First off, I
have to admit that I was a little skeptical about taking a class that was
anything but conventional. With no
midterms or finals, I thought that taking this class with Tal would be
completely boring and full of meaningless work.
However, I could not have been more incorrect with my assumptions.
Looking at
all of the other classes I’ve taken at Cal, they pretty much followed the same
rigorous syllabus and grading format.
Weekly readings and assignments followed by a few midterms, then an end
of the year final. Until taking this
class, I thought this was the best way to learn. Though that may be true for some other
subjects such as math and science, the subjects of patents couldn’t be summed
up the same. Looking back at the
semester as a whole and all the work we did in class, I can’t believe how much
information I’ve retained on the subject.
Patents used to be a completely foreign concept to me, but now I feel
that I can speak confidently when discussing the subject.
My favorite
part of the class was the fact that we were consistently interacting with our
classmates through social media. Before college,
I never even had a Facebook let alone a twitter, YouTube channel, and my own
blog so communicating with others online was completely new to me. I loved the idea of all the comments on the
blog posts and video posts. By hearing
each other’s opinions and criticisms, I was able to focus on what I did right
as well as the things I could improve on.
Whether it be the structure of my arguments or my understanding of a
topic, it was very useful to hear comments from others that may or may not have
the same understanding that I did. Social
media, in that way, greatly improved my understanding of learning about the
topics discussed in class, as well as learning in general. Thank you to Tal for forcing me to use these
social platforms as well as to all the other students for your feedback on my
work. It has truly been a great semester
and I look forward to potentially furthering my knowledge of patents with Tal in
the future.
Thanks!!
Jason,
ReplyDeleteLoved this post regarding the use of social media within education systems. I completely agree that more education systems need to include social media learning within the curriculum, and that stems from the fact that I learned so much though this class this semester. Traditional methods of learning, like you mentioned, are outdated and obsolete. In a new age of technology, it is our responsibility to push the boundaries of education in order to learn as much as possible in the most effective way possible. Keep up the great work, and I look forward to checking in on your net blog post!
Best,
Anish