Work I Completed
This week I completed the extended response robotics mid term exam. This exam went for one hour, and required the essay-like response to a statement. The statement said that robotic automation in the workplace would cause major problems, and my stance was in agreement. During the exam, I had access to two stimulus data visualizations related to the statement, my notes, and the internet. I believe that my response was well written, and informative, however did not exert a good enough argument. Despite this, I am happy with my response considering how much I had to catch up on my Physics exam, which I sat on the same day.
In preperation for the exam, I studied the content as discussed in last weeks blog post, and looked at the rubric to determine how I was meant to respond. My interpretation of the rubric was more of a research report. The content of the essay was marked on design techniques (development), technology theories (algorithms / systems), ethics of the statement and relevance. This format is very similar to the research report I completed in term one, with the addition of the relevance of the statement, or (likely) the power of the argument. This calmed my nerves, as I need a lot of careful thought before I can formulate a compelling essay - a research report can flow naturally, unlike the confining essay structure. This idea of a research report format is also why I included subheadings within the document, as they were required in my term one research report.
For some reason during worded exams, I naturally decide to disregard my plans and just begin writing. Instead of calming myself down, and looking at the prompt analytically to brainstorm a good thesis, I just ran with the first thing that popped into my head. This happened to be arguing that the effect of robot automation will largely hinge off the net gain / loss of jobs in the labor market. As a consequence to this superficial approach, my overall argument was unclear, almost changing half-way through. Instead of discussing more general job loss statistics to show this net gain / loss, I focused on a specific example, which inadequately argues the job loss overall. Additionaly, I tried to merge this information in the ethics section, which caused the actual ethical discussion to be brief. The specific example made discussing the techniques / technology significantly more straight forward, so I should have created an argument that was better argued with an example. See below a comparison between my original and final argument (context makes them slightly more similar).
Original - “Arguments regarding the effect of robotic automation within the workforce generally discuss the balancing effect between creating and destroying jobs.”
V.S
Final - “This is just one example of the problems robot automation may cause, but resoundingly it will cause huge problems in the future.”
My response likely was not as bad as I make it out to be, as I often have a hard time judging my writing in extended response tasks. Upon re-reading it, I believe it is actually quite a good work, although not perfect.
Reflection
Which issues / problems do you see / find?
During the exam block, I did not have very much time to study for my robotics and data science exams. I prioritized studying for physics and math, which (especially physics) were very content heavy. Since me and my physics teacher have missed quite a few days of school, I essentially had to teach all of the content to myself in 2.5 days. I probably averaged over 11 hours of study each day to do this, so frankly it is amazing that I got to study for robotics at all.
What is frustrating you?
I would not say I am frustrated, but I find it annoying that there were extended response exams for IT. I completely understand that they were forcibly held for meshing, but it seems a little unfair to mesh IT students (if they conform to stereotypes) based on their worst skills. Most people in IT are good at problem-solving and math, and they chose the IT subject to be assessed on those criteria. Knowing how to write a research report / practical report is extremely applicable in the industry and hence a good IT assignment to have, however no one sits an extended response exam in the workplace. Personally, I thrive on research, and practical reports, but extended response essays have always stumped me. It is annoying that IT was not a safe haven from these exams, but alas nothing could be done about it, so I just have to put up with it.