I think it is detrimental to use artifacts as a measurement or assessment. Personally, I find the mandatory imposition of these write-ups and articles rather tedious and inhibiting to the entire language-learning process. They distract from language-learning tasks and ultimately suck the life out of what is advertised as a self-directed, self-motivated process. It seems wasteful and nonsensical to actually aim to create artifacts for the sake of creating artifacts when the ultimate goal is to learn the language as an independent, self-directed learner. I believe the productions of “artifacts” are a natural result of hard work and genuine investment in language-learning. You completely engross yourself in the experience. As a student here, you read, you write sentences, you practice, you conduct research, you go to restaurants, you meet people, you speak with natives, and you investigate and learn what you want to learn. A child learning a language at home or a student abroad has dozens of “artifacts” a day. The notion of having to document and write about these events every single week to prove that you’ve done something to the instructor is drudgery and belittling. Independent learning is a natural, exhilarating, exciting, and beautiful process for those who are truly passionate about learning, about discovering creative ways that they learn and can learn.
These requirements undermine the very meaning of an “independent, self-directed” learner. These requirements seem to presume an underlying, fundamental distrust of the “independent, self-directed” learner. Why else would there be weekly assignments, posts, and tasks to keep students focused? I think it is sad and very inhibiting for those who truly try to be independent learners, but instead, find themselves having to invest unnecessary mental energy, time, and added stress to showing that you’ve done something, of explaining what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. I cannot express my disenchantment with these assignments enough. Honestly, I find myself feeling mentally and physically sicker when I have to force myself to complete these things each week. I find them to be a complete waste of time for motivated students attempting to maximize their learning. While it is true that the program might have had a history of lazy individuals who believed that taking this class would entail no work and an easy A, fine, spoon-feed them. Badger them. For those who intend to get something done, it is my sincere hope that this program will, in the future, identify those students and treat as they are: independent, self-directed learners. I signed up for this course thinking that I’d be free from the restrictions of the classroom environment reporting to an instructor every day, answering to a textbook, and learning in cookie cutter fashion. Unfortunately I feel that the major difference is that the mandatory meeting time has been reduced to one class per week.
To the assignment: What artifacts will you use to document your learning? I will pay as little attention to artifacts as possible. I’ve already begun to feel the negative effects of diverting my attention from the fun I was having actually learning the language in my own way. I do not plan to use them as tools or assessments. Nor will I plan to create certain artifacts for the sake of creating artifacts. Rather, I will continue as I did before, learning as much as I can and having as much as I can and posting these artifacts that I happen to produce as a product of the natural process to, and only to, satisfy the requirements of this course despite the indigestion I feel while bringing myself up to do them.
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