blog reflexivity statement

For this post, I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to augment my 6430 blog from this semester before I generate my final, conclusive comments toward the course and instructional design in general. I need to identify whose blog(s) I've enjoyed the most, who's provided me with the most comments and/or feedback in my blog, and my personal evaluation of my own blog on a scale of one to 10.

Let me begin with the admission that I loved the idea of a personal blog at the start of the semester! While I've read many blogs prior to the creation of my own, I'd never before taken initiative to maintain a digital record of my thoughts and opinions, and this course afforded me (if not coerced!) the chance to explore that uncharted territory. Which is so contrary to my personality! When I teach, for instance, I usually take copious notes that acknowledge what flied and flopped in my class. I'll also note--when time permits--my reaction(s) to certain pedagogical endeavors. I know that I'll need and benefit from this information when I reach that point again in a subsequent semester, so I try to diligently make handwritten notes whenever possible.

That said, I'm not quite sure why my passion for and interest in my own blog dissipated as the semester progressed, although I have my suspicions. One need only look at it to discern that my voice hasn't made the transition into electronic dialogue for almost two months! However, that harrowing and embarrassing fact shouldn't indicate that I had nothing to say; indeed, it's quite the contrary. I think that, in short, I resorted to my "old" habit of writing my thoughts and sentiments in my course notebook, and I just never took (or made) the time to transfer them to my blog.

I believe this happened for a couple reasons: shifting priorities, overwhelming conversation mandates, and preferring simplicity.

You'll notice that I made an admirable attempt to publish substantive posts through our fall break, and that's when the bottom sort of fell out. Of course, this brings into question the debate over quantity versus quality, and I'd like to believe that I made some thought-provoking, insightful statements in my intitial posts. Indeed, as I reread them, I was pleased with the content and structure presented. But by October, with the semester in full motion, I had two academic conference presentations for which to prepare within a one-month duration. And I suspect that the traveling, lodging, and presenting obligations associated with both of these professional development opportunities led me to push this personal blog to the "back burner," and in consideration of my handwritten notes made in my course notebook, I think I probably felt satisfied with my internal struggle/comprehension of course materials and the documentation of it. Unfortunately, I failed to bring this personal blog off of the "back burner" and front and center as we neared the conclusion of the fall semester.

However, if I can be critical of the curricular requirements for a moment, then I'd like to admit that I felt overwhelmed by the number of conversations that occurred at once in this course. I found it especially challenging, as I already noted, to just maintain my own blog let alone comment on those kept by my colleagues. Moreover, we also needed to contribute to discussions had on WebCT. Personally, I found all of this dialogue to be a bit overkill, and if I may be so bold, might I suggest that students either do one or the other in the future: WebCT or personal blogs? That may allow for better maintenance records and a higher volume of comments.

I only received three comments from my peers--each from a different person (Carter, Ashley, and Christi). To be fair, I didn't exactly provide them with much material in the first place, but I think this exiguous number might support my previous point. And I noticed scant comments on other blogs as well, although I didn't follow some as regularly as others. I tended to gravitate more often to Angela's and Christi's blogs, most likely because they existed through WebCT, which I needed to visit anyway in order to download e-reserve texts and participate in online discussions/debates. Angela offered chapter summaries and her personal commentaries toward the material on her blog, which I found very useful, especially when I had limited time to thoroughly read the chapter on my own. And Christi's brutal honesty resonated with me, if only because she often said overtly what I felt internally. I remember certain posts that began with, "My head's going to explode!" and "I have such a headache!" I really appreciated her willingness to share her vulnerability from time to time; graduate students don't often want to admit to such a feeling let alone declare it publicly.

Finally, the third reason why I believe my blog evolved the way it did relates to my personal preference for simplicity. Here we are--about to enter the second decade of the 21st century--and I still view the computer as a more formal communicative vehicle than I probably should. In my handwritten notebook, I just jot down my primitive thoughts without much regard for lines, grammar, spelling, formatting, spacing, etc. On the other hand, when I sit at the computer and try to do the same thing, I feel compelled--why I don't know--to "clean it up" and pay more attention to the presentation of my content than just the substance behind it. This is a personal attribute that I should certainly explore down the line if only because it's so contradictory to what I know to be true. As I said, I enjoy journaling and writing; in fact, I've devoted my entire scholarly career to the communication discipline! Oh, the irony of my life!

So there is my qualitative assessment of my blog. And, just to reiterate some finer details that I need to articulate: blogs I've enjoyed the most: Angela and Christi; and only three comments from others in my blog: Carter, Ashley, and Christi. Now for the final quantitative note: I'd give my blog a 7-8 out of 10 because while I feel disappointed in my lack of sustained posts through the second half of the semester, I know that I made personal comments/questions/acknowledgments in my handwritten notebook, and even though those may not have made it into a formal, typed blog, they nevertheless served a similar purpose.