[ENC 1101] Letter of Self Reflection/Extended Post

I used a blog site this semester to post my essays, both long and short, on the web for my English Composition class. This was actually a novel approach for me, because most online classes I have ever participated in never required I post my assignment to a blog site. Typically, my assignments were emailed to the professor, or posted on the schools online, interactive classroom. The course, its announcements, syllabus, and all other class activities occurred within the confines of the online classroom. This is the first time a blog site became an integral part of a class.The first step in the process of using a blog site was to create one for myself. I was told by my professor of a few sites where I could establish a blog, and I chose Blogger.com. Overall, it was very easy to set up the blog site, although I believe it helps that I am somewhat computer literate, and understand how the mechanics of web sites work.

In order to find my way around, I just followed the tabs to the different parts of the site for my personal domain. Although each of the different parts and their content was pretty easy to understand, the actual manipulation of this content, and the options that were presented in them were not as obvious.

The first example was the Settings tab. These are all relatively straightforward; however I did find I had to read the content carefully, a couple of times in some instances, to be able to be sure the settings were correct. Luckily I figured out all the information I needed to enter.

The Basic tab is typical demographic information: Name, Title of your Blog site, a description of my blog site (a short synopsis), and more logistical settings, comprising email notification when someone posts a comment to my site, the type of editor I want to use, and whether or not I want to be in the web sites listing of all blog sites contained therein. The Publishing tab shows me the URL address of my site, and the choice of whether or not I wanted to notify Weblogs.com of posts to my site, for statistical purposes.

Formatting keeps track of formats of dates and times used on my blog site, how long I want blogs to remain on the main page before they are archived, date, time, time zone, default language used for dates, the kind of character encoding used, and the template for posting messages.

Comments sets up the way comments to this site are handled, and this was particularly useful as this is a public and commercial site, so spam, a common irritant, is a plague of this site. Luckily, I had the option to make commenter “log in” in order to prevent automatically generated spam, which happens quite frequently.

Archiving is a good feature to know, because if you are as prolific as we need to be in an English Composition class, you need to archive some of your posts. Now, this is an interesting phenomenon, because you could elect to have as many posts as you want to be displayed on your blog site. Sometimes, I had to keep track of all that I had done, so I displayed all of them, which was a bit cumbersome at times, but for the sake of this class, useful. When this class is finished, I will keep my posts in an archived state, to be retrieved only when necessary.

I did not have much use for the Site Feed, Email, and Members tabs, because they provided features that were beyond the scope of what I needed this website for. And I was not a member or a group, and this site was to represent my individual effort this semester, so the Members tab was of no use to me.

As a general rule, I must admit that I rarely use online help or documentation. Most of what goes on in the world of web publishing I easily understand. As a veteran user of the web for more than ten years, all websites I have encountered function basically the same. The only part of this site that did not make sense at first was posting to the Sidebar, and the Footer Bar at the bottom of the website. To have to add and format these items in the Template, which is basically raw HTML, Style Sheets, and advanced JavaScript coding, was a bit daunting for me, never mind the novice user who knows nothing about these concepts. I muddled through, and managed to get the results I desired. The only disappointment I experienced was that no one really seemed to notice them. At the very least, they made no mention of the goofy comments I put in them, so my career as a jokester or stand up comic will just have to wait...

I mentioned before that the blogs sites were suggested by our esteemed professor, Dr. Daisy Pignetti. She, obviously a veteran of blog sites and the use of web technology in general, was very helpful in recommending a few places to establish a blog site, and I chose Blogger.com. She even warned about the great amount of spam you are subject to, which I remembered after getting spammed a few times. This is when I chose to set the “log in” option for commenting to eliminate the automated spamming. Otherwise, I did not find it necessary to get information from the class discussions. I did find, that visits to other blog sites, proved that leaving comments in certain ones was rather difficult. I do not remember the name of the blog site, but I remember trying several times to post a comments, only to have it “die” or “hang” before it posted: frustrating, to say the least!

I did not go to other students’ web logs to better understand the assignment; however I did visit their blog sites to make comments and to get a feel for how the rest of the students in the class reacted to the assignments. I did find some of the information in the blogs interesting, especially if I could relate to the subject. I noted that one comment on my blogs was probably put there by Miss Daisy herself, and said, “…thanks so much! After this semester I've also realized how much I enjoy writing and sharing my opinions and analyses of current events.” I found this encouraging, because I greatly enjoy writing, and have always been proficient at it.

University of South Florida’s Blackboard Discussion forums and blogs are, in my opinion, becoming an integral part of the education experience, not only for online classes, but for “in person” classes as well. It is a very easy-to-use, as well as very accessible medium for storing information needed by all involved in the class, which works well in the academic setting. If functions as a small electronic community. I did like using blogs to post my assignments, because they are stored, electronically, on a website, and are accessible at any time, even if it from an archive. It is analogous to having a storage facility for you works. The other thing I like about blog sites is that they are accessible to any and everybody you to whom you desire to give access. My friends could critique my work, should I desire, and sometimes, I desire! The only thing I would like to see improve is the use of signatures for commenting on the blog. The things I would have appreciated most would have been knowing who made comments to my web logs. Aside from the author of the comments leaving their name in the comments, making part of the process and “automatic signature” would ensure that one knows who left a comment. At least an email address would be a great help because that way one is cognizant of how to get more information from the commenter. I received an email sent to me when a person left a comment, but not knowing that person’s identity was very frustrating. I feel that it helps to know who makes a comment, as the personality of the commenter give insight to their comments and know how to interpret them. There are times, when a forum might be good in an electronic setting, because a forum encourages a sense of community, and student interaction is an integral part of a classroom experience. I am not sure that chat would be all that great. Now, as a male, I tend to like to think about what I need to say before I say it. Some people may like “electronic conversations,” and find them useful, but my personal preference would be a forum, with Private Messages for exclusive audiences.

As a means of communication, email was not much used, except on formal occasions, such as sending out graded papers, or personalized comments to the students. Information that was of a more public nature was put in the discussion boards, which I found the professor more frequently visited. Emailing her proved a much slower process. It makes sense, really, because the discussion boards are an electronic representing of a classroom, and “everybody was there more often than anyplace else.

I learned a lot about the mechanics of the electronic classroom, and since this was about the 10th such class I have taken, I learned a few more nuances of taking online classes. Every professor approaches it differently, but this was obviously a class where the professor utilized all the tools available to her. The teacher of the other I class I took barely used any of these tools and the appreciation of the class by the students and myself was reflective of this attitude. Electronic classrooms and blog sites for courses where writing is required can be very positive and gratifying experiences when the tools are used well. I believe this particular class used those tools well. Brava, Doc Daisy!