Visiting a U of T Lecture: POL108 Global networks

Hello everyone,

i am here again to report another Lecture i had visit in University of Toronto. This time, i had a chance to visit the lecture about POL108 Global networks. The location in this lecture is hold at the Convocation hall, which is one of the historic building at Uof T.

The convocation hall the biggest lecture hall i EVER visit so far. Before visiting the convocation hall, i though the CLH (Curtis Lecture Hall) at York University is the biggest lecture hall but i was wrong. The convocation hall is way bigger than the CLH and it look much more older building as well. The picture below is the Convocation Hall.

Convocation Hall was built in 1907 as a venue to host annual graduation ceremonies and to be a central gathering place for university academic and social functions. The amphitheatrical auditorium is suitable for various events - concerts, lectures, ceremonial functions, movie exhibiting and academic classrooms. Seating capacity is 1730, however there are different capacities dependant upon the configuration based on the presenter's requirements. Backstage space is very limited, no large theatrical events can be held here, no rehearsal space. The University of Toronto offer full venue services - staffing, production equipment and ticketing. This venue is wheelchair accessible. It can be booked through the Office of Space Management. (reference: http://www.arts.utoronto.ca/Venues/Convocation_Hall.htm)

I was surprise when i went inside of the Convocation hall. It is such a huge class that i EVER seen. It is at least about 1000+ students in this lecture. The lecture room is three floor big and it has lots of side entries. There are three screen at the front of the lecture, this is because the lecture room is too big and is in a round shape, that's why there are three screens so that the students can see in the class. Inside of the building was so OLD FASHION. For me, is like an old church. Very thing you see or the materials of the building are very old fashion which it is so cool and very different than the lecture rooms at York University.

These are the picture INSIDE of the Convocation hall.

The class topic is "Globalization", the Professor is Ronald J Deibert. The lecture is only one hour long, at the beginning, they have announcement for about 10 mins then they starting have the class. The teaching style of this professor is more serious than other professor i have visited. He also use power point as a teaching tool to help him teach the lecture, it is so cool that three are three screens in total! Cause i was looking at the central screen and switch to the side screen, i think it is very fun!

I also had a opportunity to interview a student from this lecture, her name is SHU Cheng. She is from China but she has been here almost 6 years. The questions i asked are:

1. Do you think this is a hard class ?

2. What do you think of this professor teaching style?

3. Do you think this Convocation hall is huge ?

She told me that she thinks this is a hard class because she is not a native speakers. Sometimes, the professor will tell the main points instead of putting on the power point, so she said that it is important to be concentrate in the lecture. Especially, it is only an hour class, so there is a lot of the stuff that the professor will be covered. It is important not to miss the lecture. She thinks that the professor is serious too, unlike other professors are more fun, she think it is because of the class topic and the length of the class. Finally, she told me that she has two lectures in this Convocation hall in total, she said she always have to come at least 15 mins earlier so that she can catch a good seat. The classes are all huge, it is at least over 1000+.

So, what do u think ? I think it is cool to visit the Convocation hall! You will be Surprise !!!

The student also give me a site of this lecture, the link is below, if you are interesting about it ...

http://www.pol108.net

Visiting A Psychology Lecture at CLH

Hello Everyone, i am going to share another Lecture experience. Lately i have a lot of opportunities to visit the lecture in University, therefore there will be a lot of Lecture Posts!

I went a Psychology yesterday, it was my seminar class activity. The lecture, again, is a over 500+ students, it was so crowed that some of the students had to sit on the floor on the side walk. I believe the lecture is more than an hour long, however, i only stay there for an hour because it was the require time for my seminar class.

The lecture is called "Introduction to Psychology" and it was a female professor who teach this class. Her name is Myriam Mongrain. She is one of the professor who like to use a lot of technology in the class, especially for her sound effect on the PowerPoint. The picture below is Professor Mongrain, who teach at the York University.



Before the professor started the class, she talked about the main point of what is going to be on the exam. As far as i know, i believe they will have their mid term next week, so the professor spent about almost 20 mins on how the students should prepare the mid term what are the key points that are going to be on the exam. Then she stared topic's main topic: "SENSATION AND PERCEPTION", the following are the main points from lectuer:

What is Sensaton ? Sensation is base on activity of the sense receptors.
-how physical energy is transformed into neural impulses
-the professor gives an example of "LIGHT"

What is Perception?
-how we analyze sensory information
-elaboration, transformation, interpretation of what is registered by the sense
-it is a top down process
-the professor gives an example of "Paris in the the spring"

The role of interpretation:
-you see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker
-how can you influence your perception?

Perceptual Organization;
a) Visual capture: sight has preeminence over other sense
b) Form Perception: gestalt principle
-figure ground relationship
-grounding principle (similarity/proximity/closure/continuity)
c) Perceptual Organization: depth perception

Above, are the notes that i took from the class, however, i did not attend the entire class, so my notes is only half way done, but by readying the main points above, it should help u understand the lecture or gain the knowledge a little!

Before the class, i thought this lecture is going to be boring, but during the class, the professor started show us some examples. By the examples, i feel the lecture is actually more interesting than before and i just realize that the tone of the lecture is fun not too serious. especially the way the professor teach, makes me feel so comfortable and fun in Psychology!

The images below are the example of the professor had show us. SEE IF U CAN SEE SOMETHING MORE THAN ONE OR DIFFERENTLY?














Leave common if u can not find out more than one ...

Visiting A Geography Lecture at CLH

Hello people, i got more information to share with you !

On Monday this week, our court class had an opportunity to visit a lecture about the Geography. The Lecture is called "Introduction to the world's Geography". It was a huge class, there were at least over 500+ students, i think. My group members EVAN and VICK we are going to have a presentation on Thursday base on this lecture.

The lecture was interesting, especially, the part of the professor is funny. The Professor's name is Steven Flusty, who is a professor at the York University. The lecture is base on how the roman empire conquer the land and spread out its geography widely.



The picture above, is the professor. One thing i found out interesting during the lecture is that the professor himself dressed up like a roman on the day of the lecture. He had a normal shirt as the top but the bottom part was a shirk. We all thought he was a gay at the very beginning of the lecture but as the class goes by, we know the professor was just trying to dressed up to fit the topic.

So, the Roman empire started long time ago, at the very first time, the roman did not count as a country. But, people in roman believe themselves are civilized, therefore started conquer other barbarian to be civilized. Soon, the roman conquer the barbarian around the sea and they called the sea as " OUR SEA". This is where the ROMAN EMPIRE start.

Roman has lots of traditions and believes, such as they like the number 10. The number 10 is like a lucky number, they invited their own calenders and they believe that there is only TEN MONTHS in a year. In addition, they will reduce the population which is frighten out the roman empire, the roman will kill the population by TEN people at a time to reduce the populations.

On the other hand, the roman also believes in God very deeply. They will build lots of statue of Caesar as the symbol of God. The roman will kill the people who do not believe in God or those who against the Rules of religions.

The picture below is the statue of CAESAR, who is the symbol of Roman's God.



Roman also has a strong and amazing architectures. They will build lots of building that is base for believe in God or as a symbol. The Roman empire has a strong influence to the world, even though they are an old history but in nowadays, you can still see lots of thing that is influence by the Roman. ONE famous example, IN AMERICA, in Las vegas, you can still see the roman empire's architecture around.

The picture below shows example of how ROMAN is still influence to the WORLD TODAY.
(These are all roman style building but it is LOCATED IN LAS VEGAS !)







THIS IS AMAZING Isn't it ?

"The world has been empty since the Romans, and only the their memory fills it" -Saint Just

Visiting a University of Toronto Lecture

Hello everyone, is me again!
This time, i am going to tell you another University Active i have done outside of our class. A lecture at University of Toronto. I have a very close friend, Ryan,who is the first year student at University of Toronto. His major is in English and on this week, Thursday night, he had a Greek and Roman Epic Poetry class, i was with him that night, therefore, i went with him to the lecture.

Before i am going, i was so nervous because was afraid that i will get discover that i am not UT students. He told me it will be fine cause no one will check the attendance and it is a class about 100 people or more. He told me to relax! I Try to listen to him but still i am still worry.

His class starts at 6pm and finish by 9pm. It is a three hour lecture. I went to his resident which is the Trinity College, i saw he only pack his laptop and ready to go to the lecture. I was wondering, he did not need the text book ? but i asked nothing at the time.

We start walking, in about ten minuets, we arrive at Alumai Hall building, which is the building of this class, it is on the fourth floor room 400. The picture below is the Alumai Hall Building, isn't it pretty ? Like old fashion ?


I was so nervous because i though the professor will recognize that i am not the UT students. When i walk into the classroom, i was shock. It is a big classroom, we arrive exactly on time and there is about like 100 students already sitting down waiting to start the class. we found a seat and seat down. The professor came in, his name is ROBERTS, SILLS. He started the class, again the class is GREEK AND ROMAN EPIC POETRY. The book that they are require to read is ILIAD BY HOMER. My friend was right, i don's have to worry cause the professor did not check the attendance.

When the professor started the class, he used a digital overhead projector. Man, that is cool ! i though the overhead projector should be the one that is very old and the one the teacher in high school often used but i was wrong. This projector that the professor used is so high tech. He does not have to write on the photo paper like the older style ones. Instead of using lights and mirrors, it has a small video camera that will display anything onto the wall behind him. He can put regular paper onto the projector and the whole class will be able to see it.

During the whole class, the professor was analyzing the books and talking about the characters. I of course, did not understand half what was the professor trying to say but it is so cool to see that the students in the class room are mostly taking the notes by laptops, just like Ryan. Obviously, not everyone in the class bring the laptops but still almost half of the class bring their laptop.

To me, i think the lecture was so long. But they have about ten minuets break on every hour. My friend was so concentrate in the class, even though i try to talk to him a lot, he is still very concentrate. He only talks to me during the break time. i look around the classroom, in fact, everyone is very focus, it seems like they are so afraid miss something important. Trust me, IT IS SERIOUS!


Above the picture, is what the lecture room looks like.
Finally, the lecture is done. To be honest, during the lecture i got so lost, i am having a very hard time to focus. On the way back to his residents, i ask him few questions:
1. how can you so concentrate during the class?
2. what will happen if you skip the lecture once ?
3. what do you feel about the class so far ? difficult ?

The answer he told me, i was not too surprise. He told me that he think this is a very difficult class for him. The book is very difficult to read, even though he read the book, he still needs to read the chapter summary to understand what the author is trying to say. Therefore, he said that the professor is trying to analyze the plot and the character of this book so they can understand easier which is very important to come to the lecture. The notice that the professor give, is usually the main point and mostly what is going to be on the exam. Therefore, if you only miss one class then it is hard for you to catch up, he suggest me in the future, i should attend all the lecture unless is something very important, also he said that if i miss the class, i need to go online to email the classmates to get the notes. This is very important, also, he suggest me bring the laptop to the lecture because it is easier to take notes, more organize and i can connect to the wireless internet if i need to. THIS, fit what i saw in the class, no wonder almost everyone bring laptop with them !

IT is fun to have an opportunity to visit a lecture in University of Toronto, and i Believe i will have more opportunity to visit other lectures in the University, therefore, i will keep update and share my experience.

In conclude, I THINK UNIVERSITY LECTURE ARE pretty SERIOUS, WHAT DO U THINK? :)

ULife - Experience in Bronfman Business Library, Schulich

Hello everyone,
This is an interesting post about my University activities at the Schulich Bronfman Business Library. It was on Thursday, Oct 2, our teacher Don wanted us to visit the libraries on the campus. We had to borrow one of the book called "Successful Presentation skills". Therefore, we found the book is located at the Bronfman Business Library, which is inside of the Schulich building. So, group of about 7 people we head to the Bronfman Library.

The library is located on the second floor inside of the Schulich Building. when i entered inside, i feel so different. The building is so clean and new and has sort of design on the wall of the building. It is very different than other building on the York campus.




above the picture, is the building of the Schulich, isn't it so different ?
we went to the library, found the shelf of where books are and starting looking for this book. The reference is HF 5718 B7 2006, So, we starting looking for this book. after awhile we start having trouble with finding this book, it has been almost twenty minuets but we still can not find the book. we give up, we decide to ask for help.

We went to the front desk, we ask the librarian to help us to fine this book and yet, she could not find it too, therefore, she told us that we may have to wait for awhile.



Above the picture, it is the inside of the Bronfman Business Library looks like. You will be very surprise that the book shelf is actually very limited, according to the picture you see above, it is pretty much where all the book are. Nevertheless, the atmosphere of the library is very quiet and serious. When i pass by, i saw some students are studying and they are working so hard. I GUESS Schulich isn't easy ?

By accident, i had a chance to interview to the librarian who help us. Her name is Elizabeth Watson who is the Head of the Library in Bronfman. She has been working as a librarian for more than twenty years, about five years ago, she started to work in the Bronfman Library.

The Bronfman Business Library was establish only five year ago, at the first start, it was a library that combine with Business and the Government sources. But with in years after, the library has separated the library into Business and the government library. Therefore, the Business is located inside of the Schulich building which called Bronfman Business Library and the government library is located in somewhere else.

During the interview, i asked Elizabeth two simple questions:
1. what happen if you can not find the books ?
2. how is it like working in a library or as librarian ?

She told me that the problem you will find in the library is often books are missing or the internet loading is too slow. The solution to that is when the book is missing, she will put miss book on the "missing list" and search for three times overall. If the books are still missing, then she will buy another copy. For the internet loading slow, she told me the best solution is nothing. Because it is on internet, so really all you can do is wait or ask for the technicians for help.

Finally, she told me that it is interesting to work in the library because the technology is changing all the time. As a Librarian, it is important to follow the technology and know how to used it well. Especially, in the world today, everything is made by computer, by using the technology, you can do research faster and easier. She told me she love this Job.

SO, WHAT DO U THINK ? I think it is so interesting cause i learned how to find book in the library and what happen if the book is missing, as well as now the technology has change so much and how it has effect to the library ! :)

HERE, IS THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE Bronfman Business Library:
click on the image below and it will link to the site



If you have chance, i would recommend to visit the Bronfman Business Library sometimes, YOUR WILL BE SURPRISE !!!