Week 3 Day 2 21st March 2012

Week 3 Day 2 21st March 2012

The lecture took place in the afternoon, the morning lectures were kind of tiring since I was having the After FUNDAY EFFECTS!!

Anyways Mr.Rehan gave us a tutorial to fill, its about ones own skills and abilities. Then he started a lecture on Portfolios, why are they important and the contents of a portfolio. Basically a portfolio should content not only documents such as Result sheets, but basically all the achieving of a person throughout his/her career. It isn't only a document of 100 pages or more, its more than that! There will be a blog update on certain details and sections of a portfolio in while. 

Then Mr. Rehan came up with a topic, "Do teacher ruin the creativity of children", and he wanted people to debate on it and chose volunteers for it, i volunteered because i like debates, and I am debating against it saying that Teacher Do not ruin creativity they actually increase the creativity of a child. The debate will be held next Wednesday, and i cannot wait for that session.

Week 3 Day 1

WEEK 3 Day 1 20th March 2012

Well, there were actually two things in my mind today prior attending the lecture and those were:

1) What was I going to show Mr.Rehan for the homework he gave us (I was absent the whole week but I should have made something).

2) The apiit funday was about to start in 2 hours time :D 

Anyways 90 percent of the class students brought from home various items made from their own imagination, however the homework was to create something with items that are about to be thrown. From all of the class people there were certain items that i really liked, these are the following:

1) Madara's collage

2) Amr's money holder

3) Dileepa's wedding cake box (a prototype version of what will be used in the future!!!)

4)  Hirushi's-The flower basket made out of magazines

5) Sashya's bamboo pen holder! (I WONDER HOW SHE GOT THE BAMBOO!!...hope Pandas are not going to eat her because its their favorite food!! or they are all going to go Kung fu Panda on her!! )

6) Hamza's motorboat using a PC fan and a battery for the engine!!??

7) Dilshan's card holder, good and strong!

8) Lilans's coconut spoon (where Mr.Rehan said that it could have been improved though)
9) Harshani's Siyambala made bracelet! actually it is a good innovation since the seeds didnt go to waste, but the hard job was to make holes in the seeds.
10) Dinithi's picture frame was good as well, i borrowed the box to make my innovation which is an F1 Ferrari Steering wheel!! still in the making!!

The rest of the items were good aswell...!! 

Well these were some of the creations which i liked, and the morale of this homework or activity is no matter what you create, or have a person has to be proud of what he/she has done. Even if its a small thing, it doesnt matter the size, the price of it, what matters is he/she has done something and that something was done with intense care and dedication, and there they should be proud of it!!!

Week 2 Day 1 13th March 2012

Week 2 Day 1 13th March 2012

First of all i shouldn't be writing the blog for this day, well for the fact that i missed the class, as i had to attend a birthday party of a dear friend of mine, nevertheless i met few of my batch mates and they said they had a fun time during the lecture period as they had to make paper rockets and throw them and my face was like.....

But then again, to every action there is a significance to it, when a person threw a rocket, he or she threw to a specific point or target. Every person in life will have a chance either to hit their targets or actually coming close to achieve them (even if they don't achieve it, its a lesson learned so that they will do better the next time). Therefore the morale of the Paper Rocket scenario is how a person can improve his/her skills.

My opinion is, if a person cannot achieve their goals or targets well they were not ready at that time, however they know what their mistakes were and thus the next time they have a shot at it surely they will achieve it!!

The below video is about a young German who was passionate about his home F1 Hero Micheal Schumacher and since then he kept chasing the same dream becoming an F1 racer 2007 he debuted in BMW sauber as the youngest ever F1 driver replacing for just a single race another driver, he scored points in his first race and started driving for Toro Rosso and in 2008 with an uncompetitive car he took his first victory and scored more points than any other rookie. In 2009 he got promoted to Red Bull Racing and became Runner up for the FIA F1 2009 championship, even though being beaten by the 2009 champion Jenson Button, he entered the 2010 championship with confidence, the car although was the fastest car had reliability issues which made him loose races in which he could have won with his eyes closed, but he never gave up and fought till the last race where he clinched the 2010 F1 championship (5 Drivers being runners up). He didn't stop there he knew even though he won the championship he had mistakes, and so in 2011 he won his 2nd consecutive championship, with 15 pole positions, 11 victories and finishing 17 times on the podium in the season's 19 Races.

This story shows how targets can be achieved, as there is a saying in this world, NO PAIN, NO GAIN!!

REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO??? IMPORTANT?? YES!!! BUT WHY!!???

 REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO??? IMPORTANT?? YES

1)Go to College

2)Attend Lectures

3)Work on Assignments

4 ) Submit Assignments

These are the 4 basic activities of a undergraduate student does when attending College or uni, however is it enough? Well According to research done, it is not. 

A graduate student should constantly keep a record on his or her daily activities while in college 

eg: What he/she have learned during the course of the year/semester/day, various goal attained during University life, What kind of goals are still to be attained etc.

According to Alan P. Knoerr and Michael A. McDonald "Reflective portfolios help students assess their own growth. Project portfolios identify their interests and tackle more ambitious assignments." 

It is not just a one sheet of paper report, but it is an extensive analysis of the data or activities logged for the whole entire module/semester/year. At the end of which the student can compare his or herself at the start of the module and at the end of it, how he or she have improved and what qualities have they gained. 

[1] Knoerr, A.P. "A professional evaluation model for assessment." Joint Mathematics Meetings. San Diego, California: January 8-11, 1997.

[2] Knoerr, A.P. "Authentic assessment in mathematics: a professional evaluation model." Ninth Annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching — West, Lake Arrowhead, California: March 7-9, 1997.

http://www.maa.org/saum/maanotes49/123.html

Week 1-Day 2- March 8 2012

Week 1-Day 2- March 8 2012

The lecture started on the wrong foot, Mr Rehan came in to the class and the first thing he spoke of was about the homework he gave us, which is in making a blog and send him the blog address, well I couldn't send him the address and he got upset. Anyways the lecture was about the assignment, he handed the assignment to the whole class, it consists of two sections where, each section has 50% percent weightage.

The first section is a research component, where the student will have to research over a chosen topic out of 5 (I chose Digital Divide in Sri Lanka) and writee a 1000 word report on it, this section is also composed of a Presentation where the student has to present and defend the topic in form of a debate.

The next session is a portfolio, where the student will have to keep logs on the lectures that will take place through out the semester. The student should have at the end of the semester 12 or more logs for the current module. These logs will contain details about the lecture, research topics given by the lecturer.

In my point of view the assignment is easy if the work is done accordingly, and on time. So my goal is to finish the  LFS assignment before hand, so that it does not collide with the other module's assignments(BSAD2 and PWWW), and also the fact that i don't have to stay awake till 3 AM in the morning or don't get any sleep at all because of assignment stress.

Stay tuned for the next post and it will be on Reflective Portfolios..until then watch this Official video by Ferrari on the unveiling of the new Ferrari F12 Berlinetta...Che mitiga macchina!!

 YABA DABA DUUUU!!!

Week 1-Day 1- March 6 2012

Week 1-Day 1- March 6 2012

The Lecture started pretty much as i anticipated, however I arrived at the First class late since I was planning with some of my Friends, the Go Karting outing that was scheduled for today. Nonetheless i ran to the Lecture room and again as I bet with myself that as soon enter the Class Mr.Rehan will shoot something funny at me, this time was regarding my grown beard.

Jokes aside LFS is one important module, and as far as I am concerned, when it comes to important modules I get very excited and if the module is hard, I get motivated to do more, but so far my performances during the last semester were not that good and thus this semester my goal is to finish on top and set the pace again(good results). LFS(Learning for Success) is a key module for Business Information Technology graduate. It basically teaches us the art of Communication (Non Verbal and Verbal), Writing, Listening and most importantly it helps a student to improve in the analytical, and assessment skills.