Assignment 7 Final Portfolio for SJD 1501

Reflect on your learning experiences in this module and how these may have influenced your answer. Identify the highlights of your journey through this module considering the following guidelines (500 words): As my first time to do an online course I felt delighted, though faced internet challenges especially from my location. Doing an entire online course as opposed to a conventional pen and paper course with a formal examination at the end is that , I had an opportunity to customize my own learning environment that works best for my needs, be it in my bedroom, my study room and even during break times at work and it was awesome. With no classroom I studied on the go , using any device I had , I used a tablet , a laptop and even a mobile phone , sometimes while I am in a taxi had an opportunity to study and do assignments and activities on the go and just by this I was kept captivated. Through the online platform I managed to identify and connect with other students in my location and we formed a discussion group, furthermore communication was easy with both students as well as my TA and felt that I had had good opportunity to connect with peers from other nations. Through responding to each online activity designed for SJD online course I learned through involving myself and not spoon feeding, responding to activities which enabled me as a student to be able to gain knowledge on the basic understanding of what shapes South African legal system, the nature of the South African law and criminal justice system and how it is applied and administered. Furthermore, the development of an awareness of how I can, as legal and criminal justice functionaries, contribute towards building a safer and more just society in conformity with the South African Constitution. It was an awesome moment as we were exploring justice as an intrinsic part of our lives through engagement with newspaper articles for the first time , my own experience, and that of others, I was overwhelmed and already felt like a legal practitioner already. However MyUnisa platform gave me access challenges especially during the week when assignments were due. Group communication and discussions was one of the exciting part of the module. Sometimes I could get confused with the concepts, for example I did not know how to summarize a newspaper law article on activity 1.2, Is the law always fair? However through interacting with others through discussions and group communication, I quickly understood all the concepts in this case i became active rather than passive learner by developing collaborative and co-operative skills with other learners in the group. Students have the opportunity to learn from each other which is one of the exciting component of this online course. Working with other students became part of me when I engaged myself to this module. We have had some productive facilitated class discussions which have made for great student engagement, because as students we took the time to validate one another’s thoughts and ideas. For me, this feeling of engagement is what has inspired my overall gains of this online course. Through connecting with each other we manage to work together with other students both online and also we decided to take it offline as we were discussing This study source was downloaded by from CourseH on :33:10 GMT -05:00 This study resource was shared via CourseH assignments and activities. Through working with others I learnt how to work as a virtual team and succeded in our activities and assignments through supporting , reminding and motivating each other. In terms of the contents of the module I have a lot of lessons to share. Therefore these are some of the contents and lessons learnt. On Law and order, I learnt through reflection for example As I read the story of the coffin assault duo, Willem Oosthuizen and Theo Jackson. I start to think what were they thinking, and realised that they were 100% pushed by cruelty, racism and above all lack of Ubuntu. Furthermore activities such as Is the law always fair? At this point we looked on Law and Order further by looking at the fairness in the outcome thereof. The whole content was educative and eye opening especially when we looked at , Through my eyes: Are we really all equal? I reflected on social differences and its influence on the law. And also Legal disputes: Civil or Criminal were we reflected on legal disputes and how criminal and civil disputes differ and through Alex’s activity which refers to different kinds of legal disputes in her responses to the letters, namely criminal disputes and civil disputes. On the other hand we looked at Legal terms. In this Unit we were introduced to many legal terms and through activities we were checked our understanding to some of the more important legal terms through matching each legal term with the correct description for the particular term. The Criminal Justice System and the public where we battled within ourselves if the death penalty should be brought back for criminals who murder and rape women and children and also how these crimes should be dealt with fully giving my opinion where I gave my opinion that every person has a rights that need to be respected such as the right to human dignity therefore death sentence is cruelty form of punishment and should not be used as form of punishment because it is unconstitutional. Last but not least we had a very interesting topic, Do people who break the law have rights? Which we Read Section 35 of the Constitution which outlines the rights of arrested, detained and accused persons in the criminal justice process and shared my opinion on this issue with fellow students in the discussion. At last Through module I have developed the understanding of what shapes South African legal system, and a greater understanding that law and justice is an intrinsic part of our lives. Thus, in this module, we explored law and justice by engaging with newspapers, my own or each individual experiences which is the best form of learning.