Design Fishbowl Response

Today during class we held our fishbowl discussion over the Design section in A Whole New Mind. I think the discussion overall went decently well. The main issue I noticed in during the fishbowl was how much we strayed from the reading. While we did discuss right-brained vs left-brained issues, we often had to regroup and refocus to tie back to Design. I was a discusser in today's fishbowl and I think that I was very well prepared. I have been thoroughly annotating the text so when the conversation started to lack I looked through my notes to find a question I had written that I thought would supply the inner circle with some good content matter. I have noticed with the non-fiction book that we seem to stray a little more from the assigned section to more abstract topics that relate to the overall book more. I am enjoying this book, but I think it has shown me that I am more of a fiction person. This book is challenging for me to read, as well as challenging for me to participate in fishbowl's with.

However, I did think the class had a lot of good points. One thing we touched on a lot was the school scheduling and how it is forced upon us, and if things start to go downhill, the first thing to go is our extra-curricular activities that we have chosen instead of being chosen for us. I like how we then tied this to design and tried to figure out ways that design could help improve this attitude and make it a more likable, right-brained learning atmosphere. We talked a lot about what we can tie design to to make it more beneficial and improve it. Things like hospitals, and learning environments, and offices, as well as why things like design make a difference.

To sum up, I think the class and I individually did very well, but I do still see room for improvement; but knowing Smith's Period 2 class, I know we can do it!