Final Reflection on COMM107 Fall 2010 So. I took this course because within the degree requirements for majoring in journalism at this university is a bullet listing, "Public Speaking: one course from COMM 100, 107, 200, or 230." My adviser told me 107 is more enjoyable than 100. It fit with my schedule alright — even though I learned that 8 a.m. is too early for me (still, I made it to every class! Huzzah!). And so it was. My first semester saw me rouse myself from bed every other weekday at 7 a.m.! for class.
Was it worth it? Absolutely.
The best parts of this course were, predictably, the info brief, group project and persuasive speech. Verbally and visually presenting your ideas is a skill that cannot be learned solely through a textbook and only improves with practice. Getting my suit from home to campus proved useful beyond this course's business attire requirement for presentations.
I feel confident when speaking in front of people. I know also that I can always improve and learn. This course honestly helped with that by teaching me the concepts and terms necessary to better understand the hidden complexities of communication — paravocalics, haptics and gestics all existed and meant something to me before, but I could not quantify them or talk intelligently about them. Just living life and engaging in communication daily is the tip of the iceberg — this class was a fraction more of the iceberg.
Which brings me to one of my criticisms. I know this course is introductory, and do not want it unnecessarily complex or difficult. But at least in the beginning of the year, I did feel I knew most of what we were learning. Primarily, the textbook was written in a rudimentary fashion occasionally — I lost track of how many times the last sentence of a section read, "Remember, this is affected by culture." Not your fault, though.
Then there's this blog. I've had a love-hate relationship with "The COMM107-1701 Class Blog," aka "COMM On In." At first, I thought, "Great! This is so much easier and more informal than writing papers!" (I still feel as such. It's an awesome way to submit things, and I'm now a pro blogger. Look at this post. It's beautiful.) As time went on, while I checked my email and ELMS for other classes, I had to make sure to check this blog, and later the Facebook group, every few hours, on the off chance that an assignment or date would be changed, or — and I do sympathize with your leg plight and appreciate the online notification — class would be cancelled.
There's probably a way to set up email notifications when a certain user (as in, the professor) posts on this blog, and you should tell students of this feature and how to set it up at the beginning of the year. This problem, of being in the dark for not having checked the blog religiously, is exacerbated by students posting blogs after your assignment blogs, making them less visible while skimming the page. Is there a way to keep the latest "Teacher's Notes" blog always at the top of the page? If not, I'm sending that idea in to Google and making bank.
However, I did enjoy this class. I learned how to be a better public speaker, and I took a lot out of the interviewing sections. Hopefully I'm a better journalist for it.
Thanks.
Mike
Picture from http://www.hellothere.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/the_end.jpg
Was it worth it? Absolutely.
The best parts of this course were, predictably, the info brief, group project and persuasive speech. Verbally and visually presenting your ideas is a skill that cannot be learned solely through a textbook and only improves with practice. Getting my suit from home to campus proved useful beyond this course's business attire requirement for presentations.
I feel confident when speaking in front of people. I know also that I can always improve and learn. This course honestly helped with that by teaching me the concepts and terms necessary to better understand the hidden complexities of communication — paravocalics, haptics and gestics all existed and meant something to me before, but I could not quantify them or talk intelligently about them. Just living life and engaging in communication daily is the tip of the iceberg — this class was a fraction more of the iceberg.
Which brings me to one of my criticisms. I know this course is introductory, and do not want it unnecessarily complex or difficult. But at least in the beginning of the year, I did feel I knew most of what we were learning. Primarily, the textbook was written in a rudimentary fashion occasionally — I lost track of how many times the last sentence of a section read, "Remember, this is affected by culture." Not your fault, though.
Then there's this blog. I've had a love-hate relationship with "The COMM107-1701 Class Blog," aka "COMM On In." At first, I thought, "Great! This is so much easier and more informal than writing papers!" (I still feel as such. It's an awesome way to submit things, and I'm now a pro blogger. Look at this post. It's beautiful.) As time went on, while I checked my email and ELMS for other classes, I had to make sure to check this blog, and later the Facebook group, every few hours, on the off chance that an assignment or date would be changed, or — and I do sympathize with your leg plight and appreciate the online notification — class would be cancelled.
There's probably a way to set up email notifications when a certain user (as in, the professor) posts on this blog, and you should tell students of this feature and how to set it up at the beginning of the year. This problem, of being in the dark for not having checked the blog religiously, is exacerbated by students posting blogs after your assignment blogs, making them less visible while skimming the page. Is there a way to keep the latest "Teacher's Notes" blog always at the top of the page? If not, I'm sending that idea in to Google and making bank.
However, I did enjoy this class. I learned how to be a better public speaker, and I took a lot out of the interviewing sections. Hopefully I'm a better journalist for it.
Thanks.
Mike
Picture from http://www.hellothere.it/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/the_end.jpg
Look at you, getting all fancy with that "S". Good post!
ReplyDeleteThank you both! And Kerry, I'm a typographist. That's not true. It's also not a word.
ReplyDeleteMike, Mike, Mike. What can I say, dude? Your blog post looks 50x better than mine does, which shows what we each put into this class, and what we got out of it. I think everyone knows you rock. Cheers, mang.
ReplyDeleteThanks bro. Honesty, it's a good thing. ALSO, Andi, I never got to give an impromptu speech, so please don't dock participation points for that. I asked multiple times, and I guess we just didn't have enough time? I promise it would have rocked people's socks off.
ReplyDeleteI also never gave an impromptu speech, so ditto Mike
ReplyDeleteI liked the mention of your suit--you always looked quite spiffy! I still think you should have worn a space suit for your persuasive visual aid...
ReplyDeleteMike, thanks for the post. I'm glad you enjoyed the class. Now that we're through with the semester I have to say (and will write a blog post about it very soon) that you have been beyond great students.
ReplyDeleteTo deal with the inconvenience that was my knee this semester and still keep up with everything and use the blog to the extent that you did... it has made me very happy and has taught ME a lesson on how much YOU can engage in your own learning experience.
I will definitely take your suggestion. Not to Google, but to my list of things to do next semester. I'll figure that piece of the technology out.
Happy holidays!
PS: I agree on the rudimentaryness of the text book. That, by the way, is also not a word much like typographist.
ReplyDeleteBut then, had you not read the book you wouldn't have been able to appreciate the most important concepts in it and that were highlighted in class. Still... it should not cost you $80 (or whatever it is) to learn that...