Interesting from Ch. 14

What I found interesting from chapter 14 was the basic idea of generalizing. It caught my attention because we use generalizing almost every day, similar to every other concept we've read from the text. From the book, it says that generalizing is when we conclude a claim about a group (the population) from a claim about some part of it (the sample). The text also says that when we generalize, we make arguments. Therefore, our generalizations are open to criticisms and oppositions. A specific example about generalizations are ones that lead to stereotypes. Stereotypes about Asians being bad drivers or smart students are derived by generalizations made by observing small samples. Some people may have gone to schools where Asians are at the tops of their classes, therefore strengthening their assumptions that all Asians are smart. Some may see reckless Asian drivers and assume that all Asians must drive the same way. Overall, generalizations can be good because they help us to interpret data or anticipate what's most likely to happen but they also have their cons.

Most/Least favorite things about the class

My most favorite thing about the class was that it was an online one. I didn't have to worry about making it fit with my other class schedules nor did I have to rush to get to this class. I liked how we had a week to do our discussion questions so there wasn't any rush to get them done. Interacting with the rest of the class was also interesting to me because I had never done so before through an online class.

My least favorite thing about the class was the group projects. I didn't have a problem doing them and I can't really complain because they're part of college basically. It was just so difficult to meet in person with our other group members because we had entirely different schedules followed by work and other commitments.

What could be improved about this class is maybe reforming the group project process. In other words, maybe in the beginning, group projects should be brought up so that many of the students can anticipate what's to happen. I think group meetings should be limited to online interaction (AIM, FB, ETC.), just because it would seem more appropriate, given this is an online course. Overall, I liked the class though some parts (like the group projects) made it more difficult to balance out my schedule. 

What I have learned...

From this class, I learned that online classes aren't so easy, haha. I assumed that all I needed to do was read and answer discussion questions with ease. But it was actually more difficult than I thought because it required thinking critically. In other words, you can't accept things the way they look or seem; you actually have to dig deeper and analyze people, places, events, etc. Besides learning not to anticipate that an online class would be easy to take, I have also learned about many concepts that are part of every day life, especially mine. For example, the concept of violating the principle of rational discussion helped me to familiarize myself with the defense mechanisms I use when I argue. To be more specific, I often use the Strawman defense; I put words in people's mouths to make it seem like they're saying something more worse than they really are. Something that also stayed with me throughout this class was the idea that our personal experiences are our best forms of knowledge; we can't always depend on what we're told or taught to believe in is right or accepted.