Blogging Reflections

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I did struggle with this assignment. It was a little difficult for me to write blog posts with very little direction as to what topics they should cover. Was this an opportunity to research deeper into subject matter presented in class that we found interesting? Was this a forum to share our personal experiences and challenges as related to the class? Was the content posted not important, and so was this an exercise in using and responding to blogs?

That being said, I greatly enjoyed following the blogs of my classmates. This was a great opportunity to learn more about my classmates, their perspectives, and their backgrounds. I very much enjoyed reading Travis' blog, and was grateful for his feedback on my posts. It was also very exciting when other classmates responded to my blog! I could see how keeping a blog and following the blogs of peers would create a virtual open forum that is engaging and gives users a sense of community. It is very encouraging to receive feedback from your peers, especially if it is not required of them.

I am personally concerned with the amount of time it takes me to craft a blog post. I have similar issue crafting discussion posts in class. Some nights I feel like I am only able to read 1 reading and/or complete 1 post. I do set aside at least 20 hours a week to work on my coursework (however, I am taking 2 classes). I honestly think that, even with practice, it will always take me 1 to 2 hours to craft a discussion post (or to read and digest 20 pages). This does create some anxiety for me, as I am always worried about whether or not I will finish everything by its appointed deadline. However, the positive interest in my experiences and progress from my classmates, as exhibited in their responses to my blog, was reassuring and gave me a little push to keep going.

Although this has been a time intensive process, I am interested in continuing to blog about community in distance education. I also am interested in saving my discussion posts from class in my learning journal so that I can refer back to them after the class ends.