Environmentally Educated: A Recap of my Reflections

Coming into this class I had very little idea of what to expect as far as what the class entailed. Now looking back I'm glad I signed up for this class section due to the information and the different forms of technology it exposed me to. Before this class I had never heard of blogger or google sites, much less used them. To me, blogger was a great tool for both the class and for me to learn how to use in the future. I enjoyed it because it gave me a good way to express what I thought about different topics and experiences that the class exposed me to.

One of the aspects that I liked most about blogger is how other people could read my assigned reflections and add their comments as well. I felt this was beneficial because I got to see how my writings and their subjects looked in other peoples eyes. This made me more conscious about what I was writing, mostly in quality or thought, as the quarter went along. Another aspect I thought to be beneficial was how easily I could access and read other peoples blogs as well. This easy access allowed me to read other people's opinions and thoughts on the same topics in general. Also, by being able to comment on other posts I could offer an outside view on a subject or aspect of a subject that the individual may have missed initially. The ability to comment on other peoples blogs and for my blogs to be commented on allowed us to spread ideas around that one or two of us may have caught originally. Also, in cases where parts of the movies or aspects of the readings were hard to understand these comments and other blogs helped offer other means of presenting the same information. This all resulting in more knowledge collected and understanding in respects to the material and its assigned assignments.

One thing I did notice as the quarter went on for the most part was the quality of my blogs. For example, looking at my first and less impressive blogs: Lost Mountain #1 post it was shorter and was more of a summary of the reading, not much emotion or personal thought involved. Then you go up to one of my better blogs: Food INC. p 183-218 blog it's much more in depth and has many more instances where I said "I felt that," "this aspect make me feel," and "in my opinion I..." I think this increase in quality came from multiple reasons. One of these reasons being that my writing skills improved greatly from the beginning to the end of the class. The other reason is that through other people's comments and mostly the growing realization that anyone can read these posts motivated me to attempt to write better and better each time. I felt this was unique and beneficial because usually you write a paper or answer questions and give them to the professor. With blogger everyone can read your thoughts and writing skills, which to me made me want to write well and more in depth. Another aspect that I believe contributed to the increase in quality of writing was how my view of who I was writing to changed. Originally I thought of it as I was writing to my professor, not anyone else. Then, as the class progressed I begin to shift and write towards the whole class in general. I feel that this shift made me want to present better information and more rounded thoughts, which in turn made my writing better throughout the quarter.

To conclude I enjoyed the entire class and the different aspects of it. Going into the class I never thought about how coal mining was destroying our environment or how hazardous factory farming really is. Now as the class comes to and end, I can't turn a light on or buy a pound of hamburger without thinking where did this come from and what harms did it cause to Mother Nature. The other aspect that I was glad to be exposed to was blogger. What I liked most about blogger was it allowed me to enhance my writing ability over time. Also, it helped changed the way I looked at, and presented my thoughts on, certain issues or topics.