Ales 204

Hello everyone!

We are nearing the end of the semester, and the last day of classes has come and gone. It is time for us to reflect on the things we have learned this year in our Ales 204 Communication class.

Walking into this class, I was very skeptical of what we would be doing. I had been strongly opposed to Twitter, and had vowed to never sign up for it. Imagine my dismay when I realized that I had to use Twitter for in class participation! As we learned about the different social media platforms throughout the semester, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and also online references such as Wikipedia, I began to realize how important staying connected was. Our world is becoming increasingly competitive, and it is important to make yourself stand out in every aspect, including having a good online profile. The internet is a good way to promote yourself and also gain knowledge, if you know how to look. One part of this class I really learned from was the Pecha Kucha presentations. I have always had trouble with public speaking, and being forced to present to my lab was a good way for me to really step out of my comfort zone and practice public speaking. The Pecha Kucha is also a great way to plan presentations that can keep the audience engaged, and not bore them to death.

Figure 1: Social MediaFrom 1st Web Designer Blog (2010). [digital image]
Retrieved April 13, 2012 from:  http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/freebies/integrate-social-media-your-website/ 

Another experience I really enjoyed was editing our own Wikipedia stub. It really taught me how to be critical of what I was reading online, and also improved my researching skills. Usually, when I want to learn something, I first go to Wikipedia to gain a brief understanding of my topic, and go off from there. However, this time, there was no Wikipedia to refer to! Editing Wikipedia was a struggle for me, since I was unfamiliar with their formatting. It really made me appreciate the many users who go out of their way to share their information on Wikipedia.

However, while I did enjoy this class, and learn a lot, I must agree with my classmate NutritionStudent, that a lot of the things we covered in class were intuitive, and things we could have learned on our own. As a generation that grew up with the internet, I believe that we are quite capable of navigating and learning how to make use of these different platforms. While I did enjoy this class, I think that a lot of the things we did in class could have been homework assignments, while we discussed more things during class time.

Overall, I enjoyed this class, and the fact that there are no quizzes or exams is a plus! There were some aspects that I felt we could have spent more time on, such as learning how to write memos, public speaking, learning about different online databases to find information, etc. Things such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were fun, and made the class more interactive, but were things that we could have all done on our own time. I found the blog a great way to express what I learned in class, and also to learn about the thoughts of my fellow students. I've had a great semester in this class, and it was a pleasure reading the blogs that everyone has written!

Here are some of the blogs that I really enjoyed reading, and wrote comments on:

• Cassandra Holte 
• Jenna Patterson
• Lindsay Gervais
• Becky Bohlender
• Marney Steadman

 Thanks to Jess and all the TAs for everything they have taught us this semester!