Overall I really enjoyed the hybrid course design. I thought the blog posts were a creative way to supplement lecture. They did not replace any in class time, but rather gave additional information to talk about and discuss in discussion. I think it is important that online work does not replace lecture time, or discussion topics. We discussed this at length in the material of this course as many people think the internet directly takes away from other things. I like that this class made sure not to make that mistake and instead only provoked other conversation from our blog posts.
I also think something like our class blog was interesting because that is what we are learning about, but this would be useful no matter what the subject is. It is simply another way to engage students and acts as a good way to ensure people are keeping up with lecture, or the readings.
While I clearly did like the blog, I did enjoy the discussion and lecture much better. I think you get more of a back and forth in discussion that it is very difficult to achieve on commenting on each others blog posts, but again the blog posts did provide ideas that students can take to discussion to discuss.
My favorite part of this course has been exploring issues that are very relevant to our lives, but that schools normally don't focus on. Everyone has heard about the problems and innovations that result from technology, but we rarely get to look at them as deeply as we did in this class and I really enjoyed that.
I had similar feelings about the blogs - I think much better discussion was facilitated in class. Additionally, I agree that this class has covered content that is very relevant in our own lives which makes it fun and interesting to dig into.
ReplyDelete