User:BrettDurnell

bio
I'm Brett, I finally figured out Wikiversity! It took about 3 or 4 shots but i think im actually posting something. I'm a 6th quarter audio student, i basically just deliver pizza's 4 days a week, go to school 3 days a week, and intern at London Bridge Studio's on the weekends. My favorite things to do are listen to music, cruise on my moped, play Mario Kart Wii, and chill at my place with my roommates.

final
Alternate Forms of Education. Work to Learn Draft

Society has made a post-secondary education a requirement for most any job worth having. What if you could fulfill your dreams without the cost of a diploma? It hasn’t always been that a college education and a diploma is the only way to get a descent paying job. I believe this has caused many social problems. With thousands of families in debt, and a country facing an economic depression, a job shouldn’t cost $40,000+. Society needs to learn to accept alternate forms of education as equivalent to the diploma. Certain jobs, like being a doctor or surgeon, require specific education and training. But for trade jobs; like being an electrician, plumber, mechanic, audio engineer, graphic designer, or photographer, you shouldn’t have to acquire a diploma just to work. Vocational schools, career colleges, or trade schools are schools that focus learning towards one career goal. Essentially what the Art Institute offers. Both private, and state vocational schools exist, and the state grants financial aid for both. You come out of a vocational school with an education, and a diploma to showcase your education. Other organizations offer education by means of work. Essentially, the main difference in these two forms of education is the diploma.

The Work to Learn Center is a privately operated trade school that “provides a 4-semester sequence of academic courses and related work experiences that emphasize a core academic curriculum for each semester.” Students at the Work to Learn Center work half time, and go to class half time. Students work as a team on projects, like building a house with the skills they have acquired. This prepares them for what working in the real world is really like. Sitting in class and talking about how an industry operates, is nothing like working in the industry to learn first hand how it operates. Going to a school like this doesn’t give you a diploma to showcase your knowledge and education, and doesn’t stand next to a diploma from a vocational school or university in an interview situation.

Another form of education that I feel deserves to be equivalent to a diploma is an internship or apprenticeship. By working in the shadow of an employer or professional, you develop a clear vision of the future. You are given a chance to understand how the industry operates before spending thousands of dollars going to school, to find out that a different job would suit yourself better. It allows you to work hands-on in a professional environment, and see first hand how what you’re learning applies in the real world. During an internship you are applying what you are learning, while you are learning.

Imagine if we could gain our education for free, if we could learn everything we need to work in a specific industry without the outrageous cost of acquiring a diploma. Too many people start school without knowing what they want to do in their future, and suffer financially in debt for years because of it. The most logical solution to this problem is accepting alternate forms of education equivalent to the diploma. --BrettDurnell 18:07, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

reflective assessment
Although this class wasn't exactly a huge learning experience, I did manage to walk away with new ideas, and certainly learned ways to analyze everyday life and culture. I could have taken the class a little more serious and probably would have walked away with more. I’m at a point in my education and life where I’m only focusing towards one goal, but have many obstructions between myself and the end result. I’m going to school to be an audio engineer and spend a better part of 28 hours per week working towards my dream. I attend school, intern at a studio, and work two part time jobs. After juggling all of this 7 days per week for the past 3 months and attempting to have a social life in my free time, I have suffer in my general studies. Perhaps if I had taken this class at the beginning of my studies at the Art Institute, I would have been able to take this class a little more serious, and could have walked away with more to show than $1,500 added to my ever growing debt. With more time I could have used Wikiversity properly and could have made our final project easier on myself and my group. The teaching was great; you couldn’t have approached it better. It’s a mixture of my attitude towards the Art Institutes general courses, and my own personal problems that hindered my ability in this class.