According to SDCCD I do. I scored a 45 out of ?? and was given a message indicating that I was prepared for online courses. I feel pretty comfortable with the technology and am pretty confident that I'm proactive, independent, and determined enough. I was worried that online courses would feel isolating, but so far that's not the case at all. (I spent two years writing a dissertation and already feel less isolated - and have gotten feedback much more promptly - than I did during that entire process and the semester hasn't even officially started yet).
I'll be curious to see how group work feels. I think having watched the two presentations (especially Dr. Haycock's) should help us all. Now we can identify when we're in the forming and storming stages and try to skip to the performing. (The whole online element should help too. Not being able to comment on our ironic T-Shirt designs and recent hairstyles - it was haircut day for me today - should cut down a little on the lengthy forming/storming stages). What are your fears about distance learning? Do you fear isolation or difficulty collaborating? What are some early guidelines you want to throw down for your first group? Plentiful Coke Zero and the Replacement's Let it Be blasting in the background? Or are you more of a Smiths fan?
I've already started a folder on my desktop for LIBR 203 with subfolders for each unit. I think knowing that having our files cleanly organized will help us create the final portfolio was a really good motivator for setting up a clean organization system. I'm not much of a calendar person by nature; I usually just go where my wife tells me to (occasionally with good humored color commentary), so I'll see if I can make that adjustment. I think I may be well suited to courses like this, where everything is laid out and I can work at my own breakneck pace. Please tell me there are one or two other courses like this out there?
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
What's it all for?
I've wondered on a number of occasions what the best use for a blog is. I've tried my hand a few times. What I knew I didn't want to do was update my personal life journal-style for the whole world to see. I'm not that exciting and there's a reason diaries come with locks on them.
My first blog had two posts - each, in essence, an essay. They were short essays: one considered the relative merits (minor as they are) of a Natasha Bedingfield song that was pulled from the U.S. release of her sophomore album (my inner librarian was probably seething at what I perceived as a form of censorship), the other was about a song by Public Image Ltd. But even short essays in the blog format felt like a slog to read. The one thing Twitter understands about online reading is that pithy is often better just because it's more digestible.
My second blog attempt was to riffle through my record collection alphabetically and post short (though far more than 140 character) reviews for each album. I think I was hoping for a Julie/Julia miracle with music writing. But after 21 posts, I hung up my blogging shoes. I didn't (don't) know how to garner a following. If you aren't writing to a community on the internet, you're writing love letters to the abyss. I like the abyss as much as the next anonymous internet user, but it can feel exhausting - like you're spinning your wheels.
So what makes good blogs successful? [Seriously, I'm asking. Post a comment and let me know what you think.] One of my all time favorites was Carrie Brownstein's blog for NPR called Monitor Mix. (It's defunct now b/c she has Wild Flag and Portlandia to keep her busy.) What I liked about that blog was how she often threw out questions to illicit response. Of course blogging for NPR means you have a kind of built in community. NPR's done the grassroots audience building for you. Plus Brownstein was already famous as the guitar player in Sleater Kinney. That means it's difficult to follow her model. Although, trying to make the blog about dialogue instead of soliloquy is commendable and repeatable.
The Living Brick is a blog that I think works well. Each post is a Lego creation that the proprietor has either made himself or found in the vastness of the seedy Lego underworld. Posts are beyond pithy, but more importantly the posts are always centered around a picture. The same holds for Strange Maps. Each entry is centered around a map. And even though the actual posts are essays (complete with foot notes). The artifact at the center is so special that it's a joy to read long winded prose. Perhaps one aspect of a good blog is that it curates something you are interested in, but not likely to find sitting on a shelf in your living room.
The final model I want to discuss is Friends with Boys. Friends with Boys is a graphic novel by Canadian artist Faith Erin Hicks. It's set to publish later this winter, but first she's serializing it via the web, with blogish commentary. The serial nature of blogging is a perfect venue for a comic - comics were originally serial to begin with. And the running commentary offers wonderful insight into the creative process - great use of blog.
What are great uses of blogging you've found? What are some of your favorites?
My first blog had two posts - each, in essence, an essay. They were short essays: one considered the relative merits (minor as they are) of a Natasha Bedingfield song that was pulled from the U.S. release of her sophomore album (my inner librarian was probably seething at what I perceived as a form of censorship), the other was about a song by Public Image Ltd. But even short essays in the blog format felt like a slog to read. The one thing Twitter understands about online reading is that pithy is often better just because it's more digestible.
My second blog attempt was to riffle through my record collection alphabetically and post short (though far more than 140 character) reviews for each album. I think I was hoping for a Julie/Julia miracle with music writing. But after 21 posts, I hung up my blogging shoes. I didn't (don't) know how to garner a following. If you aren't writing to a community on the internet, you're writing love letters to the abyss. I like the abyss as much as the next anonymous internet user, but it can feel exhausting - like you're spinning your wheels.
So what makes good blogs successful? [Seriously, I'm asking. Post a comment and let me know what you think.] One of my all time favorites was Carrie Brownstein's blog for NPR called Monitor Mix. (It's defunct now b/c she has Wild Flag and Portlandia to keep her busy.) What I liked about that blog was how she often threw out questions to illicit response. Of course blogging for NPR means you have a kind of built in community. NPR's done the grassroots audience building for you. Plus Brownstein was already famous as the guitar player in Sleater Kinney. That means it's difficult to follow her model. Although, trying to make the blog about dialogue instead of soliloquy is commendable and repeatable.
The Living Brick is a blog that I think works well. Each post is a Lego creation that the proprietor has either made himself or found in the vastness of the seedy Lego underworld. Posts are beyond pithy, but more importantly the posts are always centered around a picture. The same holds for Strange Maps. Each entry is centered around a map. And even though the actual posts are essays (complete with foot notes). The artifact at the center is so special that it's a joy to read long winded prose. Perhaps one aspect of a good blog is that it curates something you are interested in, but not likely to find sitting on a shelf in your living room.
The final model I want to discuss is Friends with Boys. Friends with Boys is a graphic novel by Canadian artist Faith Erin Hicks. It's set to publish later this winter, but first she's serializing it via the web, with blogish commentary. The serial nature of blogging is a perfect venue for a comic - comics were originally serial to begin with. And the running commentary offers wonderful insight into the creative process - great use of blog.
What are great uses of blogging you've found? What are some of your favorites?
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