This week's blog entry is coming a couple of days late due to vacationing in the mountains of Western North Carolina and participating in a grueling (meaning: I didn't win but I did finish!!!) bike race/ride through the aforementioned mountains.
Reflection on three chapters of the textbook dealing with Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Generating and Testing Hypotheses.
For Identifying Similarities and Differences, I can see how this concept is important in the learning environment but I am struggling to come up with a concrete example from my current working situation. I guess that the most interesting use of technology to complete this sort of task was when one of my subordinate officers in Hawaii wanted to compare and contrast input that she had received from one of her subordinates with his previous submission. We were able to use the merge/compare function in MS Word to highlight the very few changes that the individual had made from one year to the next. It was an interesting exercise and one that I've shared with other people who have had similar questions between two documents. Most recently I used it to answer my boss's question regarding a document that one contributor had failed to use the track changes on. I was able to recreate it using the revised version and the original that my boss sent out. I have come to really like this feature in Word.
In terms of Homework and Practice it is hard to come up with a valid example of this concept in my current profession. However, there are plenty of examples from my experiences as a student that illustrate both the proper and improper assignment of homework. Though none are really all that relevant to the concept of including technology into the Homework assignment, completion or assessment processes. Oddly enough, one of the best "homework" assignments that I had to do was to copy the Navigation Rules of The Road book - International the 1st sea-year and Inland (and International again, for those of us with horrible handwriting that were afforded the unique opportunity to redo it!) the 2nd sea-year. While this might seem like a tedious task and less-than-optimal usage of time, I firmly believe that this exercise coupled with a strenuous follow-on class with the aptly named teacher, Captain Hard, directly contributed to my, and my classmates', ability to head into the CG license examination, Rules of the Road section, with full confidence that we would all pass. The memorization aspect and Capt. Hard's seemingly impossible quizzes made this supposedly highly-stressful 90% pass/fail license exam section a quick and easy exercise. Through the numerous examples provided in the textbook I can see how the intelligent inclusion of technology into the traditional concept of homework can aid in the learning process.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses. For this concept I have my own thesis experience to draw from as well as my experiences as a supervisor in allowing subordinates to conduct research into a novel case or question of determination of safety/security equivalence. For my thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School I aimed to recreate the micro-structural rearrangement caused by the Friction Stir Processing of nickel-aluminum-bronze propeller material using more conventional deformation processes... in short, all of my hypothesized attempts failed to accurately match! In failing to recreate the same effects I was able to show that this process was wholly unique in its ability to mix the metal and create a brand new micro-structure. In my current job, we are constantly presented with new novel ship designs (green vessels, etc) or owners seeking for us to analyze their requests for equivalence (basically, a determination that they meet the intent or spirit of the regulation without meeting the letter of the law). I allow my subordinates the opportunity to conduct the appropriate research into these cases in order to present the case to my supervisor or the Captain of the Port for final determination. I have been impressed with their ability to thoroughly investigate each and every case and present facts, opinions and, when possible, similar examples from elsewhere in the country.
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