Reflections (Take Two)

Coupled with the two midterms of the Digital Civ class, we are asked to post a reflective blog post as a self-evaluation of how we are doing in the course. My last reflective post has a great list of things I had learned up to that point and many of the points are still true, even more so as I've expanded further.

I need to take into consideration several things as I reflect including the historical content of the class, the computing concepts, the digital literacy labs, and self-directed learning through consuming, creating, and connecting. The course learning outcomes are decribed here on canvas. I am going to separate the material by strengths and weaknesses with links to examples from my blog.

Strengths:

• Since I love history, that section of the class has been fun and relatively easy for me. I have worked to expand my knowledge from what previous knowledge I had of these historical events and people by researching ideas or aspects of the time that I knew little about or what would hace normally ignored. For example 1 2 3
• I feel that I am continuing to make quality connections between the histoy and digital concepts as well as outside of class. Examples 1 2 3
• I am doing well with keeping my posts short, but also more of a synthesis than a re-stating. Examples 1 2
• Sifting through piles of information has become second nature to me and I find myself comfortable finding the relevant and interesting ideas and information.
• I am so excited to share the new tools and resources that I am finding that I told my hairdresser the other day, my employer, someone I met on the bus, and the kid who sat at my table in the library to name a few. It's so cool I can't keep it to myself!
• Probably the one thing I am most excited about as far as my blog goes is that I've found a good balance that is "me" with my blog. I can post about the Digital Civ class history and computer concepts, but I can also post samples of my writing, express frustration, talk about other classes, play my music, and share fun news. I feel more comfortable and less stiff with the format now.

Weaknesses:

• I need to improve the amount of media that I am including in my blog and make sure that most posts have a link for more information.
• I need to increase my efforts in the area of computer and digital concepts. While I am learning at an unprecedented rate in those areas, my posting on those has been dreadfully lacking.
• In some areas I still need to go deeper and wider on a subject to really find something that engages me completely. I need to look for other ways in the class to challenge myself.

Overall, I feel excited and challenged by this class, always wanting to learn more and often running out of time to do so. I have found many tools and resources that I plan on using after this class and semster and which have changed the way I research and study. I find myself continually evaluating my learning algorithisms and making adjustment. Now I just need to push harder, climb higher, and discover more!