The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing

General comment on the postings as a learning exercise

by Rosemary Harris

Now that we have completed most of the assignments for Module One I would like to comment on the posting to the community weblog. I have found it very interesting to read the highly varied and creative responses of the students.  When for example, we were first given the assignment to create two responses to the word text and technology I drew a blank. Other than a dictionary definition I found myself perplexed where I should turn and what I could produce. Then, as people began to post their responses I felt more at ease (less of newbieitis??sp) and began to enjoy the exercise, use my own creativity and benefited immensely from the process. I also have found the form valuable in being able to read all the different ideas, views and opinions as well as engage in discussion and response. It has been a great deal of work but very worthwhile. (Plus, I have learned where to click and how to sign it now and am no longer getting lost somewhere on the cwl. )  As a teacher, I find it an excellent learning tool as there is a place for individual response and group discussion via post. I like it as it requires me to make connections and think critically, while at the same time establishing some impressions of classmates and their views.

2 comments


1 Jeff Miller { 09.14.09 at 10:14 pm }

Hi Rosemary,

I appreciate your reflection on the experience completing these initial activities in the Community Weblog. As I mentioned in the course notes in Module 1, this year, for the first time, we have shifted the core site for student publication into social media spaces like weblogs and wikis. In the past years, we have done this work using student authored html spaces (a task that some students found somewhat daunting technologically).

I too have been impressed by the contributions made to the weblog, and I’m really pleased with how creatively people have taken to the idea of this being a multimodal space, what with textual, graphic and video materials being submitted with so many of the entries.

One thing that I have certainly noted with both the previous version of the Community Weblog (the Community Webs that I’ve linked to in the Archives) as well as with this new collaborative weblog, is that it can be enormously motivating and inspiring to see one another’s work. We have a lot to learn from one another and this peer-driven site will very much become the engine of the course.

We’ll mix things up a bit when we add the wiki collaborative writing spaces alongside of the Community Weblog, so I encourage everyone to continue to think about how these writing spaces affect how we interact with one another via our multimodal texts.

Best,
Jeff


2 ETEC540 { 09.15.09 at 10:44 am }

Brian here: I just want to chime in, if only to offer up a “ditto” to Jeff’s response above. I personally find the ability to check out others’ work – even when it is in process – to be a constant source of inspiration and enlightenment.

I really appreciate you taking the time to offer this reflection, Rosemary. I hope our myriad environments keep on keepin’ on for ya…

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