No, I don’t think that my electronic interactions with my classmates enhanced my learning or class experience, because most people did the minimum amount. They had to make a minimum of 3 comments and that’s pretty much what everyone did. My social networks have been useful to a certain extent for cataloging information, such as pictures, etc. However, It’s the most distracting and evil tool of procrastination known to man–next to cigarettes. Just saying.

We all made Twitter accounts (if we didn’t already have one) in class, and the madness of tweeting and refreshing commenced. Eventually, we all embarked on different locales and I was enjoying the world of twitter via a friend’s apartment and a cup of coffee. I wanted the common trend to change to sandwiches; however, that wasn’t the case. It didn’t change at all for that matter.

This experience was actually pretty amusing and time filling, so I did have a good time participating in it. However, it was a little disappointing that the “real-time local Twitter trends” weren’t really actually all in real time.

It’s a sad sad world.

Its funny because the sims I’ve created are fairly accurate depictions of the people in real life. The same people skip work/class and drink all day.

I commented on 3 different blogs, one of which was a friend of mines. I tried to avoid blogs from people I knew, because I wanted to see what other people thought. I felt like I knew what my friends thought of the assignments already.

I do think this is a useful method in the classroom because it incorporates newer “fun” technology into something that some (most) people may dread. However, the disadvantages are that because it is “fun”, some people won’t take it seriously.

I didn’t think it was rather hard to create an entry. I felt like I was just writing a spruced up version of a Word document. Also, any coding needed was relatively easy to learn. I only had to use brackets which made things pretty simple.

I could see that there could be opportunities for social interaction because people are editing other people’s work, so there is an interactive element involved. No one has edited my entry yet and I didn’t speak to the person who wrote the entry I edited. I felt like it should be kept relatively anonymous because of the way Wikipedia is set up.

My general impression of the Wiki’s  was relatively positive. I thought it was a nifty took and I had no idea Cicada had this function. I think that other classes should implement this technology because it would be beneficial to be able to see other students perspectives on the class.

2. I had no difficulities actually setting the account itself. I had more difficulties personalizing my character and exploring the world. I felt as if Second Life’s interface was incredibly difficult and hard for me to control my character.

3. I don’t really see this technology as being good for anything. Sure, it can somehow benefit one’s social life in some way, but it’s really limited in what it can be used for. I simply see that it can only be used for fun, because any other uses it has is shot down by its glitchy play.

4. I did notice the opportunities for social interaction, but mainly I felt that that too was also too glitchy. I tried chatting with the person next to me and it took her way too long to actually receive the message, which I found more bizarre than anything because of the IM functions of many programs/websites.

5. The drawbacks of this technology include its time consuming nature. Most people don’t have time to spend hours on the computer living a life that isn’t their own. It’s glitchy making it hard to use sometimes (and not fun). Everyone does not have an avatar because why would the average person feel the need to have a online 3-D version of his or herself. They are their self.

6. No, I do not think I’ll use this technology after the class is over because it reminds me of a bad version of the Sims. Sure it has social capabilities that the Sims does not, but Second Life doesn’t implement the things that Sims does properly in a manageable fashion.

For this class I decided to use WordPress as my blogging service. I’ve had several blogs in the past so I consider myself to be fairly familiar with blogger. I had barely even heard of WordPress before this class, so I decided that it would be somewhat of a learning experience. So far it seems a bit more difficult, but I am starting to see the advantages.

2. How hard was it to set up a blog? If you had difficulties, what were they?

Setting up the blog was very simple. Setting up some of the themes took some trial and error, but overall it was an easy process. Registering was even easier and required just filling out some fields (something we’re all pretty familiar with).

3. Did you notice the opportunities for social interaction? (alternatively, are you afraid that you’ll be talking to the void?)

I noticed that the comments, ratings, and polls would be helpful for social interaction. However, I can’t say that I was surprised that they were included; they’re included in everything nowadays. I do feel like it would be difficult for people outside of the course to understand what I’m trying to say. I also fear that it would be redundant for people in the course to be reading the posts, because they already know what is going on.

4. Given your current experience, do you think that you will use this technology after the class is over?

I have blogged in the past, but my blogging has been very sporadic. I see myself continuing to do so in, I suppose, “creative spurts”, but not regularly.