Never neglect yourself, even if you think you’re being selfish.
It's easy to put yourself aside for the sake of "bigger priorities" like school and work. But I agree with you, it's not selfish to give yourself a break! When I feel overwhelmed with work I'm actually less productive because I put myself aside and wind up very upset and stressed.
The fact that the web functions the way it does is illustrative of the tremendously powerful economic forces that structure it.
Think about it, if you look something up on google and then start scrolling through your facebook an ad may (and probably will) pop up related to what you just previously searched.
The web is fraught with recommender engines and analytics. Colleges and universities buy information on prospective students, and institutions profile students through social media accounts.7 Prospective employers do the same. When students find out about microtargeting, social media "filter bubbles," surveillance capitalism, facial recognition, and black-box algorithms making decisions about their future—and learn that because so much targeting is based on economics and race, it will disproportionately affect them—their concept of what the web is changes.
This does easily change ones perspective of the internet. I would say it is widely known that colleges and even employers will evaluate your social media as part of the determination of whether or not you are an appropriate fit for them, but to read that they actually pay for information on prospective students and have the ability to do that is actually scary.
When faculty use OERs, we aren’t just saving a student money on textbooks: we are directly impacting that student’s ability to enroll in, persist through, and successfully complete a course.
This is SO important. No student is successful solely because of themselves. It takes an army to help us make it through college and if our educators can help us more than they already do by teaching with open educational resources it allows so many of us to continue through higher ed with a general greater success, whether it's because we can finally afford the text for class or simply because it means we don't have to work so many hours in a week to be able to afford our materials and in turn take away from our study time, not having to pay for class materials like textbooks helps more students than most would imagine.
According to U.S. PIRG,2 college textbook prices have increased at nearly four times the rate of inflation for all finished goods since 1994. College students spend an average of $900 per year on textbooks—26 percent of the cost of tuition at a public, four-year university.
Just to further support the argument of expenses outside of tuition being too high, NO student should have to spend more than a quarter of their tuitions worth just to get the appropriate materials to succeed.
Open educational resources allow the full technical power of the Internet to be brought to bear on education. OER allow exactly what the Internet enables: free sharing of educational resources with the world.
I think it's easy for those not attending university to forget just how much extra cost there is to be a successful student in higher education. OER allows more of us to be more successful by having full access to what our educators are covering in class. This should be practiced more often by those working in higher ed.
As important as it is for there to be highly specialized scholars in every discipline, it’s just as important to have interdisciplinary students building bridges between ideas, creating cohesive, universal collaboration.
I would personally get bored learning strictly about one discipline in depth for four years. Studying interdisciplinary has kept me incredibly intrigued in all my classes and brought a new 'freshness' and enjoyment to my education.
If students are living their lives in preparation for life, when will they start living?
I think about this every single day. And honestly my craving to rush into life comes from the intensity put on preparing for the future while studying. I don't ever think about 'today' I think about what classes to take next fall so that the following spring I can take what I need to graduate on time and then go straight into a job. I would love to just focus on today but it seems virtually impossible.
The relevancy of education is often overlooked by students, especially young students who have not yet graduated from high school.
I know I didn't truly appreciate my education until I was paying for it myself, and even more so once I came to plymouth where I get a practical education that is truly preparing me for everyday life, post graduation.
If an applicant can’t work in a team, write a grant, or engage meaningfully with other people, he may be turned away from a job or his career may not flourish.
An important part of not only higher education but high school too that isn't covered often enough, is the education of basic survival in society. Often times, teachers/professors become so focused on the curriculum and covering the information in the textbooks that they don't work on creating well-rounded students who received a whole education.
Increase Font Size Toggle Menu HomeReadSign in Search in book: Search Contents About This Book I. Architectures for Learning 1. The Web We Need to Give Students2. A Personal Cyberinfrastructure3. Do I Own My Domain if You Grade it?4. Tech and IDS: An IDS Student Reflects on Three Readings5. IDS Realizes $h!t Happens!: A Student Reflects on their IDS Experience II. Open Pedagogy and Connected Learning 6. Why Openness in Education?7. Open Pedagogy8. How Public? Why Public?9. What an Open Pedagogy Class Taught Me About Myself10. Assumptions and Challenges of Open Scholarship11. Excerpts from "Connected Learning: A Context for Interdisciplinarity"12. How to Find and Build a Scholarly Community13. A student reflects on Twitter and her academic experience: A Student's PLN14. Take A Day for Yourself: A Student's PLN15. The FDA, Marketing, & Nutritional Deficiencies: A Student's PLN16. The Humanitarian Gift: A student's PLN17. Empathy: A student's PLN III. Terms & Concepts 18. Colleges Should Reconstruct the Unity of Knowledge19. The BIG Terms20. FRUIT: A Metaphor for Understanding Interdisciplinarity21. Concepts for DOING Interdisciplinarity22. Content, Methods, Epistemologies23. Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity24. A Student Synopsis of "Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity" IV. Disciplinarity and Interdisciplinarity 25. The History of the Academy and the Disciplines26. Where We Begin27. Disciplines as Social Communities28. The Benefits and Challenges of Interdisciplinarity29. How do we DO interdisciplinarity?30. Concrete Challenges of Doing Interdisciplinary Work31. The World as We Know It, Has Changed V. Academics on Interdisciplinarity: Professors Talk with Students 32. Rachelle Lyons: Environmental Science33. Ann McClellan: English34. Laura Tilghman: Anthropology VI. Creating an Interdisciplinary Studies Major 35. Creating a Program in Women's Health36. Creating a Program in Global Health37. Creating a Program in Expressive Arts38. Coursework: An Example of Integration39. Standing Alone VII. Interdisciplinary Research 40. The Research Process41. Sample Prospectuses for Research Article & Applied Project (Sustainability Theme)42. Sample Prospectuses for Research Article & Applied Project (Sex Ed Theme)43. Sample Capstone Articles and Projects VIII. Interdisciplinarity: Scholarship & Application 44. The Interdisciplinarity of Flight45. Interdisciplinary Studies of Childhood Ethics Interdisciplinary Studies: A Connected Learning Approach 28 The Benefits and Challenges of Interdisciplinarity Janina MisiewiczVersion I Authors: Alison Abbott, Jeana DeBona, Mikaela Guertin, Lizzy Daly, Mariah Mann, Andrea Ellis, Annie Brewer Introduction Interdisciplinary studies, as a concept, would not be possible without the foundational structure of disciplinary studies. In order to break apart and reorganize a system, a preliminary system must already exist. In the case of education, the modern disciplines—science, art, social science, humanities, and applied science—are considered the prologue to interdisciplinarity. Without these pre-established academic fields, interdisciplinary studies would not be possible. Understanding the history of education is essential to understanding the current academic climate surrounding interdisciplinarity. A Controversial History Until the industrial revolution, education was dominated by religion and classical texts, exploring questions of morality and a higher truth, but with the advent of technology at the end of the nineteenth century, education was expected to prepare workers for the rapidly industrializing economy. Specialized education was in high demand, changing the structure of many colleges and universities across the United States of America and the world. Around this time, disciplines were divided into sub-disciplines, like chemistry and anthropology, and many universities emphasized their disciplinary resources and research facilities. Knowledge transformed from an experience to a product. Not everyone, however, supported the shift towards specialization at the turn of the twentieth century. Charles Eliot, President of Harvard University during this educational transition, played a key role in the development of the “liberal arts education.” In many ways, Eliot’s radical views on education are still relevant today. For example, one of his most influential reforms was advocacy for a curriculum based on students’ interests rather than a pre-established curriculum. He believed that a student, by age eighteen, was old enough to select his own courses and pursue his own imagination (Zakaria 54-7).
This is very important. The older I get the greater my interest in expanding my knowledge in topics of interest grows. I no longer can absorb information that does not apply to me as well as I can information that intrigues/interests me.
Many people as students observe professors and teachers in high school and middle school as being a part of individual social groups, kind of like cliques.
I'm not sure this is an accurate statement? Maybe in middle school but personally, by the time I reached high school I understood the relationship between teachers in common disciplines and they're shared forms of educating us.
Already we see much collaboration in medicine between researchers and doctors, but how much of it is multidisciplinary, rather than interdisciplinary as it should be?
I don't agree with this statement. The medical field is a strong combination of so many disciplines. The amount can vary depending on what you choose to practice. But I am a pursuing a healthcare administrations degree and that is an incredibly blended combination of human science and business. There are computer programs designed for physicians to use during appointments. Someone in HR will be responsible for placing doctors and other physicians where they're needed as far as nationwide. That is a massive combination of communications and health, These are just a couple examples. But all in all, healthcare often times is interdisciplinary.
Without the disciplines, interdisciplinarity would have nothing to build on, nothing to incorporate or weave together in order to find solutions to world problems.
I love the idea of combining what can be thought of as such opposite topics or disciplines and coming up with a new view, occupation, topic, base of knowledge that can be further built upon by others with common interests.
knowledge exchanged was not labelled
We learn from the moment we wake up to bed time. You see things and absorb what has occurred but don't analyze it until you're applying it to your own situation and that is proof that we are always learning new things, always absorbing new information. Knowledge is never ending.
Although it is a widely used concept, very few undergraduates can actually define what a “discipline” is.
This is an interesting statement, simply because it calls upon the knowledge of what we are doing, rather than focusing on where we're going next. Does anyone really know what they are doing right this second and why? In context to your future that is.
In 1999 74 percent of full-time students worked while attending college, and nearly half of them worked at least 25 hours a week. Unfortunately, many of those student workers say that holding a job hurts their grades, as well as limits their choice of courses. By one estimate, college students typically spend less than half the time on their studies than the faculty expects.
This statistic is important to think about..that was 20 years ago, how many of us work now? I pay for school so I have to work and to be able to afford school I have to work a significant amount which in turn takes away from my education. Shouldn't a university's goal and even society's goal as a whole be to return well rounded, educated, proper adults ready to live fulfilling lives? How can we come out like that if for 4 years we juggle 12-18 credits, 25 + hours of work, endless studying hours, and still have to take care of ourselves? Food for thought on the cost of higher education and it's effect on society as are and more of us attend school.
Higher education must raise the important issues and guide students in synthesizing responses, if not answers. Failing to do so is a missed opportunity of staggering dimensions, for history shows that humanity has a craving for wholeness.
This is integral in higher education. Though it may be easy to just be able to google all the answers I need for grades in school, I truly don't think about it unless the answer isn't placed right in front of me and if I'm not thinking about what I'm answering as I'm doing it then am I really learning? Or just reiterating? A proper education requires thought process and breaking down/simplifying bigger issues. Google should not be of any assistance in this process.
Instead of helping students learn and grow as individuals, find meaning in their lives, or understand their role in society, college has become a chaotic maze where students try to pick up something useful as they search for the exit: the degree needed to obtain decent employment.
This is an incredibly true statement. Until transferring to PSU and entering into an interdisciplinary program I never had variety in my education or opinion or option. I was forced to follow a set plan and take the pre marked steps to a degree and fall into the next open seat in an office. Here at PSU and in interdisciplinary I have learned more about myself in 2 months than I did in 2 years at a different university. Our education needs to be more individualized and less centralized.
Metacognition is the “awareness of your own learning and thinking process”
Learning through interdisciplinarity has certainly driven my metacognition into full gear. I never knew how much I could change in my learning process until I became interdisciplinary and I think it's a major key to success to be able to know and understand how you learn and think.
And that feels really good because unlike many other majors where it is easy to feel trapped or to feel stuck in this routine that everyone who has graduated with your degree has gone through- the same process; this study has me standing alone and in this case, that isn’t a bad thing.
Another really great perspective, and a game changer for me! It can be really scary to feel alone, especially at this point in life where so much change is occurring, it can be comforting to have the constant of someone you can relate to. But this educational experience in interdisciplinary is unlike any other you will ever receive and the feeling of standing alone for once is comforting and personal proof of solitude, not bad at all.
I am creating and envisioning a possibility that others may not see or may not have the confidence to direct. That possibility is going to open so many doors for me.
This is an incredible perspective to take on interdisciplinary! I think it's easy as a student to fall into a mindset of, "I chose this because my program wasn't offered" and I don't think enough of us appreciate this incredible education we are receiving and all the possibilities it can offer us.
So what should we be teaching? Many pedagogical experts argue that schools should switch to teaching “the four Cs” – critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. More broadly, schools should downplay technical skills and emphasise general-purpose life skills. Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations.
This means a lot to me, as a student furthering my education I have always argued that though what I am learning each day is important I, at 20 years old, still don't understand the fundamentals of living outside of my parents shadow/assistance with things such as taxes, insurance, building a retirement plan, etc. We leave school being able to pull apart and put back together any number of machines or with the ability to look at a math equation and solve it with no help/reference but if I were asked what I claim on my taxes I would have no idea how to respond or what the context is that I'm 'claiming'.
Instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world.
This is such an important statement. It is the difference between a student (such as myself) from creating a memory game to pass an exam and actually being able to break down and understand a topic. Often times a boat load of information is presented to a group but the truly vital pieces aren't pointed out or the information (however it may be presented) is full of too many small minute details that distract from the bigger picture,
By now, most of us no longer think it possible to become a Renaissance Scholar a la Leonardo da Vinci.
This is a very bold statement. It is saying that no one, in this whole world, believes in themselves enough to push to further their education and expand their knowledge on a tremendous level.
Even under the best circumstances, an interdisciplinarian is unlikely to gain as complete a mastery of her broad area as the specialists upon whose work her own endeavor is based.
This is a very important point included in this essay. Though interdisciplinary studies gives a broad view of combined areas in study (e.g. science and business) it makes it difficult to hone in on one subject without having to further educate yourself in it. Rather than creating or discovering new information that combines both education you've received in both fields.