Peter's India Blog

I think Canvas is an integral part of being an OU student. My courses, both traditional in-class ones and online classes, have individual Canvas pages.  Nevertheless, many OU students, including myself, aren't so adept at using Canvas. I've learned about the Dashboard bar in this tech tip exercise. It was really interesting to change Dashboard views. I tried Card view, List view, and Recent activity. They all display my courses in different manners. I thought each one of them had unique advantages.  The most fascinating feature that I discovered was Nickname option and Color management. Wow. I didn't know I could "nickname" my classes in any way I wanted! And I could also change colors? That was a truly fascinating discovery. I did manage my Dashboard page to look more neat and pretty. They are now organized. My Dashboard bar is more convenient and useful than ever. In general, I thought Canvas was kind of messy and not organized, although it ob...

**While I was doing Part 2, check-up, I've found that I didn't declare for one Reading Notes that I did back in Week 5. So, I declared it for Extra Reading for Week 10 instead. When Your Brain Doesn't Sleep (Graphic) I've found this graphic to be relevant to my current state. It's also interesting to learn about the science of brain and sleep. Brain perhaps is the most important organ in our body, and it does many important jobs to make us stay afloat. I've also found several brain malfunctioning experiences I've had due to sleeping less. Lost memories, anger, impaired wit, head in the clouds, slurred speech, and risky decisions all sound very relevant to my personal experiences of getting inadequate sleep. It's so fascinating to learn about the interesting correlation. The graphic is obviously very effective at fulfilling its purpose of informing people about the danger of sleep deprivation. Tapasya (Video) It's truly interesting to ...

I chose to do a happiness challenge because I wanted to feel happier and appreciate the small things that I don't notice and take for granted. I'm sure there are many things around me that I should be more appreciative of. I've been anxious and neurotic largely due to my irregular, random patterns of sleep. Scientists and sleep experts recommend getting eight hours of regular sleep every day. Like today, I've often gotten zero hour of sleep. So for this happiness challenge, I want to get eight hours of sleep everyday for one week from today, Monday, October 29th to Sunday, November 4th. I really want to see if getting eight hours of sleep really makes someone happier like the scientists say. To accomplish this challenge, I have come up with a specific plan that includes several steps. 1. I will work and study only until 9:15 PM. 2. From 9:15 PM to 9:30 PM, I will take a shower to get ready for sound sleep 3. At 9:30 PM, I will be lying on my bed. ...

The title, "The Emotional Weight of Being Graded, for Better or Worse" obviously instantly caught my attention. It's such an interesting title because I'm a college student who has been constantly graded by professors. This article really confirmed my belief about grading. Grading does evoke fear to students who are being graded. I now know why: students often identify  with the grades they receive rather than just looking at them as mere numbers. Their sense of self-worth is often defined by the grades they receive. One interesting new thing I've learned while I was reading this article is that powerful emotions attached to grades drew children’s inherent interest in any given subject. In other words, grades students receive and their feeling about the subject are closely related. If a student receives a good grade on a subject, not only he or she is going to feel more confident about the subject, but also they are more likely end up liking it and feel sa...

Once upon a time, two fierce brothers lived who were managers of a Kansas corn farm. John, who was honest, scrupulous, and fair-minded, disliked cheating and liked to work with his son all throughout the year, especially during the harvest season. John was popular, so he had many followers and sharecroppers who genuinely liked him. In addition, the owner of the farm, who was an old man in his eighties, really liked John and wanted him to succeed his ownership once he died. There was another brother whose name was April. Unlike John, April was greedy, competitive, and was always determined to win. April disliked rules and often ignored the proper procedures when he was working on the farm. One day, April decided to cheat John out of excessive greed. April wanted bumper crops for himself and did not want to share as much with his fair-minded brother John. So April, along with his fellow crooked followers and sharecroppers, decided to revolt against John and his scrupulous follow...

I really like the fascinating, yet unique stories of the Princes of Elephant City. I like the detailed description of rich family history: "Long after the reign of King Bharata, there was a king in Hastinapura called Vichitravirya, who died and left two sons: Dhritarashtra, the older son, who is blind, and his brother Pandu, who becomes king. Pandu has five sons: Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna by his wife Kunti, and Nakula and Sahadeva by his wife Madri." It's a very complicated history of a family with lines of succession. Surprisingly, as generations progressed they had more kids. Vichitravirya had two sons, Pandu had five sons, and Dhritarashtra had whopping 100 sons! As I read this story of procreating so many sons, I thought King Dhritarashtra and Queen Gandhari must have been exceptional people who could have so many kids like that. I know India is the second most popular country on Earth, and it even hints why that is in its mythology. This description of Du...