Journal Assignment
General purpose of the assignment: The purpose of the assignment is to encourage you to reflect on how major lessons learned throughout the course impact you personally. Format: Each journal entry will consist of one or two handwritten or word processed pages (or the equivalent blog entries) and will have a descriptive heading. To submit your journal entries, put them all in a duo-tang and include a title page (this step is not required if blog entries are used). Blog entries and addresses will be treated with the same level of privacy as handwritten work. Content: Start by selecting one or more of the topics discussed in class. Your journal entry should refer to material covered in class, information you have read in your textbook, and additional information you have read in another source such as a trade magazine, a book, or a website. You have some latitude in selecting journal topics. You can reflect on any of the course topics, assignments, and exercises in IST140. You can also tie-in your reflections to activities and experiences in other CST classes. You can reflect on more than one topic in each journal entry and you may also reflect on the same topic in more than one journal entry so long as you have new observations and reflections to add. Reflection involves thinking about your feelings, beliefs, and values relating to the topic(s) you have chosen. Although you are free to express your opinions about course material, the journal is not intended to be a mechanism for you to provide feedback about the instructor or the course. Instead, write about what the course material means to you and what you have learned from it. Include descriptions of how you plan to use the material or information in the future. Reflections are personal in nature, so there is no such thing as a “correct” or “incorrect” reflection. You will, however, be expected to put thought and effort into your reflection. Your instructor will reject any journal entry that is not thoughtful and reflective. If you are stuck, try asking yourself some of the following questions. You do not have to address them directly in your reflection, but they may help you to focus on what is meaningful to you about the topic you have selected. Was there a particular exercise/lesson/reading that was helpful to you? What did you learn from completing the exercise/lesson/reading? Was there an exercise/lesson/reading that was not helpful to you? Why do you think it was not helpful? What could have made it more meaningful to you? Did you find a particular class exercise/lesson/reading to be uncomfortable? Why do you think it was uncomfortable? Have you used (or do you plan to use) any of the ideas you learned? How and when will you use them? What was (or what do you think will be) the result? How do the things you have learned in IST140 apply to your career or to other aspects of your life? If you believe that you did not learn anything new with regard to a particular topic, why do you believe that was the case? How could you have gotten more out of the topic? Is there any material/course/instructor with which you are having difficulty? If so, what is causing the problems? How do you plan to resolve the problems? How will the things you have learned in IST140 and your outside readings help you? Grading: Each o o o o o journal entry will either be accepted by your instructor or not. To be accepted, entries must reference material discussed in class reference material from the textbook reference material from an outside source such as a website, book, or magazine demonstrate thoughtful personal reflection have a descriptive heading