The Changing Spaces of Reading and Writing

Summary of Community Weblog

by Laurie Trepanier

 When I initially begin to “surf” around the community Weblog, I was getting very frustrated.  It was a feeling of chaos and clutter.  I was looking to find some means of scaffolding my learning and to balance where I was and where I had to go.   This blog is not, in my opinion, user friendly.  I do not feel that this has aided in my learning, as I was feeling frustrated with my progress and my location.   Upon reading the Summary page, I understood that the blog was created in a fashion that is disorienting; rather unfair to lead the students astray J  

 

In the Community Weblog, the pages I enjoyed the most are those that appear different.  The photos are unique, the style of writing deviates from the norm.  Perhaps this is because I spend the bulk of my day looking at formal documents and I want to have something catch my interest.  

 

Laurie

2 comments


1 Jeff Miller { 09.15.09 at 10:28 pm }

Hi Laurie,

Hang in there. Weblogs can be a bit disorienting at the start, but as people continue to mark their posts with categories and keywords, a structure will start to emerge. Each new post to the weblog comes up on the main page in the centre column as blogs typically give precedent to the latest posts (and time-stamps them). However, if you look into the right hand column, you will see that we have categories growing: Discussion, Image Feed, Introduction, Technology, Text, and Uncategorized. You can click on these category links and any posts relating to, say, text, will load up on the page. And, you can also look at keywords as a way to navigate in, though that will likely pull up postings from different activities.

Each of the environments we use for our interactions have different affordances, and it is important to pay attention (and to critique) these spaces so as to consider how they encourage or discourage ways of writing or reading.

Best,
Jeff


2 Laurie Trepanier { 09.17.09 at 7:29 pm }

Jeff,

I was at work today and one of the guys that work for me was introducing me to a new course he had developed for online. The first thing I had noticed was the lack of a ‘orientation’ point for the student. Much like the Tags and Categories listed on the right side of this screen. This exercise has taught me that the need to orient students is critical and that is something I will strive for in my future work.

Laurie

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