Post Twelve: The End is Near...

I have used blogs before as a personal creative outlet both for sharing my own opinions about my own personal interests and to showcase my creative works. Although I have never had to maintain a blog for educational purposes, I have posted on threads and discussion forums for a few academic classes.

It was a good review for the week’s lectures, teachings, and ideas. It also allowed the opportunity to connect the general theories to real life examples. It also was a good alternative from homework and other unnecessary busy work.

I did not really encounter many technical problems in using the blogs. Sometimes it was difficult to come up with examples or relate the concepts in order to answer the given prompts. I was constantly worried about if I had answered the question properly or thoroughly enough.

For the most part, if I had a conceptual problem, I tried to find an example given in class or in the book and come up with a similar example and describe it with my own words.

I found the more interesting blog prompts to be ones that allowed for the opportunity to connect the theories to current events or real-life occurrences. I also enjoyed the blogs that asked for different aspects of actual production process of film and television. I remember specifically the blog prompts that I enjoyed the most were the ones about the theory of hegemony, selective process, Hollywood’s star structure, and describing the different shots and camera angle techniques. I recall having a hard time with more obscure theories such as globalization and honestly, found the radio prompt a bit boring because personally I see it as it an outdated form of media.

Although sometimes I believed the blogs were a bit redundant, it was a good way to keep up with each week’s intended readings and teachings. It was definitely a better alternative to many other classes’ assigned busy-work. I believe it gave students a good outlet to take theories and teachings and relate them in a creative way through a personal space. Everyone was given essentially the same concepts and the blogs acted as a beneficial way to present a specific viewpoint or ideas about them.

I sometimes wished that the blog prompts/blogs themselves were put in a more organized outline. It seemed as though the blog prompts were thought up a bit last minute and sometimes were even changed. The email system also seemed a bit jumbled and I think it could help if they were either solidified as part of the syllabus from the beginning of the year or placed in each section’s TA’s blog. I also think that if a short example was given along with the prompt, it might help the student realize exactly what the question was asking. I also think that maybe there should be a bit more interaction with people and their blogs within each section group. It would be interesting if people actually read the other students’ blogs and commented on one another’s posts.

Permission is granted to use my blog in a paper or report.