Lets discuss the discussion

No, I did not think the forum was engaging or useful and I would not like to have any more forum discussions in the future.  For the portion of it that we had to engage with each other by the time I signed into the discussion, which was only a few hours after the first comment had been made there was a flood of posts from everyone stating their opinions and commenting on them. This overwhelmed me and I did not know where to begin. Do I read everyone else’s thoughts and comment on theirs or do I post my own thoughts and wait to be commented on or do I do both? It was just extremely time consuming to sit there and not only spend adequate time reading the actual prompt but also have to read through everyone’s comments on it. I found it a waste of time and not helpful on any level. I think this negative sense stems from my already instilled hatred for technology; I believe a discussion is exactly that, a discussion, not typing back and forth. I think we should have discussions with one another face to face in person not on a computer screen. I thought I was very confusing and jumbled and I was unable to glean any new knowledge from it. I would have much rather preferred our discussion to have been in class. The one prompt where we did not have to comment on each others thoughts or actually hold a conversation I liked better but still don’t know why that could not have just been a writing assignment we turn into the teacher. I did like the overall freedom of the assignment, that we could just sign on and comment whenever we wanted to. I enjoyed getting to comment an unlimited amount. Although, upon reflection, my overwhelming feelings did take control rendering myself a very minimal addition to the discussion. Though I participated a only a few a little and posted only a few thoughts I still found this discussion quite pointless because of the lack of knowledge as to how to be an active member in one or how to join the discussion. I think if we talked about how to handle online discussions and how to engage in them in a composed and beneficial manner it may help. If you analyze the discussion format itself there really is nothing within its infrastructure you could necessarily better. The set up was clean and precise. I provided a clear beginning topic and it made it easy to respond as an individual and also allowed a organized way to respond to a specific others posted thought. So in the improvement realm I am unsure of what advice to better the discussion forum itself. I just personally enjoy face-to-face discussion if they need to happen and coupled with my lack of enjoyment in staring at a computer screen I overall would never want to do this assignment again. Unless taught clearer strategies as to how to handle it effectively and efficiently.