A: Pink's argument about motivation was that there are three important aspects of work that are important to motivating employees. They need to feel like their work has a purpose, like they have a level of self control, and that there is a learning curve to their work or a sense of mastery. This can be easily applied to school through PBL. For example, a student who comes to school every day late, feels like they don't want to work, and generally feels unmotivated to do anything, (but still does it because they're good students), may just need to find relevance or purpose to the work they are doing. Another issue could be that they find the work too easy and with no learning. This often times happens with students who are excelling in a subject and are assigned a crap ton of work on the most basic aspects of said subject. Of course, many students will say the work is easy as an excuse not to do anything, but it is important to remember that if they are not using the assignments to build towards something greater (which leads back to the purpose), then there is no mastery. If there is no mastery, then it often feels like the work is almost entirely meaningless and without purpose. It would be like lifting a 5 LB weight for a hundred reps of five in an effort to gain muscle when you really should be lifting 25 LB. Lastly, there is the hardest problem to overcome, the ability for students to feel autonomous. This is a difficult problem to solve since students go to school to learn required course material, not learn how to draw manga or take naps on desks or practice guitar. Surely, there is a way to allow students the ability to express their interests, schedule their work times, and feel like they have a say in how their day progresses. If we could find that solution, then the problems of purpose and mastery would be irrelevant. It is clear that no one will want to pick something that serves no purpose to them, because they would never think of the subject in the first place. It is also evident that the students will not pick something without a learning curve (and if they do, then they will just move on when they get bored), because they would end up bored out of their minds. For students to be autonomous in deciding their education and daily schedules would be ideal to me, but I don't think it would work without the close attention and care of teachers to advise the students in how their days should be conducted.
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This week was a very long, angering week. This project is consistently going downhill and I don't feel as if it even matters. I suppose the best thing for me to celebrate would be my time out of school at Thinkabit.
I suppose I could be experiencing cognitive dissonance right now, like many of my peers. I feel like the whole project is designed in an unequitable way and that has been irritating me since the start. I haven't dealt with it yet. Seeing many students going and trying to have a conversation about it (unsuccessfully) has made me realize that there's no getting through to Dr. Don because he wouldn't change much anyways. Now being a third of the way through our time to design a VR world, I honestly don't know what my plan is for getting an A. Every opportunity I have for a job has either turned disastrous or been denied by Dr. Don. I'll have to do 3 hours a day of PD for the rest of the project just to get an A.
My view on reliable news and media bias has not changed because I was already aware with the biases and agendas that many news companies hold. I feel like being a knowledgeable consumer of information is important to the country as a whole because in a democratic process, citizens need to be informed in order to make a responsible decision. The professional development is helping me so far. I've spent a great deal of time teaching myself Blender and I feel like I've learned a lot. The issue I have with the project is the fact that I'm even on professional development. There would be no need for professional development if there wasn't a ridiculously overthought budget placed onto the producers. There are too many restraints on the producers and they can't even hire people. It's the most lose-lose project plan I have ever seen.
I'd change all of the 'budget' planning and maybe even change the way specialists are graded. You mean if I'm not a producer or friends with a producer, then I have to work twice as hard to get an A? Regardless of my acquired skill level? Such a terrible idea. Pretty much means specialists either have to lie about how much they are working, or they actually DO have to put in twice the work. I don't know what's worse. If this is a broken job market simulator, then you're doing it right. My best strategies for working in a distracting place are to A) listen to music while working, B) use earbuds for tutorials, and C) only work until I get very stressed or frustrated. Those in power can use words to influence the choices we make in purchases, elections, public opinion, etc. They do this through the various types of propaganda we learned about during the week. The singularity reading from engineering provided me an understanding of what advancing AI means for all aspects of business. It was scary to hear that insurance companies wont matter as much and that people should probably avoid practicing as a lawyer because jobs will be gone soon.
The job fair/interview process didn't feel authentic at all. It was very forced, and in the end, the people who are friends with the producers ended up with jobs easier. Not sure it was the best idea for a high school environment. The money isn't real enough for the decisions to feel real. I think the most authentic part was the contracts. Advertising seems to shape the way people consume in our society, but it often does this by reflecting the common themes that are already appearing over media. I don't think advertising needs more restrictions because the advertising that is offensive is most often not successful. Throughout the week I have been working on learning the essentials of 3D modeling in Blender. With a few road bumps, I have learned how to create objects and animate them using various Blender utilities. My goals for next week are to create my own textures and unique models for the projects I'm hired to work on.
In English, my study on propaganda and doublespeak has *slightly* changed my view on the truth. It has helped to raise my awareness of people's intentions. The biggest questions that came up with this study were: 1: Can politics exist without doublespeak and propaganda? 2: Is propaganda inherently bad, or does it hold positive influences as well? |