Part One:
Learning
to effectively summarize the main points of any body of text is an essential
skill to me as a student in CO150, but also as an active citizen who likes to
think that he is at least slightly formally educated. To be able to communicate
the idea behind a text is crucial to many aspects throughout daily life. For
the purposes of this course, I believe that moving forward, my ability to
summarize an article will help me with any assignment that is based around a
reading. So far, my ability to summarize an article has helped when in class we
were asked to reveal our thoughts about the article by Seth Davis. To express
my thoughts, I first needed to discuss the main points of that article so that
I could reference them when drawing conclusions. This helps the reader follow
my line of thought and allows me to more accurately relay to them what my
position is. Without my ability to effectively communicate the main points of
an article in a clear and concise manner, none of this could be made possible.
To
be able to think critically as a writer as well as an individual in society is hugely
beneficial because it allows you take in information and process it while still
being conscientious of the author’s bias and purpose for creating the text. In
today’s day and age, it is safe to say we are constantly being subjected to a
slew of information whether that is from the news, social media, billboards, or
radio. As such, being able to critically take in all of that information and
process it while taking into account any bias is incredibly useful to being
able to understand the world around you. Without this skill, it would be
impossible to ever formulate an opinion that is different from those that are
being constantly barraged in front of us. It is similar to the idea portrayed
in the article “Combating Myths About Distance Education” by Todd Gilman that
we read for class. In the article Gilman describes that any classroom will only
be as good as the people in it. If the professor and the students are engaged,
prepared, and responsive then a positive classroom environment will be born. If
everyone took the time to thoroughly and critically think about information
that is given to them, then a more positive nurturing environment would be born
in which people can freely discuss the ideas that they have created. The
problem is that this is not usually the case though, where someone may read
only part of a source, missing crucial information. After this they go on to
formulate an opinion without knowing everything they could have about the situation.
Being able to effectively view a text from multiple points of view has helped
make me realize more about the author and situation they are writing about.
Part Two:
For
P1 I will be writing about the article “Combating Myths about Distance
Education” by Todd Gilman. Gilman begins by stating his credentials. He is an
academic librarian at Yale University and has been teaching courses online
since 2002. He continues on to discuss the current social stigma that is tied
up with online teaching and how this has affected his career. He believes that
some large universities can neglect their staff of online teachers because they
are seen as less valuable than their face-to-face counterparts. Gilman then
discusses how online learning is facilitated by the student and how there is more
individual responsibility on the student than the professor in an online environment
if the student wishes to succeed. A good online professor will help negate the
amount of responsibility that a student has by being extremely organized.
Gilman believes that the key to an online course going smoothly for everyone
involved is to have a thorough course design from that start. Gilman ends the
article by discussing how online courses do not have the platforms that they
need to support them. He concludes by discussing the fact that something as
simple as being able to effectively navigate the course website will determine
the success rates of the class.
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