Monday, March 26, 2007

hm

All right so this I guess is a response to the course blog posting about our grades and stuff.
First off, the amount of work here is... difficult to complain about, as there is a lot, but its also necessary. But then again, i don't feel ALL of it is entirely needed.
Why do we need more than 2 podcasts? I honestly.. am torn on the idea of podcasts. I like the idea of talking and having it be recorded, but.. i just dont like podcasts. Maybe it's the name, but something about them irks me. Also, as my last podcast got entirely distorted (and we still have no idea why, but over a minute of our actually decent discussion and topic go cut out...not happy about that), and I didn't do the first one (which honestly, if it lowers my grade, it's better than hearing my opinion on the book smart mobs... it's much more appropriate to read how i feel about it, instead of my stumbling and struggling to remain civil and not entirely dead on the topic)... I also never listen to anyone elses, besides when they first come out. I still don't "do" iTunes, so podcasts... yea useless to me.

Then there's the wikipedia. Now that, i personally think is stupid. There are only so many times you can edit the entries, on the same topic or book. Plus, sometimes people will say the same things, and I just entirely do not see the point in repeating what someone else has already said in perfectly correct and accurate terms. I find that difficult to rephrase in a different way when someone has the same ideas on the topic, and pointless.

Then the Neovox articles. I don't have a copy nor h ave i really ever read neo-vox, so I don't exactly know what is expected of us. We were told to write for a college magazine for college students, but when I wrote the way i felt a college student would appreciate, the one revision i got on my piece basically took everything about my essay that I thought made it interestng and attention-holding, and said "no, this isn't right". I'm sorry, but i didn't realize we were going for propriety and boring essays. Especially when I use the voice that I tend to use (the same one I'm currently using, just slightly subdued), i think its ridiculous to take out the phrases that make you listen. I do enjoy the writing the articles, and think that they're a lot more beneficial in seeing what people have learned and opinions, and just seeing all the topics are nice, although I would like to have a topic assigned once in awhile- giving guidelines can add to the challenge and make it more interesting, as you can more easily see the comparisons between different people and their opinions.
Then the course blog- I guess I don;'t h ave all the requirements, but that is generally easily remedied--- i guess. It's not that easy to write on topics straight off, and it seems that when i do, not many people respond. Maybe its just me, but I find it much easier to comment on other people's topics, plus a lot of the time i'm never sure if i'm at the same place as other people in the reading, plus i'm not able to take a stance or form an opinion on the reading since i'm not finished with it yet.
I don't remember what else was on the list of requirements for this class so I don't have much else to say.
And also, still really into "A whole new mind".. i'll post again later, but it's very interesting to compare it to what we're learning in my evolution of writing class... very similiar.

1 comment:

Alex Reid said...

Yes, well, almost begging for a comment right. I'm not really into defending my choices, but I'll point a few things out.

First, the fact that, as you say, you don't really understand podcasting is fairly strong evidence of the fact that your brief experience so far has not given you much insight and that you might benefit from a little further exploration.

Second, regarding Neovox, it's an online magazine and the link has been made available to you in several places, including the sidebar of the course blog. So it wouldn't have been hard to check out what the magazine is like.

I agree with what you say about the wiki. It would be pointless to simply reiterate what others have said. However I am skeptical that you could find a single entry on the course wiki to which I couldn't add 1000 words.

My point being that there is plenty of purposeful writing to do on the wiki.

I recognize it's hard to develop your own projects and your own topics, to work without the context of a specific assignment. I agree that specific assignments bring their own challenges, to continue with the theme of A Whole New Mind, left-brained challenges of figuring out puzzles.

Here you have a more right-brained challenge of trying to see the big picture and craft a creative response to it.

You're doing well so far, despite your frustrations. I see you genuinely engaging with the issues the course raises.