I found this assignment to evaluate a classmates blog quite fun. I rarely take the time to really dive deep into a single classmates thoughts and blogs but this has proved to be a great exercise. I found that I really learned a lot about Megan as I read into her blog. And I found that overall she has done a great job of meeting the course objectives and learning outcomes.
Historical content: Megan has clearly has taken the time to learn the historical content. From my reading of her blog I could tell that she really enjoyed learning the historical content discussed in the class. And despite the fact that she feels like it is difficult at times to go deep enough into the historical content I think she is doing well in that aspect. She is especially good at making great connections. She focuses on things that she finds especially important and repeatedly connects the history to those things like the gospel for example. More often than not she will connect the historical content to the gospel. And she does it very well. I can tell she is very passionate about the Gospel as a result. But then also sometimes she makes great sweeping connections between historical periods. Like in this post called Things fall apart. She connects all of the major historical periods to the poem “the love song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. I found many of her historical posts to be delightful. She connected the historical content in ways that I would not have thought of. One post that I thought was very unique and creative was Lost Romance in engagement. It connected the industrial revolution and romanticism with modern engagement pictures. She contrasts the romantic “nature” engagement pictures to the now popular “urban” engagement pictures. Thus connecting modern digital photography with two very important historical movements. I thought it was a great summation of the purpose of the class.
Digital computing concepts: she has obviously made good effort to learn digital computing concepts. What I liked most was that when she researched a specific digital literacy concept she made connections to herself and then connected with the digital world at large. Her post School rumble in provo is a great example. Also a perfect example of her connecting historical content and modern digital computing concepts and her interest can be found in her post mormonorg missionary chat. One very funny digital lab she did was called Nicecritic.com. It is a nice way to send a message of critique to a coworker or friend. Digital media spans the whole spectrum.
Self directed learning: It is very apparent to me that she has really taken control of her learning here. Her blogs displayed an enthusiasm that comes only from actually caring about the material. One example is from Carry on Mr Dowditch. This is in response to her book project but I could tell that the whole process was one that she cared for. She takes time to research things that are relevant and interesting to her. A good example of this is her blog post about Rosseau. She felt very strongly that his opinions were wrong, especially from her frame of reference as a latter day saint. She counters Rosseau's argument by quoting extensively scripture. I agree with her when she says she is creating and connecting very well. Her self directed learning is very obvious in these areas.
Overall I found Megs blog extremely interesting. I would suggest however, that she try and widen her horizons by finding a few more sources of historical content to bolster her opinions for her blog posts. Or in other words comsume more effectively. I think she has a lot of good things to say and I would like to see just a few more sources to back up those things. I think she can consume better through connecting better. using diigo and other tools to find sources and then expanding on those to make bookmarks of her own.
I can confidently say, based on her blog, that Megan has done very well at meetin all the learning outcomes of our digital civilization course.
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