Over the course of the quarter, I have been privileged with the opportunity to explore class content through an entirely new medium. Executing the writing for an English class online was something new, yet very enjoyable to me. For starters I enjoyed it because it was simple. I never had to worry about running to the library to print out assignments, or worry about using too much ink at home. It was great to just to be able to turn my assignments in automatically upon completion. Which brings me to my next point, not only is the class comprised of environmental issues, but we are helping the environment in itself by submitting all work to a blog post. Seeing as the basis of my exploration and argument for the class papers was about becoming more paper efficient, I personally had a great appreciation for this aspect of the course. It was nice to see a class backing it up its claims with the way the course itself is executed.
Having now come to the completion of the quarter, I have noticed a change in the passion of my writing. It seems as if going through the process when I initially was clearly a person on the outside who was just being informed about the highlighted issues. Now I feel like I am someone capable of informing others. After this course I feel much more credible in informing others. But above all, I feel like someone with an actual viewpoint and an enlightened perspective on what is and what should never be as opposed to someone who was just passive or oblivious to the real issues.
I also enjoyed having my writing exposed to others. I typically take quite a bit of pride in my writing, so having it exposed to others and not just the professor was an aspect of classed I welcomed. The ability to let others comment as well as comment on others writing was an interactive aspect to the class that I had never experienced before. As with with many English classes, students are encouraged to do peer reviews, but that really only gives you one or two different peoples opinions on something while our blog commenting gave you between 5 and 10 view points. With the blogs I enjoyed multiple perspectives in which people could either support my opinion, or bring me back to ground if I was quite radical with something. But having said that, being be too off the popular reaction didn't happen very often because me as a blogger is in the eye of the class. So in a way, I think people always tried to voice their opinions, yet try and stay "politically correct" as well.
I think the most enlightening part of the course was our time spent on Food Inc. It was extremely eye opening for me to see how corrupt and vexed our food industry really is. The crappy food being so cheap, and the natural food being so expensive. I can honestly admit that after watching the tape and blogging about the ideals within our food industry, I have at least started to purchase organic eggs. And it is true, although expensive the quality of the egg is dramatically better. I most certainly credit this new enlightening to my experience with reading the book, watching the documentary, and having to really apply my thoughts about the content through blogging.
Overall I really enjoyed the blogging aspect to this class. It forced my mind to stimulate in depth thinking more than usual because the issues themselves were more keen to my actual surroundings, and my opinions and viewpoints would be in view of other classmates. I wish that I could have had more classes like this, but unfortunately I am graduating. I can only hope that more and more classes transition to this environmentally friendly class method in the future.
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