Hello dear readers, my name’s Grace Ng, congratulations on finding my COMM 101 Blog!
“OH NO!” that’s right.. that’s how my day went.
It was a bright sunny day cold windy afternoon as I made my way up the prestigious, worn stone steps toward the beautiful glass doors leading into the Henry Angus Building.
Engaging and sleek, the lecture hall was already half full with eager ‘Sauderites’ hastily taking up the front row seats. I scurried along the fringes of the room to find an ideal place to sit (second row! yay) . I let my eyes wander the large lecture hall and the diversity it held. “I’m prepared” I chanted in my head, “I won’t be timid anymore!”
THE CLICKER
That was…of course.. until everyone whipped out their iclickers and I realized I had forgotten mine back at the dorm. OH NO.
Coming from an educational background that used minimal multimedia tools to engage students in learning, I was both intrigued and fascinated by how a simple remote could be so effective in both engaging and promoting learning, as well as breaking the barrier between students and teachers such that active exchanges of thoughts and ideas could take place smoothly.
THE DIFFERENCE IN TEACHING STYLES
I was also taken aback by the way in which learning took place and how we as students were actively being engaged by motivated lecturers to answer, and even prompted to challenge what was being taught in class. My twelve years of schooling had done nothing to prepare me for this.
In a school where students were expected to be silent and listen attentively in every class, we developed the habit of being silent unless spoken to. (Even then I wasn’t very good. It wasn’t that I couldn’t. I was just painfully shy)
“Should I answer!? Should I not? OH NO someone already did..”
THE CAMERA
I had an opinion to almost every question asked by the lecturers, yet found myself unable to answer. I was so deterred by the camera looming behind them, waiting to pounce on the student who hit the mic button to answer. Brave souls jammed their fingers on their mic buttons, appearing on three wide screens being the lecturers for all to see. Brimming with confidence they were quick to answer questions and reasons to validate their points. My self-consciousness got the better of me and I fell silent, listening instead to the opinions of others and learning from them.
OH NO the camera zoomed into someone in front of me, and I’m in the background!!
THE EXERCISE
To further break down the rigidity that comes with new students in a new environment, the lecturers had us form groups to assess a problem of cigarettes and alcohol consumption.
The results from this exercise took me by surprise. In Indonesia, the taxation on alcohol currently stands at a figure of 150% sin tax (as of july 9rd 2015) [1] . Yet a Canadian peer revealed that Canada’s taxation on alcohol was a mere 10% [2] . It was so surprising and refreshing to observe the difference in cultures and the severity of bands, taxation and other government measures and how they differed between countries. I never really thought about how different countries tackled similar persisting problems of demerit goods in the country until that class. it was an eye opener.
Reflection
The openness of the lecture setting came as a huge surprise to me, hopefully it’s something I can warm up to quickly as we’re moving fast! It is indeed a paradigm shift from my last 12 years of learning back home. Though unsettling, I’m extremely excited (internally) to try to immerse myself in this new way of learning.
Not being able to overcome my shyness and press the button to answer the questions posed will forever nag at my conscience. I’ll try again next time!
bib:
[1] “Import Tax on Alcohol Jumps to 150%.” Import Tax on Alcohol Jumps to 150%. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2015.
[2] “Provincial Sales Tax.” – Province of British Columbia. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Sept. 2015.
pictures drawn within this blog entry by Grace Ng.