At the beginning of this semester I was really doubting my decision to pursue interdisciplinary as my major. Now, almost 15 weeks later I can confidently say that being an interdisciplinary major has been the greatest part of my undergraduate education so far. I came into this class with barely any knowledge of what is was going to be like. I assumed the class would have been solely focused on picking classes and creating my major, which turned out to be only a small portion of what this class was about. Most of this class was focused on learning about what it means to be interdisciplinary and all the doors it opens for us as interdisciplinarians. It’s funny because I had absolutely no idea what interdisciplinary meant at the beginning of the year. It wasn’t until my advisor explained to me what it was and how it might be a good major for me that I did some research about it. I still didn’t know exactly what it meant after changing my major, I just thought interdisciplinary meant mashing majors together. With the help of this class I know now that interdisciplinary refers to the combining of two or more fields of studies which allows for collaboration between the different disciplines in order to broaden education, gain understanding or to solve problems. Throughout this class I learned so many new ideas and concepts for education that link back to interdisciplinarity. For me, the big stepping stone into my interdisciplinary education was using an eport. I had never thought of using a personal cyberinfrastructure to better my experience with my education until this class. The best part of having my own domain is being able to use it as an educational portfolio. So far I have only used it for this class, but I am planning on keeping it and using it to my advantage in the future as a place to publish my work so I can always revisit it. Along with using the web to publish my work, the idea of a personal learning network was also new to me. Since I came into this class social media free, I was hesitant to make a twitter for my personal learning network but once I made my twitter I found it really interesting. I was honestly surprised at how easy it was to find scholars in the career I am working towards, and how many scholars are using twitter. I would have never thought to begin making connections with scholars via twitter, but throughout the time in this class I now realize it can actually really help me in the future. Along with personal cyberinfrastructures and personal learning networks, open education was a new idea for me. The concept of open education was something I never heard of directly, but indirectly I have always thought that students should have access to FREE online textbooks and online videos and articles. Anything that is going to help progress my education or help me learn should be accessible for free. If education is a concept of sharing, then why aren’t we able to share all these resources? With my knowledge and experience with a personal cyberinfrastructure, learning network, open education along with all the other ideas and concepts I learned in this class, I feel ready to continue my interdisciplinary education out of this class. When I think about universities today, they seem to be divided by discipline. Looking at PSU, all the science classes are located in Boyd, the business classes are in Hyde, health and human performance classes are in D&M, etc. Each building is dedicated to a discipline or divided into several disciplines by floor. We are encouraged to join clubs at school that are specific to a single discipline. But shouldn’t universities be focusing more on becoming interdisciplinary? It is so important that we merge disciplines together because education is all about sharing ideas and information. This semester I have been able to tie information from one class to another class in a completely different discipline! Interdisciplinarity in a university is essential for preparing students for life outside of university. Studying interdisciplinary allows students to develop skills to help problem solve and think outside of the box. Studying interdisciplinary in college allows students to actually be interested in what they are studying instead of merely working for a degree. For me, I can definitely say that I am more motivated and focused on working towards my degree as an interdisciplinary major than I was before. This is because I have an interest in all the classes I am taking. I chose to put them in my contract because I know they will benefit my education and what I want to do in the future. When I think about universities today, they seem to be divided by discipline. Looking at PSU, all the science classes are located in Boyd, the business classes are in Hyde, health and human performance classes are in D&M, etc. Each building is dedicated to a discipline or divided into several disciplines by floor. We are encouraged to join clubs at school that are specific to a single discipline. But shouldn’t universities be focusing more on becoming interdisciplinary? It is so important that we merge disciplines together because education is all about sharing ideas and information. This semester I have been able to tie information from one class to another class in a completely different discipline! Interdisciplinarity in a university is essential for preparing students for life outside of university. Studying interdisciplinary allows students to develop skills to help problem solve and think outside of the box. Studying interdisciplinary in college allows students to actually be interested in what they are studying instead of merely working for a degree. For me, I can definitely say that I am more motivated and focused on working towards my degree as an interdisciplinary major than I was before. This is because I have an interest in all the classes I am taking. I chose to put them in my contract because I know they will benefit my education and what I want to do in the future. Not only do universities benefit from interdisciplinarity but so does the world. So much of everyday life falls under the category of interdisciplinary. Misiewicz points out in , How do we do Interdisciplinarity?, that doctors can’t diagnose patients without having an understanding of the human body, and Walmart can’t operate if there are no manufacturers. Everything in life can be connected, weather its objects, people or disciplines. Life itself is interconnected and functions from interdisciplinarity.
I spend a lot of time thinking about my future and trying to figure out what I ultimately want to do with my life. My plan after graduating PSU is to go to physician assistant school and become a certified PA. From here I would love to specialize in bariatrics. Working as a physician assistant will very much be an interdisciplinary job. I will be working with doctors, nurses, and patients. Because I will be working with patients I will need a strong understanding of how the body functions and understanding how to make assessments and diagnoses. Going into a field that is very much interdisciplinary I hope interdisciplinary keeps growing. I hope that it becomes more involved for every student going through college. I think PSU is doing a great job with their involvement with interdisciplinary studies and I can’t wait to see how much it grows in the future. One thing I do hope for PSU and other universities is for the idea of interdisciplinary to become more known among students that aren’t interdisciplinary majors. Two years ago at the beginning of my college career I had no idea what it was, but I would have benefited greatly had I known at that time, because I would have had the motivation to learn with classes that I wanted to be taking instead of classes I ‘had’ to take. Over the course of this past semester I have grown not only as a student but as a person. I am leaving this class with more knowledge and ideas than I expected. But it’s the kind of knowledge that is actually going to stick with me, it’s not just stuff I need to memorize until the class ends. One of the biggest takeaways from this class is that my knowledge will continue growing after I get my degree. The need for learning and gaining knowledge doesn’t stop after I graduate. With what I have learned so far in this class, I hope I continue growing as a student for the rest of my academic career, as well as my professional career. I am on an interdisciplinary journey, and this class was just the beginning.
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This week I read about interdisciplinarity, specifically four different readings. The first one I read was The BIG Terms, which was able to give me a general understanding of the terms and vocabulary used to understand interdisciplinary studies and those similar. I was shocked at how many terms were included in this reading. A lot of the terms were so similar to each other, yet meant very different things. For example interdisciplinary is so similar to multidisciplinary because they both refer to the blending of disciplines, it's just the extent of blending that differentiates the two. The second reading, A Metaphor For Understanding Interdisciplinarity, helped me understand the idea of interdisciplinarity better. I knew what it was from the definition given in The BIG Terms but now I have a stronger understanding through the metaphor of fruits. I learned that it doesn’t just refer to the the number of fields of knowledge incorporated, but it also refers to the how closely related the fields of knowledge are as well. Biology and chemistry are classified as sciences, meaning they are more closely related than a science and an english class would be. The third reading, Concepts For Doing Interdisciplinary, explained two concepts, which will be helpful to me when I face a problem working in the interdisciplinary field. It explained the concept of ‘drilling down’, which means taking my problem and breaking into smaller parts. This will allow me to solve my problem in steps rather than all at once, making it less stressful and easier to understand. Usually when I am faced with a problem I immediately get overwhelmed because I am focusing on the whole of it instead of working at it in parts. The other concept in the reading was ‘setting in context’, which taught me that sometimes instead of singling out my problem, I need to look at it compared to the bigger picture. This is another technique I can use when I have a problem. Most of the time, I end up thinking that when a problem occurs its the end of the world and I get really stressed, but looking at the big picture sometimes my problem is only just a bump in the road. The last reading, Content, Methods, Epistemologies, explained the aspects that make up disciplines. These were content, methods and epistemologies. I was familiar with content and methods but I was introduced to the term epistemologies, which ties together both content and methods. I found these 4 readings to be extremely useful on their own, as I learned and took away important information from each of them. However, the readings were also related, building off of ideas from other readings making them stronger. After reading, I have an enhanced understanding of interdisciplinarity, what it is, the parts that make up it, and how to use it in the real world.
Original Post One of the best parts of interdisciplinary is that we find ways to connect different aspects of our education and life together. Before this class I would have never gave much thought to how my anatomy and physiology class would relate to my abnormal psych class. Now that I have been learning about making connections between things that may not be directly related, I find connections between these classes all the time. In fact I find connections between most of my classes.
Recently in my abnormal psych class we were learning about anxiety and anxiety attacks. When these occur the body responds by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, rate and depth of breathing, sweat production and decreases digestion. It made me think about what I had been learning in my anatomy and physiology class. In my anatomy and physiology class we had previously learned about hormones and reactions they produce in the body. We learned about how the fight or flight response is stimulated. It begins in the hypothalamus, which then activates our sympathetic nervous system. The adrenal glands will be stimulated next and will release the hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine. Once these hormones are absorbed into the bloodstream, the body will respond with the fight or flight response. In my abnormal psych class, hearing about anxiety and the symptoms that occur with it, only made me make the connection to my anatomy class and when we learned about the fight or flight response and how it occurs in the body. Knowing a background on why and how the body reacts when in a state of stress made it easier to understand. I thought it was really cool that I was able to apply knowledge from one class to another. It made me feel like all my classes are able to connect and build off of each other. A personal learning network is something that students and scholars can use in order to make connections and learn within their field. I chose to use twitter as my personal learning network. Coming from a background of no social media whatsoever, I found it hard to decide what platform to use as my personal learning network. I chose twitter because it seemed accessible and easy to use for me. Building my twitter consisted of spending a lot of time searching through hashtags to find as many PA and medical accounts as I could. I also spent a lot of time reading through tweets on my dashboard looking for anything that sparked my interest about the career field I am heading in.
The idea of open pedagogy can be described as, “dynamic, contested, constantly under revision, and resists static definitional claims. But it is not a site vacant of meaning or political conviction” (Open Pedagogy). Open pedagogy allows tools and techniques that make it possible to have, “a more empowering, collaborative, and just architecture for learning (Open Pedagogy). This idea is nothing new, but is only just being discovered again. With all the new technology and resources we have today, open education allows students to become more encouraged to participate and learn to their full extent. With open educational resources students who are unable to afford their textbook can receive them online for free. Connected learning is another resource that learners can use to their advantage. Connected learning is, “learning is socially embedded, interest-driven, and oriented toward expanding educational, economic or political opportunity” (Excerpts From Connected Learning). Social media is highly popular among students and being able to connect social media with learning keeps the interest sparked. Connected learning also allows students to make connections between their personal, out of school lives and what they are learning in school. MAking connections like this is essential in learning. My personal learning network isn’t coming along as well as I had originally hoped for. Initially I was doing really good at staying up to date and checking my twitter a few times a week. However, I haven’t used it as much as I thought I would, and it is most likely because I don’t have other social media and am not used to keeping up to date with it. I did find several tweets of articles and studies that were interesting to me. But for the most part, my twitter experience was only subpar. I am still going to keep my twitter and continue to use it because I think the opportunity to build a professional network is there. Ever since I was a little girl I was always interested in firetrucks and fire departments. In elementary school each year the firefighters of my town would give a fire safety talk and let the kids climb in and look through the fire trucks. I always imagined that being a firefighter would be the best job because you get to drive around in really big trucks with a lot of lights. I used to firefighters had one job, and it was to put fires out using water. Recently I began volunteering with the fire department in my town, and I am learning about how they operate as a team. It wasn’t until taking this class I became conscious that all the different aspects that go into making a fire department run smoothly is an interdisciplinary concept. For a fire department to run and operate smoothly there needs to be a lot of communication between everyone involved. For example, every truck has its own job. So when there is a fire, every truck arriving on scene will be in charge of their own specific jobs, but they ultimately all work cohesively as one unit. When a fire department goes to a fire there is a truck in charge of fire attack, water supply, search and rescue, ventilation, rit, and rehab. Individually, each task is extremely important to the overall task of extinguishing a fire, but it also isn’t enough by itself. Without having water supply the crew in charge of fire attack would run out of water in a few minutes and the fire would keep growing. And without rit, the search and rescue crews wouldn't be able to carry out their operations safely. While it may seem like fire departments run as one discipline, it’s actually quite a few different disciplines intertwined in a way that allows them to run and operate cohesively. It's kind of like a smoothie, each truck is a different fruit and they all become mixed in so well you can't distinguish which one is which at first glance. Since getting familiar with how fire departments run I have a great appreciation of all the work that goes into making one work.
Original Post It amazes me that the earliest academies date back to ancient greece. It seems like back then things were so simple in a lot of ways. Everything they did was by hand, there was no technology, and they focused mainly on mathematics and music. Unlike today where we have so many disciplines and sub-disciplines it can become confusing at times. In high school I felt drawn to several different majors I wanted to study in college and it was really difficult trying to narrow it down to one. Because I had a hard time deciding wether I wanted to major in mathematics, biology, or psychology I decided that my first two years of college I would only focus on general courses. Generalizing my time in college by taking my gen-ed's first allowed me to take my time and decide on what major I wanted to study. Thankfully by my third year I discovered interdisciplinary studies, which is relatively new and only just beginning to get noticed. Learning about this new major was a game changer for the path of my education. My ultimate goal is to become a physician assistant, which requires going to graduate school that offers a physician assistant program. These programs are extremely difficult to be accepted into and have a list of prerequisite classes students applying need to have already taken in undergrad. The list of prerequisite courses are a mixture of biology, chemistry, math, and psychology courses. No major I looked at had all the prerequisites included, but with interdisciplinary I am able to study courses from multiple different majors. I love being interdisciplinary because not only am I studying material from different majors, but I also belong to different social communities and discover ways to tie them together. This semester I have been able to tie together content I am learning from my biology courses to my psychology courses. Being able to relate content from one class to another actually helps me understand it all better, and helps me grow as a student. With interdisciplinary the classes I am taking are the ones that excite and interest me, which makes learning so much better than feeling forced to take classes only because my major tells me to. Interdisciplinary is an opportunity to expand my education while also getting the best education for my future and career, and I am thankful for discovering it. Original Post
Ever since I was a little girl I was always interested in firetrucks and fire departments. In elementary school each year the firefighters of my town would give a fire safety talk and let the kids climb in and look through the fire trucks. It wasn’t until taking this class I became conscious of all the different aspects that go into making a fire department run smoothly. Recently I began volunteering with the fire department in my town, and I am learning about how they operate as a team. I had never once thought about how they operate as a team, but it is actually just a whole lot of teamwork and communication. For example, every truck has its own job. So when there is a fire, every truck arriving on scene will be in charge of their own jobs, but they ultimately all work cohesively as one unit. There is a truck in charge of fire attack, water supply, search and rescue, ventilation, rit, and rehab. Individually, each task is extremely important to extinguishing a fire, but also isn’t enough by itself. Even though it may seem like a fire department is just one discipline, it’s actually a whole bunch that work together so intertwined they run and operate smoothly and cohesively. Since getting familiar with how fire departments run I have a great appreciation for how much work really goes into it.
It amazes me that the earliest academies date back to ancient greece. It seems like back then things were a lot more simple in some ways. There was no technology, and they focused mainly on mathematics and music. Today, we have so many disciplines and subdisciplines it can get confusing at times. In high school I felt drawn to several different majors I wanted to study in college. It was really difficult to pick just one thing. My first two years of college I decided to take all my general courses, to give me time to decide on what major I wanted to study. Thankfully by my third year I discovered interdisciplinary studies, which is relatively new and only just beginning to get noticed. Because of this new major, I am able to study multiple different majors that are all incorporated into what I want to do next, which is go to PA school. I love being interdisciplinary because I get to belong to different social communities and discover ways to tie them together. This semester I have been able to tie together things from my biology courses to my psychology courses, and in a way I can understand things better having information from the two fields. Interdisciplinary is an opportunity to expand my education while also getting the best education for my future and career, and I am thankful for discovering it.
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