Blog assignment 5
By Carlos Fonte


1. Compared to writing traditional essays as you have in other classes, were the expectations of the blog assignment easier, harder or just different? In other words, was it clear to you what the format of a blog was and how to produce one?

Well at first I was very confused at what a blog was or even were to begin. I mean my children do all that stuff but as a 46 year old man I was never exposed to any of this. But as I started on the adventure of writing one and I wrote my first blog it got easier. It was a lot harder to me than a traditional essay. I am not used to putting my thoughts in words I am old school. And yes as the semester progressed it was easier to sit down and write. And by doing so it made it easier to write in my English class. I have not been to school since the early eighties when I was in high school so all this writing and thinking that you made us do was very beneficial


2. Did the blog assignments, and the requirement to create a blog, relate to the class topics and course objectives? Why or why not?

I thought that the blog list that you gave us did relate to the class. And the topics that I choose to write about had a lot to do with humanities and popular culture. And I learned things that I never had really thought about. So yes I was very happy with the outcome of the topics that you picked. I enjoyed doing the research about the automobile blog. I had never really thought about how the automobile had affected America at the time of its inception. I also enjoyed writing about the freedom of speech and propaganda. These topics that you let us pick from were so cool because I actually learned something from them. Some of my other classes are not so educational. And the propaganda assignment opens your eyes to the different types of propaganda that is out there that the media and advertisers can use to try and sell you products or try to influence you politically.


3. Did the non-text elements of the blog program contribute to your learning in this class? Did they get in the way? Or did they have no affect at all?


I thought that using the animoto soft ware was pretty cool, and I enjoyed making my short video about America. I wish that I could have had more time to do more with the program than the 30 second video that I was able to do. I really enjoyed watching all the videos that all the other students put together. I think the rest of the class did a great job with all their presentations. And yes it did have an effect on me it helped me to be more creative. I had never been involved with anything like this before. I think that you should use more of these types of assignments in the future with all of your classes. If I had more classes that were fun and let you use your mind to come up with video presentations I think more students would be inclined to take more college classes with this type of curriculum. And all the younger students seem to do well with this type of assignment because they are more exposed to face book and YouTube and these kinds of web sites were you write and create videos to talk or show your friends.