Session 2 Journal

Brief Overview

What is human development? There is Human Development Index (HDI) to measure the different levels of human development of different countries, but surely not everyone agrees with the perspectives in HDI. However, there is no doubt that technology has played an important role in these disparities, and I think these disparities do represent some extent of development and improvement.
Since technology is so crucial, then what have made the technological difference and what can we do to apply it to better our life?
We have found our answer to the first two questions mentioned above in class and have read someone else’s answer to the third one.

Interesting Observations and Ideas

Since globalization has become inevitable, being open-minded and developing the skills at managing across national and cultural borders will be very important for one’s adaptation to the globalization trends and career success.

Another impressive thing is that investing on women's education gives the society significantly more benefit than investing on men's. I think it's true, for I find from people who I know that women usually have a stronger sense of responsibility for the family and have more patience, endurance and wisdom to excecute their responsibility or even most of the family's matters than men do.

Key Take Away Points

We answered Yali’s question in class. The answer to why some countries have more “cargos” than others is that some countries are more open-minded than others. These countries are more willing to adopt new things from outside and thus can learn more advancement from other countries to help themselves develop faster and better.
This is the key take-away point for me. I have tried to answer Yali’s question when I read Guns, Germs and Steel last week. I know that the more developed regions enjoy the fruit of the efforts of other regions instead of inventing on their own before Renaissance. But I thought that it was the geographical and natural advantages that have enable people and knowledge to be transported and dispersed easier in those regions. I never thought about the mindset of people.
But at the end of the second class, when I was enlightened and began to think about the mindset of people, I felt a little surprised why I hadn’t thought about this before.

Issues for Further Discussion

However, after class, I wonder what have made the mindset of people different? Why is the overall mindset opener to new things in some regions, while the majority of people in other regions prefers to turn its back to the outside world?

Personal ratings for Session

I rate this session a 9 because I find it’s so good to attend the class. I have learnt much more than just reading alone during the first session when I missed the class. I was inspired in a lot of aspects by the videos, the prof’s and the students’ speeches. What I have got from this session have not all been written here because I decided to put it somewhere else (e.g. my LTB Learning Journal).

So I give it a 9 for all the contributions of this session made to me.

Looking forward to next class…