Farewell - Final Presentation

Final assessment task completed.

Final journal entry - FAREWELL

I think Academic literacy is a subject which helps to improve language learning skills which will be important to us in further studies. This subject mainly focuses on literacy skills, communication skills and ability to work collaboratively and as well as individually. Most importantly this unit introduced a range of text, task types, various learning tools and platforms commonly encounters. So I think overall academic literacy is a valuable unit for me as I learned a lot and also I developed my learning strategies as well.

I had to overcome lot of challenges when completing various assessment tasks throughout this course. On the very first day I found out my learning style and I realised my strategies to study more efficiently. This valuable understanding helped me throughout my studies and I must say that this unit was well organized. Writing portfolio and journal entries helped me to develop my writing skills. Mainly because there were range of genres included in writing portfolio and this is really helpful for me to develop my writing skills. TED Talks and ABC Radio National website consists of vast information as a lot of professional speakers and professors have emphasised their view in different categories. This listening portfolio task helped me to improve my presenting skills and by commenting on them made me gain knowledge as well. Paraphrasing and summarising more accurately was also another useful thing which I learned recently. Commenting on discussion board helped us to evaluate our personal experience of learning as well. Vocabulary assessment component and the annotation task were my favourite tasks.  I learned new words and also mastered a lot of words because of vocabulary website and I recommend this website for all the foundation students as it helps to improve vocabulary skills. Doing annotations was important to me in my future studies as well because my path is engineering and I really enjoyed annotating texts while researching about them. Reviewing and editing written work for accuracy, fluency and coherence was another unique thing which I learned from this unit. The main challenge I faced when completing these assessment components was to do researches more accurately and I successfully overcame it.

There are lots of learning outcomes from this unit and I honestly enjoyed completing these tasks. I suggest Ms. Julia Gardiner to add this subject for foundation studies and also make it compulsory for all students as we can get a vast knowledge which will be important in the future.

Artificial Intelligence

Journal for week 8

It has been a thrilling eight weeks time and obviously I’m half way through the course. Though the work is getting harder, I’ve been able to manage all four subjects pretty well. I think academic literacy is intended to build upon and expand our existing language skills while introduce them to a range of text and task types. There is a lot of progress in my language learning skills due to the wide range of assessment components. Many of us fail to present ideas more efficiently; but one of the most important things that I learned in this course so far are to identify, critically evaluate and respond to ideas in an accurate manner. Without a doubt the quality of written and spoken texts are improved and also I learned a lot of effective learning strategies as well.

Ted Talks and ABC radio national websites consist of vast information as a lot of professional speakers and professors have emphasized their view in different categories. This listening portfolio task helped me to improve my presenting skills and by commenting on them made me gain knowledge as well. Vocabulary assessment component was my favorite task and I learned lots of words and the meanings of them. Now I used to answer questions on vocabulary website during my leisure time and it really improves the knowledge of mine; this task was mind blowing one for me. Annotating poems and texts were also another brilliant task which helped me to think the ways of presenting ideas by famous authors and also I noticed the change of writing styles by the author’s generation to generation. DIIGO is the tool which was given to us and I think it’s not a reliable tool when it comes to annotating and I strongly suggest another tool to replace with it.

There are lots of learning outcomes from this unit so far and I honestly enjoy completing these tasks. I feel that the components inside assessment tasks should be reduced to a certain extent; hence the quality of the unit outline won’t get damaged. So that it will be easier to manage all the subjects. I suggest Swinburne to add this subject for foundation course. I’m really impressed about the unit outline because it includes a vast knowledge and the assessment tasks are well chosen by the unit convener. 

All-American Biography

In this poem, “All-American Biography”, by Paige Buffington; the humble existence of a poor kid is recounted. The writer lets us know about how the kid takes after his mom's strides after her downfall, and how he gets flashbacks of his mom showing him to deal with their stable. Besides, it is focused on how humble their way of life is, and how under special they are. Indeed, even after his mother’s passing, her child carries on her same, regular way. They don't have the foggiest idea about some other extension as opposed to adhering to their continual exercises. The kid may have a beam of trust in a superior future, yet his neediness does not let him to dispose of this segregated life. Then again, the writer states how much the kid misses his mom, and the amount he adores his mom. He even remembers how his mom taught him to stroll in his more youthful days. The writer vindicates the thought that a mother's affection and fondness is second to none.

Samaritan

The novel “The Mercy of the Night” (Thomas & Mercer, 2015), by David Corbett was an anecdote about an outsider with great deeds. Samaritans are great individuals with great deeds, who are dependably at hopeless individuals' transfer. Here in this story, a sad young woman is helped by an outsider. As the story passes by, it expresses that the more interesting is slightly a miscreant. Notwithstanding being a hooligan; he has great qualities in him. With the circumstances, he could have effectively attacked her. Yet, he selects not to. He securely drives the young lady to a coffee shop which is possessed by a lady, and abandons her under her asylum with no issue. So what I feel about this story is that in the event that you do great things, you are protected by the nature itself. On the off chance that you do terrible things, they think about you.

Conventional cricket

In my view, conventional cricket is the best form of cricket. But it is not the way in which cricket is played these days. Batsmen just focus on slogging rather than accumulating runs, playing proper cricket shots. The core quality of cricket is being ruined by the unconventional play. With new rules like the introduction of the two new balls, just four fielders being allowed outside the thirty yard circle, it has become much easier for the batsmen to score runs. The elegant stroke play is not there anymore. For instance, during the recently completed world cup, the monstrous 400 mark passed twice. This world cup was a nightmare for the bowlers. So what I suggest is that the ICC should rethink their strategies on new cricket rules and focus more on protecting the beauty of cricket.

Mind Map - Process of academic writing.

Week 2 - Goal Setting

I already had many goals and I’ve succeeded on achieving some of them and some didn’t work out as well. SMART goal concept was the new understanding which took place on last week’s academic literacy classes. This significant method of identifying a goal, I hadn’t realized in my previous goal setting.

 The letters SMART means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound. This criteria clearly shows the most important strategies which a goal should consist. As the great American philanthropist Elbert Hubbard say "Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organized their energies around a goal". (Haughey 2014) This makes me realize that when setting up an academic goal I should be more specific about my goal.

According to this SMART criteria I set up a language learning goal for myself in last week. That is getting a HD for Academic Literacy end of this semester so that I can proceed to diploma level successfully. Here are some of the strategies that I have taken when accomplishing my task.

• ·          Have to obtain more than 80% in every assessment task.
• ·         Get help from Mrs Ayami Tennekoon.
• ·         Identify my errors in writing and develop them.
• ·         Use the library and internet as the sources of information.
• ·         Revise all the work done in each week.

Haughey, D 2014, Smart goals, Project Smart, viewed 16 March 2015, <http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.php>.

Wadwhani, C 2013, Explaining how to set smart goals, 7 October, viewed 16 March 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6o5PyJM3bY>.

Mind Map

I have created my mind map, so that it will be more easier for me when developing on my learning skills.

Week 1 - Identifying my learning style.

The most significant thing that I learned this week in Academic Literacy class is that, how to identify the learning styles which suits me most. Now I realize that there are different learning styles such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic, because my lecturer brought up this very interesting topic last week. The lecturer gave us a questionnaire to fill up in order to find out what kind of a learner I am. According to the way that I have ticked, it shows me clearly that I am a kinesthetic learner over visual and auditory learner. I have uploaded my questionnaire for reference.

As per my research, kinesthetic learners carry out physical activities, rather than listening to a lecture or watching demonstrations. I think this new understanding of learning is a true fact because when I reflect on my past I really am a learner who learned by modeling all concepts. It implies to me, how to develop my learning skills into an accurate way of learning.

This concept of learning is valuable for me because in the future as an aspiring Engineer, I have to do lot of researches and many theories to absorb throughout my career. According to my research, this learning style is quite common among engineers. This has increased my confidence in choosing this discipline at university. This new understanding will help me in a number of ways; how to conduct myself during lectures, what will be the best way to store information and how to do my lab practical’s accurately and researches as well. 

Now I have understood my learning style so here are some of my strategies and ideas that I have taken to perform well in my future.

•       Make models to physically experience learning. For example: Building circuits to    understand theories in electronics.
•          Skim through the reading material before reading it in detail.
•          Annotate text and write questions while reading and listening to the lecturer.
•          Translate information into diagrams.
•          Memorize while moving.
•         Listen to music while studying.

This kind of learning will be useful throughout my life.   

Referencing -

Vincent,A&Ross,Dn.d. ‘A Basis For Developing Teaching and Learning Strategies’, Learning Style Awareness, 5^th March 2015,

<http://eflpresentations.pbworks.com/f/Good+summary+of+learning+style+models.pdf>