Response to Unit 1 Midterm

Dr. Petersen and I enjoyed meeting with each of the learning groups and hearing about how you have collectively and individually worked toward meeting the learning outcomes. It was very satisfying for us to hear things like the following:

• "We are our own institutions of knowledge, our own vessels of learning" (from Group 4)
• "Wow, bikes have a history!" (from Group 1, commenting on how they have become sensitive to everyday things having their own folk knowledge and histories)
• "Folk knowledge is a gift one generation gives to another"
• "We are learning how to learn in this course; it's a very liberal arts course" (from Group 6)
• "Folk knowledge is independent from knowledge institutions"

These types of remarks show that you are really thinking about the core concepts and learning goals for this course. 

What else are we happy about?

Group Learning
Everyone has seemed to appreciate learning in groups and coming to interact and depend upon one another. You will see that we will make group learning even more critical in the units to come. We are happy to see you getting to know one another and to appreciate your differences, including your age differences. It was a pleasant surprise to hear several comment on enjoying being in a mixed group.

Commenting

Certain groups are doing better with their commenting -- really turning this into engaging discussion. Take a look at how Group 9 discussed concrete, or look how well informed the comments are from Group 5's response to Jon Kunkee's post on learning instruments, ("Slipsticks"). Or take a look at how members of The Hive (Group 8) responded to Montana Thompson's interesting post on the Giant's Causeway. One class member calls into question how Montana used the terms mantic and sophic (friendly, constructive criticism); another made a link to learning from her geology class; another did a kind of summary of points covered.

We are especially glad when we see students following our instruction to use the commenting as a way of fleshing out the original post, or constructively challenging it. For example, when Amanda Chase blogged about the universality of bread in Group 2, Alyssa Cardon jumped in with the Christian connection ("bread of life"), and Diane Cardon challenged the universality of bread by pointing out the lack of such traditions in Asia.

When students pick up a topic from someone else and make this the topic of their own post, it becomes especially interesting. Brenda Barrow from Group 1 did this in response to James Williams's post about trumpets, adding her own, scripturally-informed analysis of the role of trumpets. Or, when Andrew Whittle (Group 9) posted about the Japanese practice of "encoffinment," Marc Wein researched alternative burial traditions which he reported in his comment.

Rich Posts

This post by Jon Kunkee (Group 5) is a great example of a post that has a strong historical component, a strong personal component, informative and relevant media, and appropriate links both to outside sources and to other posts by group members. Good job! 

Michael Miles' post from Group 6 about Aztec beliefs regarding death was interesting not only because of the media he used and the good discussion this post provoked, but because he linked back to a prior post that he did on Aztec medicine, thus deepening his understanding of that single culture and giving continuity to his group's blog. (He also is using labels, which is a blogging best practice!)

Others of you have also been demonstrating that you can ground your observations in historical research and make it interesting through media, links, and relevant links and sources.

In general, we urge you to think about creating not just great posts, but great discussions. Please consider deepening someone else's post by adding your own research and links, or pushing into historical periods or cultures unknown to you. Avoid merely congratulatory commenting, and use this opportunity to follow up on class discussion, to make links to other learning, and to tie in personal or group reading.