Which if any, is more important in your opinion and why: Cognitive Inteligence (IQ) or Emotional Inteligence.

My children's happiness is the most important thing in my life; I want my children to grow up believing they can achieve anything. My role as a parent is to ensure that I raise my children to be emotionally intelligent. We all want our children to be happy and succeed in life, but if a child is not happy, how can we expect them to go through life with the ability to learn.

Yes we have to protect our children, they need boundaries, but do we take them for granted, do we take the time to explain to them about the importance of emotions, we could sit with them for hours teaching them how to read or write, but not about the ability to deal with their feelings.

Personally, I would be more in favour of Emotional Intelligence rather than cognitive intelligence, as I believe we need happiness in our life to achieve our goals.

Emotional intelligence

According to Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer (2004, p.35) they define emotional intelligence as;

"The ability the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions" (2004, p.35)

Emotional Intelligence involves the ability to understand our own and other peoples state of mind, so that we have the skills to manage our emotions and thoughts and use this to better ourselves and other people’s lives. 

Emotional Intelligence (Kids Esteem n.d)

·    Daniel Golman outlines five crucial emotional competencies basic to social and Emotional learning:

• Self and other Awareness

• Mood Management

• Self-Motivation

• Empathy

• Management and Relationships

If we can master these five competencies it will result in enhanced emotional intelligence. (NYU, 2012)

So it’s important for me to teach my children the skills of being aware of their emotions and how the relate to people in a positive way. I think when a child is emotionally intelligent; it leads the way for a child to become cognitively intelligent.  For more information on emotional intelligence on children click here (NYU, 2012)

References 

Kids Esteem (n.d.) Where all Kids Belong.[Online] Image, Available at: http://www.kidesteem.com/node  [Accessed 12th November]

NYU, Child Study Center (2012) Social and Emotional Learning, [Online] Available at: http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/social_emotional_learning_what_it_how_can_we_use_it_help_our_children [Accessed 14th November 2012]

Salovey, P., Brackett, B., and Mayer, J. (2004) Emotional Intelligence: Key Readings on the Mayer and Salovey Model, New York: Dude Publishing.

Plagiarism and Referencing (Who, Where, Why, What, When, How) – How I would enlighten a new college student.

Referencing and Plagiarism is the scariest part of third level college for me, I find it very hard to get my head around it. Although I would never deliberately plagiarize, it scares me to think that if not done properly, it can cause serious issues in college. Our lecturer Mr David Cooke always advises us to use the five W’s; these can be used for presentations, essays, referencing etc.

When referencing, I think of it as story telling and find the five W's very helpful, an example of this is 

image source: referencing and plagiarism (electric/eccentric, 2010)

• Who told me?
• Where did it take place?
• Why 
• What did they tell me?
• When did it happen?
• How did they tell me?

                                                                                                 

Plagiarism and Referencing is of major importance in Third Level Education. Each college or institute will have their own set of guidelines on plagiarism and referencing.

Firstly let's look at what they are,

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is applying someone else's work, ideas, theories etc. and claiming it as your own work.

Referencing

Referencing refers to the practice of acknowledging the sources in which you got your information from, such as books, journals, newspaper articles and so on.

Citations 
A citation is how we tell our readers that certain material in our work came from other authors; it also gives them the necessary information to find the source. (Plagiarism 2012) 

Personally I think a new student should familiarize themselves with the concepts of plagiarism and referencing by the following, 

• Familiarize themselves with Itb's policies on plagiarism and referencing.
• Download Itb's referencing guide for students.
• Download the Harvard Referencing examples: Staffordshire University.
• Most importantly, attend all of David Cooke's lectures on plagiarism and referencing.     

I think with the above points in mind, this should help a new student acquaint themselves with plagiarism and referencing.

Our lecturer Mr David Cooke also gave us really great advice on plagiarism and how to reference properly. He also gave us an extensive amount of resources that are available on Moodle. One source in particular I found really helpful was the Harvard Referencing examples Staffordshire University, as it shows exactly how to reference books, websites, blogs, journals etc. More information can be found here (Staffordshire University, n.d.)

References
Electric/Eccentric (2012) Sunday Salon, Plagiarism or Creativity [Online] Image, Available at: http://www.eclectic-eccentric.com/2010/04/sunday-salon-plagiarism-or-creativity.html. [Accessed 11th November 2012]

Plagiarism (2012) What is Plagiarism [Online] Available at: http://plagiarism.org/. [Accessed 11th November 2012]

Staffordshire University (n.d.) Harvard Referencing System [Online] Available at:  Refehttp://www.staffs.ac.uk/assets/harvard_referencing_examples_tcm44-39847.pdfrencing. [Accessed 10th November 2012]

My notes (using an effective note taking technique) and summary on the following video

I've often taking notes in a lecture and by the time I'm home, I have no idea of what I wrote. So it's very important to have an effective method of note taking.

The importance of note taking,

• It can aid study.
• Comprehension, the ability to understand.
• Help assist with exam preparation. (Cooke, D. 2012)

Every lecture I go to I take notes in, I put a date and the name of the lecture on the top of the page. Throughout the lecture I take notes that I think are relevant to me to help me learn. I also find that this helps me concentrate more throughout the lecture. As we all learn differently, it's important to develop a method of note taking that suits you.

Our lecturer Mr David Cooke gave us a lecture on "note taking" and told us about the four "note taking" formats, they are;

• Cornell Format.
• Outline Format.
• Sentence Format.
• Mind Mapping. (Cooke, D. 2012)

Normally in a lecture I would use the "Sentence Method", so basically I try to take down a lot of information from the lecture, I find this also helps me learn. Disadvantage with this method is that if a lecturer speaks to quickly it can be hard to take notes.

To summarize the following video, this is available here. (Turkle, S. 2012) I have decided to use a different format compared to my usual method. I am going to try the "Mind Mapping" format.

The "Mind Mapping" format is to place a key word in the middle of the paper and to link key words that are relevant to the topic. This can be done with smaller circles which branch off the main key word.

                                      My Mind Map

To be honest, I found this format a bit difficult to do will trying to summarize this video, I found myself constantly writing sentences and found it hard to just use key words. I think this format would be an ideal way of structuring as essay, but I don't think I could use it for taking notes. Mainly it's trying to find which method suits you as everyone will have their own way of taking notes.


References
Cooke, D. (2012) Effective Note Taking. Communications and the Learning Environment, Moodle. Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown. F025, 4th December 2012.

Turkle, S. (2012) Connected, but alone. [Online Video]. Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html?quote=1458. [Accessed 1st December 2012]

The best presentation I have seen, and here’s why.

My worst fear came to light when my first assignment in communications was a presentation, but the reality of it is, presentations are a major part of college work, so somehow I have to overcome my fear of presenting.

I spent most of my time researching YouTube and Google to pick up some tips/techniques to assist me. There were many interesting articles, but one in particular caught my attention as it gave excellent information on effective presentation skills. More information can be found here. (Toastmasters International 2012)

Image source: Presentations (Startupvideo.net 2012)

It amazed me how well other students had done while presenting, none of them seemed to display any anxieties, while I was panic stricken.

One of the best presentations I saw that day was from a student who stood out from the rest, he was so calm. His presentation just flowed; it just seemed so natural to him.

 I thought it was the best presentation as he:,

• Had a strong introduction,
• Drew the audience in, and and kept them focused with the tone of his voice,
• Captured his audiences attention instantly,
• Dressed appropriately,
• Engaged well with his audience,
• Made good use of visual aids, his PowerPoint slides were simple,
• Kept eye contact,
• Body language was appropriate,
• Kept it clear and consistent,
• Kept within the time limit.

He was very welcoming, interacted well, engaged with us throughout his presentation. It was well structured and it was visible that he researched, prepared and practiced.

Our lecturer David Cooke gave us some really good information on how to give an effective presentation, such as the importance of having an introduction, a main body and a summary, also its vital to:

1.    Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them.

2.    Tell them.

3.    Tell your audience what you just told them.

Over all, this student was so passionate about his presentation and kept all the above factors in mind, so personally this is the best presentation I ever saw.

Maybe one day I'll master the skills that this student has, even now while writing this blog, my heart is sinking, the thought of them in the future, hopefully someday I will overcome my fear of presenting.

References
Startupvideo.net. (2012). Using Animation Within Work Presentations. [Online]. Image, Available from: http://www.startupvideo.net/using-animation-within-work-presentations. [Accessed: 10th November 2012]

Toastmasters International. (2012). Where Leaders Are Made. [Online]. Available from: http://www.toastmasters.org/tips.asp. [Accessed: 9th November 2012]