So much to learn!

It’s hard to believe that two weeks have passed since I first arrived in Prague. There have been so many learning experiences already and I’m sure I still have many more to encounter. I’m starting to feel more and more acclimated to the Czech environment and culture, but a part of me does still miss that American soil. I’m currently sitting at the train station waiting for the train that will take me to Budapest for the weekend and I can’t help but think of all the challenges I have faced in my traveling situations thus far. One of the things that we have been discussing in ELM 350 is reliability and validity. As I think about my trip to Austria last weekend, I now see how some of the lessons I’ve learned in class can be applied to my traveling experiences. For instance, when we got to Austria last weekend, we looked up a hostel to stay in and found directions on how to get to the hostel. The directions to the hostel turned out to be very invalid as we spent nearly an hour walking in circles looking for the hostel. I thought the directions provided by the website would be reliable as they had been very helpful on a previous trip and therefore we thought we could trust the directions, however, the directions ending up being invalid as we were unable to find the hostel. This is similar to when teachers use certain tests that they believe to be reliable representations of children’s knowledge, however the results of the test have the potential to end up being invalid. Along with the lessons I’ve been learning in ELM 350, I have also learned a few from EDP 304 that can be applied to my experiences in Prague/Europe. One of the first topics that we discussed in EDP 304 was the concept of selective attention. I’ve always thought of myself as being a rather observational person. I watch the way people interact with others and try to be very cognizant of my surroundings at all times. After watching one of the videos from class on Thursday, I realized that I may not be as aware of things as I’d like to think. I didn’t even notice that the man behind the desk switched each time a person talked to him. I have definitely used selective attention while in Prague because I feel like each time I walk from the Institute to Old Town Square, I discover something new. Just the other day while I was on break between classes, I decided to take a new route to get to Old Town Square and walked right past Angelato’s. I was so in the zone of wanting to get to Old Town Square that I wasn’t even paying attention to the stores and restaurants around me to recognize that I was on a familiar street. Sometimes I get so focused on trying to find my destination or looking for only a specific place that I don’t even realize what all I have around me. This is definitely something for me to work on because I’d hate to miss something really important while I’m here!