I decided to write a haiku about the class activity involving the egg.
The egg shall be safe
All we need is good planning
But splat goes the egg
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Communication via Blog
When I first found out that we needed to make and continually update a blog for class, I felt a little bit of dread and wondered how it was going to work out. My anxieties were instantly tamed when I found out how easy it was to get started on blogging when using blogger, which just so happens to be an extension of a google account. The process to set up the layout and begin blogging was very user friendly, and that helped get me into the mood to make my blog a little more elegant in the early days when I was still trying to find a good layout and what not.
This blog has indeed been an interesting, unique, and effective way to get value from this class. I thought it would have been annoying, but only because I am somewhat lazy. The assignments were far enough apart from each other so as to not be annoying, but also keep the whole class interested in doing a good job on it. I really enjoyed just reading the blogs of my fellow students, especially the ones that had posts beyond what was required. The bloggers' personalities really shined through in these posts, and I learned a lot about my classmates that I otherwise wouldn't have.
Although the atmosphere in the classroom is very relaxed, the majority of the time is devoted to learning what we have to learn about management. Because of this, and the fact that students often have their lives to go back to after class ends, we really don't get too much time to engage with each other for conversations and interactions outside of class. I feel I definitely benefited from meeting others online and that allowed me to better relate to them when we are in the classroom. We can check our blogs on our own time and pick up exactly where we left off.
The diversity of the activities that we did in class was staggering. One day I would walk in to class and see a carton of eggs and straws on the table, so I knew it was going to be a spectacular lesson. These lessons sometimes take the whole period to complete. There isn't really a follow up assignment, so the blog topics were a good way to get us to think about the significance of our classroom activities. Reading about other students' perceptions is fun and a good way to find out what I missed when only using my mind to figure things out.
Updated periodically, just like our own blogs, the professor's blog included fun topics that deal with management in a different way than our course curriculum. I think it's a welcome change to read these posts and it was enough to provide for a change of pace.
I actually forgot that the blog was worth 20% of our grade, so my test anxiety was higher than it is now that I remembered this. It's definitely in our favor that such a big portion of our grade is totally in our control. This offsetting of test anxiety is such a huge help and I understand now that this blog helps us in many ways that can't be understood at first glance.
Other than doing the assignments that were required, I haven't been updating them with my own ideas and thoughts that much. This is mainly because I haven't been actively thinking about issues that could be good ideas for a post. I would like to start doing this in the future, and I think I remember many people saying that they will update us when they reached their goals that was the topic of a blog assignment not that long ago. I will probably check out other people's blogs occasionally after class is over just to keep up with whatever interesting things they decide to post about.
Now that the semester is winding down, I realize that I will miss this class the most out of all my classes. It was a blast going to class and having a professor that teaches so differently his peers. This blog should definitely remain a component of this course so that those that come after us won't miss out on the experience of being able to share ideas easily and creating something that has a chance of being a big part of their lives. I'm not a very good critic, so I don't really see much that needs to be changed. It's a well thought out component of the class that we will always remember.
This blog has indeed been an interesting, unique, and effective way to get value from this class. I thought it would have been annoying, but only because I am somewhat lazy. The assignments were far enough apart from each other so as to not be annoying, but also keep the whole class interested in doing a good job on it. I really enjoyed just reading the blogs of my fellow students, especially the ones that had posts beyond what was required. The bloggers' personalities really shined through in these posts, and I learned a lot about my classmates that I otherwise wouldn't have.
Although the atmosphere in the classroom is very relaxed, the majority of the time is devoted to learning what we have to learn about management. Because of this, and the fact that students often have their lives to go back to after class ends, we really don't get too much time to engage with each other for conversations and interactions outside of class. I feel I definitely benefited from meeting others online and that allowed me to better relate to them when we are in the classroom. We can check our blogs on our own time and pick up exactly where we left off.
The diversity of the activities that we did in class was staggering. One day I would walk in to class and see a carton of eggs and straws on the table, so I knew it was going to be a spectacular lesson. These lessons sometimes take the whole period to complete. There isn't really a follow up assignment, so the blog topics were a good way to get us to think about the significance of our classroom activities. Reading about other students' perceptions is fun and a good way to find out what I missed when only using my mind to figure things out.
Updated periodically, just like our own blogs, the professor's blog included fun topics that deal with management in a different way than our course curriculum. I think it's a welcome change to read these posts and it was enough to provide for a change of pace.
I actually forgot that the blog was worth 20% of our grade, so my test anxiety was higher than it is now that I remembered this. It's definitely in our favor that such a big portion of our grade is totally in our control. This offsetting of test anxiety is such a huge help and I understand now that this blog helps us in many ways that can't be understood at first glance.
Other than doing the assignments that were required, I haven't been updating them with my own ideas and thoughts that much. This is mainly because I haven't been actively thinking about issues that could be good ideas for a post. I would like to start doing this in the future, and I think I remember many people saying that they will update us when they reached their goals that was the topic of a blog assignment not that long ago. I will probably check out other people's blogs occasionally after class is over just to keep up with whatever interesting things they decide to post about.
Now that the semester is winding down, I realize that I will miss this class the most out of all my classes. It was a blast going to class and having a professor that teaches so differently his peers. This blog should definitely remain a component of this course so that those that come after us won't miss out on the experience of being able to share ideas easily and creating something that has a chance of being a big part of their lives. I'm not a very good critic, so I don't really see much that needs to be changed. It's a well thought out component of the class that we will always remember.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)