relection blog :)

I definitely learned a lot in ENGL 396C this semester. Before this class, I considered myself a digital native. But now that I reflect on what I’ve learned in this class, I’m not so sure that I was a digital native. I do feel like I am now, however.

Web 2.0, MUDS, MOOS, SL… all of those terms were foreign to me. I’ve also never blogged before. While I don’t think I’ll continue to blog regularly, I’m glad I had the opportunity to do so. It was sort-of relaxing to sit down and write about different topics. I also found a bunch of really interesting sites while searching for things to blog about. I loved reading other student’s blogs as well.

The group project was… interesting. I’ve had online classes before, but never a semester long group project online. It was difficult, and I was frustrated occasionally because some people did a lot of work, while others did barely anything (sorry if this offends you, I’m just being honest). Overall, I think Group One’s wiki turned out rather well. I enjoyed researching and posting to the site. I learned a lot while doing it. Thank you to those who also worked on it consistently throughout the semester. Learning how to use WetPaint was also pretty neat. I actually may use it again.

I LOVED Group Two’s project. You guys did an awesome job. I like the idea, the organization, the pictures…. everything. It does seem like Group Two had the same difficultly of some members not participating much. I suppose you’ll get that in every large group situation though.
I also enjoyed doing the fourth writing assignment. My paper was titled “If online games caused violence, we’d all be dead.” It argued that violent games do not cause real life violence. It was fun reading studies done on the topic. Being a professional writing major, I actually like writing. It was nice completing a paper that kept my interest the whole time.

Like others in this class have expressed, I’m glad that I had the opportunity to discover Flickr. I was a bit wary about it at first, because it was a bit difficult to navigate through. I recently got the hang of it, and I will be using it again.

I suppose that’s all. I’m looking forward to be graduating in a week!!! I am a little sad, however. I love learning. I know that I will take more classes in the near future. Congratulations to everyone else who is graduating this semester!