Week 4: why students don't read readings? Glabaliszation, climate change, terrorism, demographic change?

There was no lecture for week 4, so I will be focusing on our tutorial discussions as presentation started this week.

Topic 1: Required reading for students, a communication or an Organisational Problem?

The question  ‘why students don’t do readings’ was throw to us, some answer lazy, boring, long and etc. The presenter summarized it and found out that the reason why students don’t do their readings was because readings are time consuming, they are hard to understand and boring. If students ever read, they would always opt for the shortest one just for the sake of reporting it back to the lecturer. 

Therefore, students resolve to reading lecture slides, googling and reading textbook definitions. To answer the topic question, it is stated that it is neither communication nor organisational problem; it is purely student’s laziness and their lack of initiative to do readings. They suggested a few ways for lecturer communicate this issue better to the students.

1. Help students to develop and interest in the certain subject. With interest, it will be easier for students to learn and it won’t feel as if it’s a drag to learn.
2. Allow students to set up their own platforms online. Eg facebook groups, discussions will be more effective when you gather students in an environment where it is most familiar to them as well as a place where they access the most.
3. DO not have a compulsory formal online group discussion because it creates ‘peer pressure’ and the outcome discussion that is derived from ‘peer pressure’ are less desirable.
4. It is more effective to have face-to-face group discussions because this way it helps students to express their knowledge that is at the top of the mind. Lecturers can roughly have an idea of what students already know or don’t know.

It is also discussed how many references are reasonable when it comes to assignments. Obviously, opinion piece will provide less while factual pieces needs more. The ideal choice that is fair for both lecturer and student would be 5-15 references depending on the assignment and if needed 10 bibliographies.

Another group whom presented on the same issue discuss and stated extra point where it says that the reason why Malaysian students don’t do reading is due to our lack of reading culture. They argue that the reason Malaysians not having a reading habit is because of the cost of book price in Malaysia. For a book that probably cost about 3 or 4 USD, in Malaysia we might need to pay about RM 40 or 50 for it. Thus, the price of reading is just too costly. To a certain extent, I personally do think that they made a point in this case as I do have a hard time trying to read because many times I will have to purchase the books that I am interested in reading and the price demotivates me.

In conclusion for this topic, it is not communication or organisational problem; it is an attitude/ character problem of the students themselves. At the end of the day, we are all now at the tertiary level of education where independent learning is practice. If you don’t read, is your own loss. You learn less.

Topic 2: Consider the issue of globalization, terrorism, climate change and changing of demographics. How different issues have different effects on different people and different kinds of organizations.

The presenter separated it into four parts.

Globalization means integrating the world and this era, we are constantly on the go with “computer mediated technologies”. One example is the iPad. Globalization has heightened the level of competition among professional workers due to the possibility of a borderless integration. In the article written by Doug Britt (2007), it says that globalization made fear and anxiety exist because not only that it fosters new competition but it demands a higher level of efficiency and requires true expertise in supply chain optimization. Companies will no longer competing against companies but it will be supply chains competing against supply chains. Companies competing on product and services not process.

Terrorism consequence on scars and fears on people and for an event company, this will tarnish the organisation’s reputation. Take the case terrorism attack on the Munich Olympics in 1972 (Olympic Org 2012), they will now be forever associated with the ghastly acts of terror carried out by terrorist group Black September brought 11 to fatality. The organizations that were in-charged of a huge event should put their PR skills to expect any possible crisis. This had served as a wakeup call to other organizations, to be on a lookout for the unexpected.

The issue of climate change are causing organisation to go green however, many are trying to take it to their advantage by selling themselves as a ‘green company’ to raise awareness and gain in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) or even as a business opportunity and profit making. One example would be the latest Mazda CX-5 (Gillespie. E 2012) advert with the environmental advocate cartoon Lorax.

The message was misleading and the association between an environmentally destructive product with The Lorax is plain obvious greenwashing. However, not all green advertising are faulty, some are genuine. Bring your own bottle (BYOB) is one of those that encourages recycling. Instead of throwing the hard to disintegrate plastic bottles, BYOB encourages people to use for buying all sorts of good quality daily washing and shower liquids at a refill centre (Ken. C 2011).

When it comes to changing in demographics, it refers to a rapidly aging population that one day might outnumber the young. This will definitely impact the political economics. According to an article by The Economist (2011), it states that officials say the elderly resist higher taxes or benefit cuts, and the young, who are in a minority, do not have the political power to push for what is in their long-term interest. When elderly becomes a majority, government will receive less tax from the society which may lead to a higher tax forced from the minority younger generations.

Another group also discussed on the same issue in topic 2, however approach was different. They started off by stating that Globalization + Changing Demographic = Diversity and the problem of having diversity in the future is the misunderstanding that may occur. People might not be able to adapt or understand a certain culture. Though, because of globalization, there is a possibility of the growth is more varieties of culture. One example given was a video of describing one person speaking English of 35 accents (Soundyawake 2010). 

English back then were only divided into American and British accent, due to globalization, different parts of the world are speaking English but in different accent due to their culture. The second given was when Terrorism + Climate Change = Insecurity.   It depicts that in the future, we need to ensure that the company will provide safe air, water, food and safe workplace. However, if the organisation thinks that it is too costly, they will give the allowance to work from home and communication will be done through mediated devices, this is when the problem occurs. Trust issue will rise; we can lie as compare to face-to-face communication getting from the office. Besides that, this will also reduce our communication skills in person.

Another issue would be Machine interactions as these days, more and more humans are moving towards interacting heavily with machines. For example, we have the Apple Siri available within our life. The funny part pointed out by the presenter was that in the future, we might have ‘a walking siri’! (It humoured me when he cracked the silent joke, which I assumed most of my classmates may not be paying attention.)

The problem occurs when robots are created by imperfect human, thus apparently labelling robots as the ‘imimperfect’, the point here is that how will the imperfect species of humans can interact with the ‘imimperfect’ species of robots can interact when humans that known each other for a very long time also can have communication problems. Besides that, if robot works, we human need to compete with robots for jobs. If this happens, human need to work extra harder to survive and this might lead to pressure overload.

References

Britt. D 2007, Impact of Globazation in creating sustainable competitive advantage, Supply Demand Chain Executive, viewed on 26 March 2012, from <http://www.sdcexec.com/article/10289694/impact-of-globalization-in-creating-sustainable-competitive-advantage>

Gillespie. E 2012, Greewash and hamming it up –mazda makes a mess of CX- advert, Guradian UK, viewed on 27 March 2012, from <http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/feb/27/mazda-advert-dr-seuss-lorax>

Ken. C 2011, Bring your own bottle (BYOB) to buy all sorts of good quality daily used washing and shower liquids, viewed 26 March 2012, from <http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/my/malaysia/4384020-bring-your-own-bottle-byob-to-buy-all-sorts-of-good-quality-daily-used-washing-and-shower-liquids>

Olympic Org 2012, Munich 1972, viewed on 27 March 2012, from <http://www.olympic.org/munich-1972-summer-olympics>.

Soundyawake 2010, 35 Accents in the english language, Youtube, 12 November, viewed on the 26 March 2012, from <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-en-iDeZEE>

The Economist 2011, Whose lost decade? Japan’s economy works better than pessimists think- at least for the elderly, viewed on 26 March 2012, from <http://www.economist.com/node/21538745>

Short clips of presentations done for tutorial 3: