• Did I blog frequently enough, and receive enough feedback, to become more comfortable with this mode of writing?
Yes, I think I did. Blogging was a fun way of breaking down my thoughts about things, and I think, in a way, it’s a lot of what my inner dialogue sounds like, just put to paper and distilled down to a single train of thought. I also enjoyed reading comments, if only to see what people thought about a topic compared to myself. I wasn’t really looking for feedback, as the type of blogging I did was in the spirit of breaking down my own ideas about a topic or simply just sharing the topic’s information or thought-provoking points for others to learn if they wanted.
- Aside from feedback, did the process help me develop particular writing capabilities?
I don’t think this helped me develop any writing capabilities, but it was an interesting change from what I usually write.
- What are different ways you might want to see blogging incorporated into a college course in the future (eg, what did I do wrong? or, how could another course you’re currently enrolled in use blogging effectively?)
I enjoyed the way blogging was implemented. I think deciding my own topics made it more fun, and deciding when I could write, how much, and what to include or embed was freeing. It was nice to decide how much effort I put in. Sometimes I felt passionate and eager to blog. Other times, I was busy and only able to blog after I had done my other work and rested. I appreciated this openness and the two collective due dates for the different blogs. I think another course using blogging would also have to allow blogs to be on the personal side to let students explore ideas and opinions. I could see a Polisci class having blogs where people just talked about issues they thought were important, what they wanted to learn about, or how they thought political discourse should change.
Comments by Clara Yeaman