Here's to a great class...

I loved taking this course! This was my first online class and I really enjoyed being able to interact with everyone from all walks of life, thank you for that opportunity. I think that the books were very enjoyable to read and kept my interest most of the time. Yes, there were a few chapters from both books that were a little dry but overall I learned a great deal from them. Call me crazy but I liked reading Postman's novel the most because of his ideas and he kept me thinking about our history, society today and how I view the world around me. I think that the reading assignments were manageable with the allotted amount of time and work that was required. I have learned a lot about culture from this course and having the class online has opened my view and perspective on what can be accomplished. I also liked reading everyone else's blogs and getting a different perspective on life. Our culture is constantly changing and with technology I feel it is increasing at an ever rapid rate. Technology in our culture today has given us the chance to explore completely new realms that were unfathomable in the past.

I think that the first assignment on abstinence was a real eye-opener for me. I don’t think I have ever gone a full 24 hours without using the computer but I’m glad I did. I learned that life is far more important than spending hours on end surfing the web when there are more valuable things that I could be doing with my time. I knew this already but it took this assignment to help remind myself and I think others would agree with me as well. For the second assignment I watched the Brad Paisley video and it represented to me all of the many things that can be accomplished on the internet. People can login to an entirely new reality world and be whoever they choose and it made me ask myself how I represent myself online to others. For the third assignment of Facebook and Myspace I had a chance to question why I had already had both communication networks. They are huge in our society and people have all different reasons to why they choose to use them. They are entirely used for communication and networking which I think is a great idea if not used too much. The next assignment was a great way for me to get back to the older values and write to a loved one which I had forgotten about. So many people including myself choose to use the internet and email instead of writing a hand written letter. I think it shows how much our society has and is still changing. The internet community that I joined for the fifth assignment was something else I had never done. Now that I have joined the breast cancer community I am able to talk to other people impacted by the horrible illness and its healing. Without the internet I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet these wonderful women and I’m thankful for the opportunity. Interviewing three different generations was also great because I was able to talk to three very important family members and learn how the internet impacts there life or not all. For the wild card assignment I liked picking an experience that I had in cyberspace. It’s amazing how so many encounters or communication that takes place in this realm.

Overall I felt that all of the assignments were great and I can’t think of anything I would change about this class. It was straightforward, innovative and fun. Thanks!