Food for thought

Yesterday I joined exceptionally both discussions, to get a chance to meet every body, as I am taking on the role of student rep for this semester. I want to start this blog, with just briefly saying, that if you have any feed back, thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or other things on your mind, concerning this course and any other university related proceedings, feel free to contact me at any time, I am very happy to represent your ideas and thoughts at the university board of studies meeting. Looking forward to this term with you! My e-mail is krabumbel(at)yahoo.de, we can also talk via Skype or WhatsApp (you can send me an e-mail with your phone nr. if you want and I will get in touch with you then) and I am also on Facebook (so (too??) many ways to communicate ;-)!!)

I felt that both discussions yesterday were very thought triggering and many really interesting topics were touched.

The evening discussion made me think how knowledge is in a constant flux, it is always changing and evolving.

For example the discussion we had about what "academic" writing is, made me realise how much my conception of what academic writing means to me has changed over the course of this program. It has evolved from seeing it as something stiff and formal with strict rules to follow and only one correct way to do it, to perceiving it more of a process of finding my own voice within an academic context, connecting my practice to the theories and to the huge body of knowledge, that is out there, allows me to situate myself, becoming more aware of where I am, of my learning process and choosing more consciously where I want to go from here and all the other questions, that you can explore ;-). And even though citations are a time consuming and sometimes frustrating process, I feel it allows me to acknowledge the work of others and I started to become more aware of and question where information comes from, also in other contexts.

This brings me to the other really interesting topic we talked about in the morning: communication.
We had a really good discussion and Adesola asked in the end, what made it a good discussion. Among other things we talked about that moments of silence are ok, it allows you to think before answering, acknowledging that we are all involved in the same process no matter which module and that every input is valued, were other aspects we talked about.

While I entered the discussions with asking how to communicate specific ideas clearly, I left it thinking about another aspect of communication, that I haven't given much consideration before, that maybe communication is not only about getting a specific meaning across, but also (or maybe fore most) about inspiring a reflective process. Rather than getting a straight answer, getting food for thought. Seeing through some one else eyes and relating it back to your own view. Its about growth. So that would be another aspect, that I would add as to what makes a good discussion: a discussion that inspires a reflective process during the discussion itself, but also as an afterthought.

So, this has been really long, I will stop here ;-) and look forward to many more inspiring discussions with you all and reading your blogs about yesterdays discussions!