To be completely honest, while I think that the blog
assignment is a very good idea, I think its potential was not fully realized. One
of the goals of this assignment was to have a dialog between two classmates.
While we started out pretty well, there was not a consistent “conversation”
about the blog posting. Perhaps this is due to the time constraints that many
of us face. (I know that I am struggling to keep up with all of the reading and
posting myself, and I noticed a big drop-off in the discussion board posts this past
week).
It was difficult for me to think of an interesting topic to
write about, that I had not already written about for the discussion boards. I
suppose that may be a good thing – it did cause me to stretch my mind a little
bit more than I would be inclined to do without the assignment.
These comments are not complaints. I think that they are
indicative of some of the challenges of asynchronous learning that we read
about earlier in the semester. Attrition is a problem in Distance Ed, more so
than in face-to-face classes. This blog activity was a good attempt to overcome
the isolation that is felt during an online class.
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about time constraints! That, along with sickness and the weather have prevented me from doing the job that I intended to do with your blog. I think you have done great keeping up. I wrote some posts for my blog that I am just putting up. I apologize for not being more vigilant and checking your blog consistently.
Valerie Warner
It's ok, Valerie! It wasn't meant to be a complaint, and I certainly understand how difficult it can be to keep up with the class (i've been pretty lax this week myself!). I hope you're feeling better and that you made it through the storm with minimal impact.
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