Blogs
Only wish final thoughts could come in later
I originally signed up for this blog because I was excited to use my new digital camera to publish my own images on a site. When I heard that a family friend had gone to Buenos Aires and gotten his camera stolen I backed down and decided not to bring my own. For the first month or so I used other peoples’ pictures and ones I found on the web. Then my parents brought a camera down which was smaller and more practical and I began to integrate a few original pictures into my posts; but by then this course was well underway and I no longer cared most about the graphics. Instead, blogging became a way to distill some of the thought processes that were going on in my head or to clear those processes away and respond to a prompt or reading that I had not seen or considered before.
I liked blogging but it never became a habit. It was less like a work-weekly activity and more like a somewhat stressful though usually enjoyable unburdening that happened in clumps as the semester progressed. In this way I don’t think that I experienced part of what blogging is said to be about. And I think that if I were to take this course again I would try to post more regularly. The way I (and many people, especially those I know in Buenos Aires) did it did not feel exactly like a blogging class. But I don’t consider this a failure on my or the course’s part. Each post was an experience in rehashing experiences, feelings, and opinions within a structure that I felt was loose enough to let my thoughts flow.
This class is very different because of Steve’s Wizard-of-Oz manner of teaching. I received a few e-mails from him towards the beginning but other than that I barely feel the presence of the teacher. I do wonder about how my performance is being evaluated, whether my posts are being seen as good or bad but I realized that if I received any of that information this class would cease to be about blogging. Responses are not papers and though I’m sure they will be graded with some element of normative university policy I have not worried about that when I have written responses and I appreciate that.
What would have made it better? I think that it is good that Steve wasn’t as strict as he could have been about the schedule for turning in posts. I think it is best to respond more regularly—to make blogging a habit rather than a confusing mixture of duty and pleasure. Yet it was difficult to make this habit and maybe (maybe) it would have been easier had there been more occasions to write on an open topic instead of a prompt. That said, I think all the prompts were helpful. Maybe my main criticism relates to the timing of the class in relation to the study abroad programs. In New York school is over and kids from a few of the programs that began with Spring semester are back at home as well. Meanwhile the students in Buenos Aires and Shanghai have a few more weeks left meaning our final thoughts are going to be sent out (tonight) before I think my actual final impressions have taken shape. This is a casualty of school-schedules and the beginning of summer-term which I don’t know how to solve. All and all, I have really enjoyed this course and think it is a meaningful addition to the travel experience. Thank you.
