Reflection

This is a personal evaluation of my first term of blogging for my Digital Civilization class at BYU. It doesn't contain any new research or profound insight, but if you like to simply hear me think out loud...

Consume
This has been one of the most enjoyable parts of the Digital Civilization course for me. I love being able to self-direct my learning (with some good starters in the assignments, lectures, and others' blogs). Joining the class late, I was first a little overwhelmed by having to read the class blog, the assigned readings, classmates' blogs, and outside reading. I now feel like I've developed a more of a system to my learning - making sure to read the class blog and assigned readings, occasionally glancing through classmates' blogs when they contain something that peaks my interest, and when I reach the point when I have something to write about on my own, I'll research it more in depth through various tools on the internet or my current American Heritage textbook, which correlates curiously well with our material in class.

Create
The creation process has also been very exciting. I began with some very simple posts mostly on personal interests such as journal writing. Most of my blog posts have been on (a.) things I have thought a lot about in the past and wanted to study more in depth, (b.) modern applications of historical philosophies, such as my post on Wii Remote Technology (although that may have been stretching it a little) or (c.) correlations, like those previously mentioned with American Heritage, with topics we have been discussing in class and something I was currently studying in another class at the same time. The American economy, our most recent topic, for example, was very interesting because, without any intention of my own, I learned about it from three different sources simultaneously. I keep thinking I've made up my mind on which variation I think is best when I get pulled in another direction by another side, which is why I haven't gotten myself to blog about it yet.  

Connect
My two digital literacy labs, Google Calendars and Google Docs, could technically fit in any of the three areas of focus for this class. However, using both I learned some great new ways to connect with others. The calendar taught me some great ways to schedule group activities or meetings at a time that works best for the greatest number of people. I stretched the use of Google Docs further than simply writing and sharing papers with others; I learned not only how to create and send questionnaires to people, but I also discovered that two people can use the Draw function simultaneously to, in our case... play hangman. One of my weaknesses in this class has been connecting with other people's blogs. I glance through a handful occasionally but I haven't been as good about commenting as I should be. One thing that frustrates me a little, at least with Blogger (I don't know what other blog sites are like), is that it's hard to keep track of either your own comments on others' blogs, or their comments on your blog. At least for this class, most people, from my experience, just check a blog once, possibly write a comment, but never check back again to see how others responded to it and continue the conversation. That happened with my journal writing post; a few people commented, I found some interesting new material to respond to them with, but I have the feeling they've never been back to that post since. It makes it hard to get a conversation going.


In conclusion, I feel like I've learned a great many useful tools and concepts that are very relevant to our world today. I've really enjoyed the self-directed learning, although I may not be using it to its full advantage. Luckily, there's always room for improvement.