Final Reflection Thoughts

 Over Thanksgiving break, I watched Wicked: For Good. An impactful quote was stated by the Wizard: “The truth is not a thing of fact or reason; it’s just what everyone agrees on.” This immediately caused me to pause and reflect over all we have discussed this semester and how to determine fact versus truth.

Reflecting over this past semester, several key things stand out to me. Firstly, I enjoyed beginning with the Salem witch trials. I think it set a strong tone for what we would learn about as the semester continued. Particularly, I liked that the event was familiar, yet few of us were already “experts” or well-versed in the topic. It also challenged us as I feel as if it debunked several things I thought I knew about the time period, and taught me things I would not have known had occurred. I also enjoyed the student-led style in which presentations were given. It allowed each of us to do our own work and become knowledgeable on our given topic. The Waco Siege segment was the most impactful to me. Similarly to the Salem witch trials, I learned several things I would not have otherwise known and this research project debunked several myths I had once believed.

Our last unit, social media and scams, was a great recap of the semester and a reminder of what to look out for when trying to identify truth versus false. When going through the truth surveys I think the trends that team identified were interesting. Specifically, I think it was interesting how many people believed in conspiracy theories including the Big Pharma withholding a cancer cure and JFK assassination. Another survey result that stood out to me was the overwhelming reaction to the cheating problem question. I agree that students have a problem with cheating nowadays and have been a witness to a couple of occasions. I think the only way to solve this is to hope that it catches up to them one day or go back to old-school style test taking. I think the stronger that AI gets, the stronger AI detection capabilities also will get which will hopefully put a stop to students overusing AI to cheat. I did take one class recently in which there were no exams, only 3 papers the entire semester. You were allowed to use AI for sentence structure but not for finding sources or writing the ideas of the paper. The papers were all grading based on critical thinking, idea connection, and big-picture thoughts, which AI still has a difficult time performing. Because of this, it was easier for the professor to determine which students overused AI and I felt as if it was the most I have learned in a classroom in a long time because it forced me to sit down and really think through the material rather than memorizing my way through an exam or giving students an opportunity to cheat. Overall, I hope the problem can improve but I do not think there are enough fighters fighting against the cheating fight for it to come to an end soon at TCU.

I am excited about our final gathering as a class to see everyone’s reflection videos and hear about the last thoughts on truth and deception.


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