Reflection

I have really enjoyed this method of responding to class. It gave me an opportunity outside of class to reflect on what we had discussed, to think about what had been said without having to think quickly before the topic passed.

I believe that the blog we have produced represents the discussions and class topics well. You can see the occasional frustration and anxiety as well as the passion through our writings. I would hope that to the rest of the world this blog shows the depth to which we analyzed the issues of the public good and illness while learning about their place in society and our developing world. Due to the fact that all the posts were written by the students and the topics as well were openly created by the students, I think that this blog is a significant representation of student opinion and learning in this class. Rarely do you encounter a situation in which a teacher allows the students to create the topics for response and I believe that this gave us a greater amount of freedom to discuss the issues that we personally had with the material and to tie up any loose ends from class that we wanted to continue to discuss. By giving the students the freedom to lead the blog, the blog seems more realistic and personal. It was created by the students about the topics that we personally wanted to discuss rather than forcing us to respond to issues raised by the teacher. Even though I'm sure the issues still would have been thought provoking, it gave us our own chance to lead and reflect as a class.

Although keeping up with the new posts was at times difficult, I really enjoyed this method of reflection. It was simple and innovative considering the amount of time that we as students spend on the internet. No other teacher I have had has used a method like this to enhance our learning outside of the classroom. I think it was a very beneficial method and I hope that other teachers will use something similar in the future. It just goes to show how taking chances can create success, not to mention a deeper understanding.