.ca> )
Created:
2017-08-05
Last modified:
2022-09-14
Version:
2.1
Version History:
–  2.1 Moving from Wiki to Google Doc
–  2.0 Conversion to .Rmd 2021; partial rewrite
–  1.0 Live version
–  0.1 First stub
Tagged with:
–  Unit
–  Live
–  Evaluated unit

 

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