Class Reflection

Throughout the semester, we all did a lot of writing. I know I did more writing than usual for any of my other classes.  The blogs every week forced me to rehash and remember all that we had discussed in the week before, and is probly the reason I remember so much from this class. The term paper I wrote not only introduced me academically to a new concept (social power) and gave me new insight in how I and others interact with people. I learned a lot this semester, mostly through the point of this class. Since this was a sophomore interdisciplinary seminar, it introduced a wide variety of topics. I feel like this was the main reason I learned so much. I would have never thought to look at gender roles in the Hunger Games, but  now that we have covered it, they make so much more sense.  The idea of using a single common element everyone has knowledge of and using it to branch out and teach other subjects is incredibly effective. This new material was challenging because I had never dealt with it before, and it took me out of my comfort zone on some topics, which is somewhat necessary for learning. I feel like I spent enough time reading the material, as I never was at a loss in class during discussion. Overall, I really enjoyed the class, and relished the opportunity to discuss a series of books I personally enjoyed with other members of our academic community.

Critique of "When Technology Goes Too Far"

               I could tell that the presentation was very well prepared and researched. Kat was confident and clearly knew what she was talking about. The PowerPoint was well made, organized and easy to follow. The handouts were likewise. They allowed for easy reading, were not too packed full of information as to take away from Kat presenting, but still guided you along if you got lost.

               There were only  two problems I had with the presentation. The first was how fast Kat was talking. Maybe it was just excitement over sharing her work or trying to pack a lot of information into a short time period, but the speed at which she spoke made it difficult to understand. She also did not really pause between slides, so differentiating between topics was difficult. The other problem I had was with the music she played. She did not introduce, so at first I was distracted trying to figure out where it was coming from. And then once I did, I wondered why she was playing. I recognized one of the songs as the hanging tree song from the book, but that did not occur till late in the presentation. This could easily be a positive if the music had been introduced and explained at the beginning of the presentation.

               Overall, I thought the presentation was very informative and I appreciated that take on the Hunger Games.