Online Interaction

Interaction with classmates always has a certain dynamic. The level of camaraderie and common knowledge amongst members of the same class elevate the interaction to an exclusive and sharp discussion. I have enjoyed getting to know the variety of powerful members in my class through their styles and topics of writing. The freedom of reading their writings through an open blog gave me the time and comfort to read and reply whenever and however if so felt. I do not however feel that a lot of them were effective extensions of class. More often than not I found the blog topics extremely random and off topic and not of any further benefit or help to the classes conversations. Inside the physical classrooms I felt we had very little or limited interaction with fellow piers often we had to spend the time allowing the teacher to teach us the newest concept or explain the newest assignment. The comments are absolutely pointless, not only does no one truly want to take the time to read anyone else’s responses but they end up leaving comments that are of no benefit to anyone, not intentionally but often because the subject is hard to really respond to and because, as stated originally the topics do not feel like a useful extension of class so it just feels like pointless busy-work. On top of making the comments alone you also had to fill out weekly forms explaining all the comments you made and all the comments that were made on yours, which was again just an addition to the stress of it all. You would loose track of whose you commented on and which ones, you would receive no helpful comments of your own and once you fell behind you were hopelessly stuck behind. Not to mention the extreme and frustrating ambiguity of grading. Are we even getting graded for our comments? If so, How? If we fell behind is it of any benefit to our grade to go back and fill out allllll those forms? Or was the whole point of the comments and the forms just to push students to interact? Online discussions are honestly hard to stir up and maintain because for the most part one comments then another an hour later than a day later another comment and its just too disconnected and impersonal to actually have a discussion. But I by no means prefer the forum discussions, if we are going to have a discussion it should be in class, face to face. If I could change the blogs I would maybe change the comment requirement down to one comment but that is only if they will actually count for credit. I would also either give blogs that go directly along with the stuff we learn in class and cut down the overall number, it got overwhelming with all the other writing assignments assigned. I liked how a lot of them were personal opinion and only graded for length and appropriateness but maybe adding a free blog in would give students freedom to express themselves in whatever way and on whatever subject they want to! Lastly I would make the word requirement more like 350ish.