Making blog posts this semester has been a great learning experience for me. I think it is safe to say that I had a bit of difficulty at first because I had never done anything like this before. In fact, I had a lot of anxiety about creating these posts and making sure I was doing them correctly. Sometimes, I would put off blogging just because it was something so challenging for me to do and it made me nervous.
If I were to experience the R2P again, I think I would try to relax a bit more. I often got so worked up about making it perfect, that I forget the most important part of this assignment is not about making it perfect but learning how to do it. I also tended to struggle with different technical pieces of the assignment, such as the permalinks and the research database. If I were to do this again, I would try to focus a little more on the technological aspect of the assignment because it posed difficult for me. As far as content goes, in all three of my past blog posts, I think I could have went into more detail with my observations. I would also have liked to try podcasting or vlogging because they would be extremely out of my comfort zone and I think it’s important for me to try and learn new things.
As a future teacher, I will definitely be remembering this assignment and referring to it when I need to do research. I will constantly need to look up different classroom topics and the research process we learned in class is going to help me do that. The information we learned is incredibly meaningful and important.
The advice I would give to a future ERCH 496 student would be not to worry if your blog post, podcast, or vlog doesn’t turn out how you envision it. It’s more of a learning experience than something that should be causing you a lot of stress. Additionally, I would encourage the student to try something they might not be as familiar with, whether it’s blog, podcast, or vlog. Exploring new options is a great way to grow.
This assignment has really been helpful for me, and I feel that I have a better grip on researching topics and then sharing the results on a public platform. This has been a valuable experience.