A course I am taking for my International Development Degree, where we analyze social media and marketing when it comes to development. Not your typical university course in any respect.
So far we have had to read 2 books...
The Dragonfly Effect: Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith
Tribes: Seth Godin
It's always interesting to think about why profs choose what they choose for reading material, and how they stumble upon books. Especially for this course, of all the books in the marketing and social media section, why were these chosen?
The Dragonfly Effect was a great book, and as a matter of fact my grandmother couldn't wait to borrow it. From the University of Waterloo Environment faculty, to a town in Newfoundland, The Dragonfly effect will be well received.
Tribes on the other hand...
I strongly disliked this book, and not necessarily because of the content. The authors uncalled-for sense of urgency, and how pushy he was in the book, completely ruined any message he was trying to get me to agree with. I couldn't wait to finish it and never think about it again. The way that Tribes was written was also stress-inducing, because you constantly felt like you were still reading the forward, and that you couldn't catch a break from his incessant nagging to be someone worth respect.
This is purely my opinion, and I could go on... But I think my message has gotten across.
The only question I have left about INDEV 303 is why I wasn't aware of the course set up before hand? Here I go, another term, another research paper, happily regurgitating information into 10 double spaced pages..
WRENCH IN THE TIRE SPIKES!
Nope, this time we are doing presentations, we are organizing ourselves into a team, and we are acting in the real world.
International Development;
Full of surprises.
I agree with your opinion on tribes for sure. It was written in such a choppy unorganized way that it took away from the message and irritated me a little. As for INDEV 303, I love that it's such a practical course as well! No research papers, no memorizing facts for a midterm. We get to do stuff that apply in the "real world", and if we fail then we get to learn from it (as Victoria always says).
ReplyDelete