Personally, this blog has been one of my favorite parts of this course. Although there were some weeks where I had a more difficult time coming up with an idea for a post, in general, I really enjoyed writing and reading posts during the week. I think this blog was a really useful space for continuing discussions from class or sharing ideas, thoughts, and opinions that people had about each week's reading or anything else Tolkien-related. I especially appreciated this blog when we transitioned from live class to Zoom meetings because I know, at least for me, inserting your own thoughts into class discussion over a virtual platform is a bit more difficult. Thus, this blog provided me with an outlet to mention whatever ideas occurred to me in class (or after class).
My only gripe with this blog would be in regard to the mechanics of Blogger itself, more specifically how you can't tag (or "label") your own comments and whenever you click on a Blogger profile, it doesn't show all posts/comments from that specific person. Perhaps using a different blogging platform would solve this issue since Blogger doesn't seem to be in any hurry to fix this issue.
As for the anonymity, I think this was another great aspect of the blog because it allowed people to share thoughts and opinions without fear of being judged (although everyone in this class has proven to be very cordial and open to new ideas).
I definitely agree with your gripe about the way you can't see all a person's posts by clicking on them! I know the labeling posts helps with that a little (or at least is a work-around for main blog posts) but it would be helpful especially for our Final Portfolio to have that option inherent in the blog post tech we use.
ReplyDeleteI also highly agree with your point on this blog becoming more useful and appreciated after we transitioned to online. I find myself becoming quite exhausted with Zoom (as wonderful as it is to be able to see and talk to people) because with more people on the call, I often feel that instead of contributing I'm really accidentally interrupting someone without realizing it. Here, with blog posts, that worry gets taken away so it is much easier to post what I'm thinking to get a conversation going.