Responding to other students’ reading tasks—from Alison

Responding to other students’ reading tasks—from Alison

Date: Sep24, 2007

Instead of looking at the summary that Ibrahim and Jay have posted on their blogs, I decided to write my comments about their oral reports in class.

This time, Ibrahim’s oral report was about “farming and trading”. He mentioned that the author said three main points in the book: “trading in Africa is decreasing”, “should stop cooperation”, and “single channel trading destroys farming and trading” which is the “one of those causes of starvation in Africa”, based on Ibrahim’s statement. He mentioned that what he has read in this chapter does not directly strike into what he wants to write in his research paper. I sensed from his look that he was not quite interested in this chapter, but he explained the three points about starvation that the author stated in the chapter, and he mentioned that he especially agrees with the third point about single channel trading which influences and is one of the causes of starvation in Africa. Critically speaking, Ibrahim spoke logically but did not have enough preparation for his material. It may be because this chapter did not interest him too much.

From my point of view, although the author did not directly strike into the main causes of starvation in Africa, the author did gave a hint which was let Ibrahim understand that one of the causes of starvation is “single channel trading which destroys farming and trading”. Besides, I believe that single channel trading definitely limits the opportunities for farmers to select better business for themselves. In addition, it surely affects farmers to produce their grains and to sell them because farmers may pay enormous amounts of money to trade with the single channel trading after they have made an effort to produce their products. No one likes to do non-profit trading. Therefore, with less profit, farmers may stop farming. Further, the overall economic state of this continent would drop off and final cause the starvation. For this possible chain reaction, I believe that single channel trading does influence the original farming and trading system in the bad way, and starvation results in the final.

Jay’s oral report was about “the nature of loneliness”. He pointed out two main points which the author stated in the book: “Loneliness is a common feature that all living bodies(creatures) shared ”, “…food, sex are the main needs that all living bodies need…, so living bodies prefer to not being isolated… the purpose is surviving.” Jay forgot using examples to support these two points while he was presenting, but we all understood those points without any supporting sentences in his oral report.

According to Jay’s oral report, in my opinion, “loneliness” is a very broad topic. In addition, to be afraid of loneliness or not depends on each person’s innate personality, experience, cultural, the environment where they were raised and so on. There are too many causes that may influence a person to feel lonely. Therefore, it may not be easy to find the specific answer to why some Koreans are afraid of being alone. Despite this point, I am interested in that the author declared and as Jay mentioned: loneliness is a common sensation, and the purpose of surviving is to be not alone. I especially agree that the purpose of surviving is not to be alone. Yet, I also believe that if a person is able to enjoy being alone, s/he could also enjoy to be in a group. Further, s/he could analyze herself/himself more when getting alone. Sometimes, that to question oneself, talk to oneself, and listen to one self’s heart in order to understand more about self is a lot easier when s/he stays alone than being in a group. If s/he does not learn how to be alone, s/he may lose a chance to get to know her/himself more than s/he has known. Without being acquainted with self’s heart, it would be hard to say that they will entirely enjoy being with other people. Hence, as far as I am concerned, although Jay’s topic, “Loneliness”, or “Why Koreans are afraid of loneliness”, is a bit difficult to find out the truly answer, I am interested in knowing the results, and it might also help many other people to reanalyze themselves.

Summary ---from Alison

Summary

Summary of “Setting the Stage for Learning”

In the introduction in page 167 to 169 of the article, “Setting the Stage for Learning” (1977), the author, L. B., Rosenfeld, stated that we can shift the learning efficiency by three ways which are: arranging the setting, controlling the colours that surround us, and planning our body type.

Rosenfeld (1977) indicated that in the colour aspect, the colours of the environment affect achievement and behaviour (p. 169). The author provides several examples of using colours in sport teams. In this example, cool colours can calm and relax aggressive behaviour, and warm colours have the ability to stimulate and encourage achievement (Rosenfeld, 1977, p.169). Most importantly, the author (p.169) mentioned that students in the schools that are painted with colour dynamic principles (such as cheerful colours), have greater achievement than in the schools that are painted in traditional colours or unpainted schools. (Ketcham quoted in Rosenfeld, 1977, p.169)

In conclusion, utilizing colours properly can affect students in positive ways (Rosenfeld, 1977, p.169). Based on Rosenfeld (1977), colour choices usually depend on the person’s age (p.169). The younger students use warmer colours in the classroom, yet for older children, the suggestion is to use cooler colours in their learning environment to avoid distraction. (Thompson quoted in Rosenfeld, 1977, p. 169)
Summary of “Using Color in Presentations”

Base on Business Communication Quarterly, 59:1, in the article, “Using Color in Presentations” (1966, p.90-92), the author, Marie E. Flatley, stated that the color can mislead people’s eyes; however, using the color effectively can improve presentations because of its effect on creating people’s interests and making the presenter’s points clearer. Some of the ways to enhance a presentation’s appearance are: paying attention to the background, text, and color rules, mentioned by M. E. Flatley (1966, p.90-92).

According to M. E. Flatley (1966), the background colors mean the room lighting which depends on the presenter’s location, and the sources of natural light (p.91). In the aspect of color rules, the colors are classified by emotion into three color groups: warm colors such as red which stands for stimulant, cold colors such as blue which represents a soothing feeling, and neutral colors such as green which symbolizes safety, indicated by Flatley (1966, p.91). The text color should contrast with the background color, especially between the title and the background color, suggested Flatley (1966, p.91). In addition, the author (1966) mentioned that limiting the amount of colours avoids confusing the audience’s cognition in the presenter’s message (p.91). To highlight the point one must use it with a high contrast colour (Flatley, 1966, p.92). As the author said (p.92), by using a matching and accurate color in your graph, the information will be explained more efficiently (1966).

In conclusion, although using colour in presentation may confuse the audience, utilizing colour properly and paying attention to the relationship between background, text, and color rules can significantly enhance the quality of presentation (Flatley, 1966, p.90-92).

Summary of “Learning to see creatively”

In the chapter, “Color”, in page 76 to 85 of the book, “Learning to see creatively” (2003), the author, Bryan Peterson, stated that color is certainly noticeable in our life, and people should be acquainted with colors. In addition, he introduced that colors have two main positions which are named primary color and secondary color.

According to Peterson (2003) in page 76, primary color, red, blue, and yellow, cannot be created by other mixing color, has two major sets which are called subtractive color and additive color. However, secondary color, orange, green, and violet, can be produced by mixing any two primary colors, explained by Peterson (2003, p.76). The author, Peterson further mentioned that subtractive color should be especially kept in mind when people work with color (2003, p.76).

To sum up, B. Peterson briefly introduced colors which are placed in two: primary color and secondary color, and he mentioned that primary color is divided into two main sets which are subtractive colors and additive colors(2003, p.76). He then suggested that people should keep subtractive colors in their mind when working with colors (Peterson, 2003, p.76).

Responding to other students' reading tasks-from Alison

Date: Sep17, 2007

As I listened to Ibrahim's reading report and Jay's, I was glad to learn something new from their topics--Ibrahim's topic is “Starvation in Africa”, and Jay’s is “Loneliness”.

In Ibrahim’s report, he firstly pointed out the main problems of Africa followed by the author’s statement. He mentioned that one of the problems is that the population is growing faster than the production of food supply. Then he mentioned the author’s opinion by indicating that the growing population reduces food supply and agricultural industry, and afterward it causes diseases because of food scarcity. Further, based on Ibrahim, the growing population is due to polygamy. He then provided the author’s opinion that technology makes the differences between rich and poor even more dramatic, and it does not actually contribute to the African agriculture. Ibrahim supported his opinion by pointing out that he agrees that the main problem of a rapidly growing population is polygamy.

In my opinion, Ibrahim did not do particularly good or bad in evaluating his material, but he explained some thoughts regarding his topic when we threw questions at him.

From my point of view, I wonder why when I asked Ibrahim why the government of Africa did not want to teach the poor how to use technology to harvest their agricultural products, and Ibrahim stated that “ to educate the poor is capitalism.” I am also curious about what the government of Africa thought, and why technology cannot enhance the agricultural industry, and why the government does not educate poor people to use technology to produce more agricultural products, so that the poor people will not become poorer, and the gap between poor people and rich people could be decreased. Furthermore, technology will probably influence the amount of workers needed. Hence, it is the responsibility of Africa’s government to make backup plans for ordinary people, in case the technology decreases the amount of jobs which would increase poverty.

On the other hand, in Jay’s report, “Loneliness”, he mentioned that almost all the Koreans are afraid of being called “Mr/Ms. Loneliness” because they do not like people to see them as a “boring person” or as “no social activity person”, based on Jay, and he was going to find the reason in his research. Yet, he did not point out whether the phenomenon is a fact from the book or is his own opinion. He did not support his opinion because our discussion ran out of time because of Ibrahim’s report. (I didn’t even have any time to share and give my report to Jay and Ibrahim.) In addition, of course, he has not started doing his research yet, so he is not able to provide details on what he has stated.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, Jay seemed to need more time to evaluate his material because he did not give enough reasons, details or information from his book. From my experience, many of my Korean friends who went to travel alone were very proud of themselves about traveling alone. Therefore, if Koreans are afraid to be called or indicated that they are Mr/Ms. Loneliness, I wonder why many of my Korean friends enjoyed traveling alone. However, I am not Korean, so I may not understand Koreans as much as Jay who was born in Korea.

Summary of pp.88-135 (From Alison)

Summary of pp.88-135

In page 88 to 135 of the book, “Learning to see creatively” (2003), the author, Bryan Peterson, stated that for amateur photographers, to take top-quality photograph is to master the composition and light in photographs.

Peterson indicated that to fill the frame is the most essential and easiest skill in composition of a photograph, but the first step is to figure out what your subject is, and then to focus on your subject until it fills the frame of the viewfinder in your camera (pp.88-89, 2003). The author as well mentioned in page 92 to 97 that the most useful technique to substantially improve the quality in photography is placing the most important elements into nine divided equal sections of a photograph (2003). In addition, Peterson (2003) proposed that the photograph’s emotional tone will be enhanced by mastering the three chief features of the available light: brightness, colour and direction (pp.130). According to the author, the best possible light will be that of the early morning and the early afternoon; yet it still depends on what the subject is and where the location of the subject is (2003, pp.130).

In conclusion, based on B. Peterson (2003) in page 88 to 89, the easiest way for an amateur photographer to take high-quality photographs is to master a photo’s composition and light. After identifying what the subject is, one of the important strategies in composition of taking photographs is to fill the frame with that subject, based on Peterson (2003.pp. 88-89). Moreover, according to the author (2003),the most essential and useful strategy to improve the composition of a photograph is to divide the appearance of a picture into nine equal sections and set the most important part of your subject along the third markers (pp.92-97). The author then stated that by mastering the three chief features of the available light, the photograph’s emotional tone will be enhanced (2003.pp.130-135). Using these strategies will make it easier to create a more compelling composition in arts such as in a photograph (Peterson, 2003, pp.88-135).

Greeting

Hi, folks,

How are you?

I'm Alison and come from Taiwan.

Mountain hiking, swimming and biking and doing other outdoor sports, and watching movie are all my interest.

Alison