A Happy Ending

It’s hard to believe that my first semester of college has already gone by and that I have, so far, survived. I’ll admit it—I was initially very unexcited to take COMM107. Beyond the fact that I very quickly learned just how painful it is for a college student to wake up for an 8 AM class, I was unsure what lessons I could take away from this class. Communication, to me, seemed to be a topic that centered on a lot of common sense. After the few speeches we presented in class and the lectures that Professor Narvaez gave, I realized that everything I learned in this class could be applied in my daily life.

The aspect of this class that I most greatly appreciated was the public speaking practice. I seldom have the chance to give a speech in front of a room full of people, so presenting my informative brief and persuasive speech were great opportunities to gain public speaking experience. I also enjoyed working in groups because it enabled me to get to know some of my classmates better, as well as improve on my collaboration skills. While I started the class with some nerves about presenting in front of other people, this class has definitely helped to make me more comfortable about public speaking.

Another unique component of Professor Narvaez’s lectures that I enjoyed was her incorporation of modern techniques in communication, such as social media. She was incredibly knowledgeable about this subject and was able to fully convince me about how useful it is in my life. After all, it is our generation that is most attached to social media—whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, or Blogspot, we are constantly participating in a stream of communication with each other. This is definitely something we can take advantage of in terms of sharing our ideas or collaborating with each other.

Professor Narvaez’s use of the class blog was also pretty awesome. I already had previous experience with blogging, but her blog post requirements showed me what an “ideal” blog post should have. I also really enjoyed reading my classmates’ posts because not everyone would speak up during class; the blog was the perfect method to allow each student to still voice his or her opinion, regardless of how vocal he or she was in class. In addition, the blog (and the Facebook group) made it much easier to access information about the class, such as study guides, or catch up in the event that I missed a class. The commenting system on Blogspot as well as the Facebook group posts also allowed questions about the class or its assignments to be quickly answered, which was extremely helpful.

Finally, each guest speaker that Professor Narvaez invited to class was very interesting to listen to. I enjoyed listening to their various perspectives, especially since each was a specialist in his or her field. Similarly, sitting in the audience during my classmates’ speeches was also a great learning experience. It is awesome to learn about so many diverse topics and to discover what your peers are passionate about.

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I took away from this class. I am now more confident in my ability to craft an effective speech and to present it well. While I wish Professor Narvaez was present in class more often and that our class wasn’t cancelled on such short notice (seriously, it sucks to wake up so early and walk all the way to PLS only to find that you don’t even have class), COMM107 is a course that I am glad to have registered for and participated in this semester. Peace out and good luck with finals and the rest of the year, all!

Photo courtesy of Cartoon Stock.