Goodbye ALES 204

Source : Tux Web Solution (www.tuxwebsolution.com). Retrieved December 5, 2011.

After my first ALES 204 class back in September, I was both confused and intrigued about the new focus and direction of the course. My homework for the second class was to make a Twitter account, something I never thought I would do and especially not as a class assignment. I remember skimming the syllabus that night and reading the names of all these social media sites I had never even heard of before, including Blogger, LinkedIn and Delicious. Well I must say, in the last four months my ability to use the Internet to both find and disseminate information has increased exponentially! I can now comfortable navigate all of those sites I had never heard of and I am tweeting like a pro.

Creating my e-portfolio in the form of a blog using the website Blogger made me realize that creating a blog is not an impossible task and it is a great way to disseminate information. I really appreciated the opportunity to write about the creative and analytical process involved in creating my Facebook page and Wikipedia entry. It made the assignments feel more personal by giving me a chance to share with Dr. Laccetti, Marie Claude and my fellow students what I enjoyed about the project and what I learned from the experience. In addition, I realized while looking at the number of views my blog has received in the past three months that people are actually visiting my blog! As of earlier today, I had 250 views which was substantially more than I would have guessed. If your goal is to share your writing with the online community, I think a blog is the ideal place to start.

One thing I learned about myself as a journalist is that I actually don’t dislike writing! As a student in primarily science classes, my main University writing experiences have involved papers or lab reports. Both of these are very structured writing assignments, where you are given a list of things to talk about and you have very little creative freedom. Although I know that concise and informative lab reports are important, they are not always enjoyable to write. As a result, when I first learned about the e-portfolio and blog posts I was not too pleased this class was going to involve writing. However, I discovered I really enjoy sharing my thoughts and opinions with the world through a blog. Maybe I truly am more of a journalist than I realized!

My goal is life is to become a small animal veterinarian. That is a field where technology is very important for sharing and disseminating research. These days companion animals are often viewed as a member of the family, and their owners want the best, most innovative care possible for them. As a result, there is always research happening and new papers are being published about the latest treatments everyday. Although this research is happening all over the world, the Internet allows for immediate dissemination of this research to every veterinary clinic. Additionally, technology gives veterinarians the ability to easily discuss their opinions on the advantages and disadvantages of these new treatments. I know that by the time I am a veterinarian online communication and networking is going to be a necessary part of the job, so I am glad this class gave me confidence in my ability to professionally navigate the internet.

The online e-portfolios also gave me the ability to learn more about my classmates through reading their thoughts and opinions. The blog posts I commented on are: Jasmeena’s post about her Facebook business page, Erin’s post about her Wikipedia article, Cassandra’s post about the Sustain SU poster she created, Coleman’s introduction post, and Larkin’s blog post about folksomy and her wordle.

Source: Brad Fitzpatrick (www.bradfitzpatrick.com). Retrieved December 5, 2011.