Week 14: Superblog

Blogging

            My freshman English class at UL was a new experience with many different grade responsibilities. One of the most uncommon homework strategies we had to partake in English 101 was blogging. I had never even attempted to blog before and really did not know how or which way to start with it. Even though it took me a while to learn the points and ways on how to blog effectively, I actually very much enjoyed having to do it for a grade. Throughout the semester, it became a very simple habit having to blog. Although, one of the main problems with having to blog was finding the time, other's participation, and motivation to do it.

            Blogging is not a very difficult hobby to take on, but having to do it for a class is pretty uncommon. During the semester, as a class, we were put into “blogging groups” and our homework was to blog within our groups. Some of the problems with our blogs were: finding the time in our busy college schedules to introduce efficient answers to the questions posted by the teacher, having the other people in our groups actually do the blogs to be able for us to comment on them to get our points needed in the class, and to be able to concentrate our minds in the actuality of finding the motivation to do the homework. All three of these things are centered around one other substantial problem: the schedule of a college student.

            Firstly, finding the time is probably the most common problem with every student who was responsible for blogging. Having to not only complete other assignments in this one class, we also had many other teachers giving up a great amount of homework right along with it. This was sometimes a very difficult task to complete, even though we did have three days for each assignment, because we would get so caught up in all of our other work that blogging would easily slip our minds and we would just forget about it completely. This is a struggle for every college student, because we are already having to juggle so much in our school work patterns. Also, many of us have badly needed jobs that we must have a main focus on as well.

            One way this problem could be resolved would be to instead of making the blogs a priority every week, maybe making them every other week would take a huge toll off of students’ minds and making time for them to actually complete the blogs. With making them every other week, you could extend the length and difficulty of them by a little more percent. Although, this solution might also have some problems of its own. Students might further forget to do their blogs, because it is not a huge stress component of having to do them every week. To help this solution play out, the teacher would have to be sure to remind the students on when the blog posts are due and what time they should start on them to meet the deadlines.

            Secondly, having the other students in our “blogging groups” actually do their work for us to be able to get credit was another big problem. We had to comment on at least three people’s blogs to get the full grade for our homework. Doing this was the easy part, but finding other blogs to comment on was the harder of the two. Although in my particular group, everyone did a very outstanding job with completing their blogs every week. I used this example, because others in the class had a very clear problem with this.

            This problem could be fixed by not making the students do “blog comments.” Just making us do the blog homework itself was enough trouble. With not having to do the comments, students could further focus on the big part of the homework and be able to do it with ease. Nothing makes a college student more happy than not having to do a lot of work with a one graded homework project.

            Lastly, motivation was a big upset with the whole blogging responsibility. When we get out of class the first thing we as college students want to do when we get home is get on Facebook and just chill. The last thing that’s on our mind is to go do blogging homework. There were times when I KNEW I needed to do my blogs, but I just did not have the want to get on my computer and have to read a whole story to be able to answer a page of questions. If us as students were a little more motivated on the project, we would more than likely do a better job on answering the homework.

            As said in the above paragraphs finding the time, other’s participation, and motivation to do it are the only concerns I have with the whole blogging responsibility. I thought it was  very good idea for a homework option with our English 101 class, and I believe if the mentioned problems are reduced or completely fixed that students would enjoy blogging much more and be able to do it with no problem at all.