#Final reflection

1. Do you feel like your writing has improved this semester? Why or why not? In what ways has it improved? In what ways do you want to continue improving your writing?

Yes, I do. I feel like my writing has improved this semester. When I was a freshman, I took elementary English reading and writing class and I thought it was hard for me to write essay in English. At that time, I decided not to take a class including writing. But in a year later, I felt the importance of writing English so that I took IERW class. A lot of homework could make me having practice English writing. I think that the more I practice English writing, the more I would have various English writing skills and improve my English writing. So I need to practice a lot.

2. Do you feel like your reading comprehension skills have improved this semester? Why or why not? In what ways have they improved? In what ways do you want to continue improving your reading skills?

I think the reading comprehension skills have improved a little bit in this semester. I have read many English writings since I was an elementary school student so it would be easier than practicing writing skills. Since I was a middle school student, I have rarely learned about English writing. And I did not want to read the writing which includes long and a lot of paragraphs. In this semester, I read a lot of long writings and answered reading comprehension questions so that it leads to strengthen my reading skills. I think I have to read English books or newspapers. If the reading material can capture my attention, it would be better.

3. Was this the first time you kept a blog? Did you enjoy blogging? Was blogging a helpful way to practice writing? Did you enjoy reading your classmates' blogs? Do you think you will continue blogging in the future?

It was first time to have and keep a blog. Having a blog can have my own writing area. It has more private side in comparison with sharing sites like Edmodo. I can decorate my blog home. And I also enjoy reading my classmates’ blogs. Some people had their picture so I can know who she is. But it was a little confusing to find other’s specific writing because Edmodo has groups to gather writings about only one topic.

4. What were some of the best and/or worst aspects of this course? Would you recommend this course to others? Why or why not?

I rarely think this class is boring because we discuss a lot with classmates, watch a lot of material and share others’ writing. But the only worst aspect of this course is a lot of homework. It is really tough time to me to write formal essay but I have improved my English writing. So I recommend this course those who want to improve their English writing and reading skills. And I will mention if you want your English skills, it will have a lot of time.

Thank you for preparing a lot of educational material and teaching me. It was nice to meet you!

 

Essay#2 Rewriting

Hye Jeong Han

Prof. Kyle Brebner
IERW (04)
November 20, 2015

Taking All the Classes Online

             “Data will dominate the world,” says the head of Samsung Electronics, which is the leader in the production of electrical goods in the world. All products are rapidly changing from analog devices to digital ones like books and notebooks for writing notes and we cannot help relying on our digital goods for searching a lot of information due to convenience and portability. For example, we can easily find places that we never have been by using various applications in smartphones like Google Maps. In addition, using our digital devices, we can watch the latest movies instead of going to the theaters and be taught by the famous teacher instead of finding intelligent teachers in our own town. This technique is extending the range of universities education by providing the online education system. What if university students could take all their classes in online? In my opinion, I disagree that students should be able to take all their classes in online because it would cause passive participation, decrease their concentration, promote their laziness and lead to the loss of an astronomical amount of money.

             First of all, the reason that students should not be able to take all their classes online is that the students can be passive. In the lectures of universities, it is important for university students to discuss various issues about their education contents with students and professors and question with specific parts that students cannot understand. From the online lectures, students can easily accept their contents without rethinking because in the monitor the professor teaches alone and nobody takes the class in the lecture room. No matter how online classes can contain discussion boards where students have to write comments and interact with other students and the teacher, we cannot catch the other side’s expression, intonation and gesture when they assert their opinion and we cannot communicate each other in real time. Therefore, we cannot know whether atmosphere of debate will serve us well in coming to a good conclusion. In addition, we cannot be guaranteed to receive some feedback from professor and answer for curious problems instantly. It will make students passive due to shortages of active communication each other.

             The other reason for disagreeing with taking all their classes online is that students can decrease their concentration and can be lazy easily. In front of them, the professors are on the monitor so students can listen to music, use their smartphones or sleep lightly while the lecture is playing. In addition, they do not need to care about their attitudes to their professor in the monitor, wake up early and prepare clean-cut good looks, for example, they can take lectures with their pajamas. They have only to turn on their computer as soon as they are in home. It will lead to be lazy for students since it weakens the right mind set and lifestyle.

             Finally, taking all students’ classes online can promote the loss of an astronomical amount of money. Even though it might save the commute money or electricity bills in universities, the maintenance costs for useless building in universities and the cost that buildings in universities are destroyed due to useless functions also can have enormous amount of money and the electricity bills can increase as much because many students would take all their classes online. There are a lot of buildings in universities and they will lose their functions in a moment and become nuisances considering how to demolish buildings.

             To sum up, students should not be able to take all their classes in online because it would cause passive participation, decrease their concentration, promote their laziness and lead to the loss of an astronomical amount of money. Online lectures may have advantages to the students who hurt their body or have a long commute to their universities so most universities provide students with online lectures slightly. Taking all classes online is similar to losing the nature of the universities because the universities are the places that students who gather to achieve their academic aims study and discuss ideas altogether and the universities are differ from unspecified groups through social media, blogs and chat forums and the unspecified groups do not seek to achieve academic aims but just share their own suggestions. As the technique develops, online lecture will have better functions like remote video education that people can communicate with respective cameras and mics. So we can participate with more active attitudes but it could not replace the whole lectures in universities.