I will admit that when I first found out we have to blog for a class, I was not too excited. I have never blogged prior to this and felt as if blogging was a little extra "me" time for some people. Nonetheless as I began to blog, about specific topics and not just randomized me moments, I felt myself reminiscing the moments that I blog about and appreciate them more. Let me first begin to explain, that I am a person that likes to stay on top of my game. I feel as if open slots in the schedule do let me fall apart. I devote an x amount of time for each class, and I've noticed, that I do particularly well in those classes that something is due every so often. Unlike those classes that we have nothing but the final to study for. I am a person that likes to participate and show my skill on day to day basis rather then be charged with an exam that I panicked on.
As I told the professor, I have been through many teachers and professors in my educational career and only a few left an impact. This course was most certainly one of those "purple cows" -Kurpis, that will catch your attention and will not let you compare it to any other. Blogging was certainly the biggest distinction for this class.
The biggest asset that has derived from blogging was certainly, the hands on prep for an exam. The blogs about the culture shock, and the "steps of planning" were definitely useful for me to prepare for the exam. Aside from that it let me fully explain my thoughts on decision making, seeing how I had a lot to say and wanted to let everyone to speak during class time. Other then writing my own blogs this allowed me to see the thoughts of three people who agreed with me or disagreed with me and their impressions of the process. For each blog I too had to comment on three other blogs, and most of the time it was blogs of different people. This helped me understand the diversity in the class and who I can relate with. Through this method I have also acquired few friend based relationships in the class, which I haven't in many of my other classes.
I believe the blog is a great part of the class, aside from the interaction and the sharing of thoughts with one another, it delivers 1/5th of our grade. A lot of time students complain that they have no control over their educational life. Yet I fell that through this blog we had complete autonomy. We had a great deal of time in between the blogs to get each done, and there were no particular requirements in terms of length and outside sources. Depending on my time distribution I would like to continue blogging through out my other classes. Hopping that I can influence some though my ideologies.
Once again as a person who likes to stay on top of things, and have autonomy I must say thank you to Professor Kurpis, for letting me stay in control of 1/5th of my grade.
I think it's good that you like to stay on top of thing, and devote a certain amount of time on each of your classes. So I can see how this would be a great deal for you. It really allowed us talk freely about certain topics, and get to know the perspectives of other people in our class. Overall I think blogging is a great component of this class, and can really help someone boost their grade.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on your views of blogging. I too like to stay on top of things to keep my memory fresh with material I have learned in a fun and untraditional manner. Without such strict requirements, I think that blogging allows one to be more creative and freely express themselves. It does also allow us to control a part of our grade which is particularly good for people who may not feel comfortable participating in class but still being able to contribute to class discussions. This will definitely be one of my more memorable classes at Baruch where I actually enjoyed going to class in anticipation of what strange idea Professor Kurpis has up his sleeve.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I wasn't particularly excited by the notion of having to keep a blog updated for this class. But as the semester went on, this blog and Professor Kurpis' management class turned out to be the highlight of the semester. The activities that I will always remember is the one with the egg and the one where we had to build the funky lego building perfectly. He could have easily made it only 10% of our grade or something, but having it be 20% is just awesome, and I'm also very thankful to Professor Kurpis for letting us have such huge control over our grade.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I wasn't excited about writing these blogs mostly because I not a great writer and I find it hard sometimes to express my opinion. But after writing a couple of them, I saw that I was having a lot of fun writng them and my ideas just flowed naturally. I also agree that each blog topic helped me study for his tests becuase I just to remember what we did, how we did it and why. I think this class was one of if not the best class I've had in Baruch by far.
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