This week had a bit of discussion about the 80/20 rule and a bit of discussion about essays.

Now I love a bit of debate. I will happily argue with someone all day long. I’ll happily watch other people argue all day long. Every week, we get to here the opinions of our tutors, which is great and I often find it helpful in gauging where i personally lie on the spectrum. But this week our mighty leaders were arguing over how best to write our creative essays. While Adrian likes that a creative essay can flow in any direction, take any turn and be about any topic (relating to the subject of course), Betty thinks that the essay should follow a clear path, with footnotes being the way in which to express other ideas. So who are we meant to listen to? The course coordinator who designed the classes and assessments, or our tutor, who in the end will be the one marking the essay? Obviously I’m going to write my essay in a way that will earn me a higher mark with Betty, but I think I like Adrian’s way of thinking more.

Kenton gives a good summary here of what Adrian was saying during the symposium, and I also agree with him about the 80/20 stuff being a bit boring.

Kiralee also seems concerned with the lack of cohesion between tutors, and summarises Betty’s stance on the essay.

And finally, on my travels through the world of peers’ blogs, I came across Kerri’s Blog. I don’t know Kerri, but she sure does have a nice little banner at the top of her blog. I like it, a hell of a lot.

During this week’s symposium, privacy online was one of the main issues debated. Betty argued that everyone should be in charge of their own privacy, and should be aware of their own privacy settings and what they are putting online. She mentioned the Cloud, and in light of recent events which I will not link out to, talked about the Cloud’s privacy issues.

While I agree that people should be in charge of their own privacy online, the Cloud is a different issue. The Cloud, which is free to a limited extent with Apple accounts, promises personal hard-drive free storage to it’s users. For many people, the Cloud is a convenient way to store data and be able to access it from anywhere. However, many people also do not fully understand the Cloud, and are unaware of how much of their data is put up their automatically for Apple. This is in addition to most people, including me, believing the Cloud is secure and safe to use.

Betty argued that privacy within the Cloud is not and never has been guaranteed, implying that security issues within the service are common knowledge. They’re not. When a huge breach of privacy occurred in the last week concerning the Cloud, many people were quick to blame the victims. Their argument is that if you do not private data leaked, do not do anything you wouldn’t want the public to see in the first place. This is completely stupid and outright awful. This is victim blaming. Some creep steals from you and massively violates your privacy? Sorry but that’s your fault for doing things many other people do.

While the Cloud may not be secure, this is not knowledge that most people have. You cannot blame someone for having faith in a heavily-used system. Betty argues that you should never put anything in the Cloud you don’t want leaked. Kiralee and I discussed this logic and agreed that you could argue the same for any system. Do not store things on your phone because someone might steal it, dust it for finger prints and figure out your passcode. Then they might steal your identity. Maybe we should blame the awful people stealing data instead of the victims. Just a thought.

Mentioned in today’s symposium was the VCE system, with Elliot bringing up exam knowledge retention rates. According to this article, medical students forget 25-35% of basic science knowledge after just one year, and have forgotten up to 80% in 25 years. In my own experience, I’ve found that I remember hardly anything from my information-heavy VCE classes. Just tonight my sister asked me to help her with her Year 11 geography homework, a subject I completed three years ago. I figured once I had a look at what she was doing, it would all come back to me. But I couldn’t remember anything. I couldn’t remember the basic acronym for map essentials, or how to write a geographically worded paragraph.

Some might find this low retention rate reason to question the point in learning at all. And while I agree with Adrian that VCE should not be seen as the be-all and end-all, I do think it has merits. Up until the very end of VCE, I had no idea what I wanted to do after school (I still don’t really know if I’ve made the right choice, but until I find a better option, I’ll stick with Media). VCE offered me the opportunity to explore a range of different subjects, even to do a VET, VCAL or TAFE course at the same time. I was able to bring my experience working at McDonalds into my studies through a Certificate of Retail, which boosted my ATAR and gave part-time work a non-economic purpose.

But while VCE may have worked out okay for me, some of my friends now look back on it as a waste of time. My school, while good at showing us other options if we asked, also pushed us to VCE if we were capable (they were especially keen on keeping anyone who would achieve high marks, and thus help them boost their reputation). I think most of us felt that VCE was the path to success. But for some people, it was just two years they could have spent doing something else. I have friends doing diplomas they always knew they wanted to do, and thus could have completed by now. I have friends in apprenticeships and in TAFE, and while some didn’t figure out that that’s what they wanted to do until after Year 12, others knew all along and just felt compelled to complete VCE in case they changed their mind. They don’t regret completing VCE, but certainly don’t see it as something that has helped them thus far.

I wonder if the attitude towards VCE will ever change. Maybe if university costs get higher, more people will consider other options earlier on, but I doubt it. A change in mindset will not occur on it’s own. There needs to be a general change in the way success is viewed. Success is not a piece of paper you get when you’re 18, unless that’s how you want to measure your success. For others, success may be a Certificate in Early Childhood Education, or a part-time job which pays for overseas travel. I view my completion of VCE as a success, because I know that I worked hard and it got me to where I want to (sort of) be. Whatever success is, it’s personal and shouldn’t be a generalised notion.

‘The Internet is full of lies’. To me, this seems like common knowledge. It’s a logical statement given the anonymity that’s possible within the World Wide Web. But to those who haven’t been brought up immersed in internet culture, traps and lies they come across while online may seem entirely plausible.

In the last two months, my Gran has printed out at least 5 scam emails and asked me to confirm their validity. She’s had the ‘our distant relative left you something in their will’ email, as well as the ‘you’ve won a million dollars in a British lottery’ email. Every time she brings me one of these emails I just shake my head with exasperation. I wonder how anyone, especially someone as intelligent as my Gran, can fall for this stuff.

But I fail to remember that the internet is new to her. She hasn’t been online since childhood. She may be intelligent and generally astute, but when it comes to the internet, she is still learning. At while I may be frustrated when she shows me, yet again, another spam email, I just need to remember this. I think we all need to remember this.

Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. True or false?

If this week’s lecture (which was a lecture), was an essay, that would be the prompt.

Stories, apparently, have to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, because that is what makes them a story, right? I’m with Adrian on this one. No.

I am someone who needs closure. I need a satisfying ending. I love when a book has an epilogue, even if it is terrible or not to my taste (who said Harry Potter just then?). I hate when a TV show ruins everything it has worked to achieve over so many seasons (How I Met Your Mother has the worst television finale ever, quote me). And I can’t stand it when something is left open ended (come Judd Apatow, just one more episode of Freaks and Geeks). So I surprise myself when I say that a story doesn’t need to have a beginning, middle and end to be a story.

In fact, I don’t think any story has a beginning, middle and end, because I think every story is left open ended, whether the creator intended it that way or not.

As a consumer of stories, I find myself thinking about the could-have-beens and should-have-beens long after I have finished reading/listening/watching. I think about the meanings hidden within the stories, the moral choices faced by characters and the consequences of their actions. I think about what would happen if these events happened in a different place, or at a different time or with different characters. For me, the possibilities of the story are never ending. In my head, or even on paper, I can make ‘finished’ stories go on forever.

So even though an author may write a beginning, a middle and an end, I believe that that is just a necessity of writing (or at least a necessity of mainstream writing). Stories go on forever, even if it just in the muddled heads of the audience.