Meeting the Learning Outcomes

(Sorry this is late, took longer to create it then I thought it would)

For English 295 I believe that both the class and myself met the learning outcomes for this class. Here is a link to Dr. Burton's blog page for our class's learning outcomes. I liked the format that Bri used when discussing meeting the learning outcomes so that is the format I am going to follow as well.

So how did I and the class meet the learning outcomes for this semester?

Consume:

At first it was hard to understand exactly the mediums or ways I was supposed to 'consume'. I wasn't sure what really constituted as consume either. It wasn't until I met with Dr. Burton a few weeks into the semester that I realized that I was consuming and creating and connecting all at once. How I was doing this was fan-fiction. Reading fan-fiction has been a big part of my consume process (link to my blog about it). Whenever I would read a book I would immediately go onto fan-fiction to see what had been written about the characters. There were discussions you could join as well. It was fun to see the different interpretations.

Another way I consumed literature was trying my hand at reading James Joyce's Dubliners online as well. Although I found it more difficult to read I still took away something. (Link to my blog about reading online). I also started reading blogs as part of my consume. I found quite a few blogs that helped me in my understanding of James Joyce. (Link to my Blogs of Understanding). I also started reading forums and discussions on Goodreads and various other sites. (Goodreads discussion, and forums discussions blog). I also had fun bookmarking articles that I wanted to read or look at through Diigo. (Link to my diigo) I know other people in the class also had fun with reading blogs and discussions. Some even were able to consume on Twitter.

Create:

Well I think by making this blog as other people in class we participated in the creation process. But not only making this blog but commenting on other blogs and participating in making our eBook. (link to our Ebook) By involving ourselves in group discussions or forums we participated in creating.

Also when we made a collaborative google doc was also our class creating. I have made since many google docs and shared them with my classmates for study guides (blog about google docs)

Going back to fan-fiction that is also part of creation. Although I don't have anything as of yet that I am publishing on fan-fiction I still created some stories. I attempted to recreate the story of "The Sisters" from Dubliners as well as trying my hand at creating my own story of Rainbows End. (I hoped to have it finished and published by now but....things got a little busy. One day).

Connect:

Just as consumption and creating are linked so is connect. By reaching out and consuming blogs and forums and then commenting we are connecting with those people. Also our Webinar is a form of connecting. It was really hard contacting people and letting them know about our Webinar, especially if they were people I did not know. It was difficult to go outside my box and actually contact other people through their blogs but I think I made some valuable connections. I made some friends on Goodreads and discovered a whole world through blogs.

I was already connecting through fan-fiction through the reviews I sent people and discussions I participated in. One thing that was really great was I was able to connect with Jude Mai who allowed me to use part of her story in my eBook chapter to help make my point about fan-fiction being a great source for literary criticism.

Here is a link to my blog about fan-fiction which participates in all three of these outcomes.

Through all of this I think the class and myself fulfilled the outcomes for this class. It was a great semester and I really learned a lot. I am now changed when it comes to doing research. I can no longer think of research as simply going to the library. Research involves much more than that. It involves consumption of all sorts of mediums:blogs, books, forums, Goodreads, discussions, Diigo, articles, and fan-fiction. Research also involves our own creating and connecting to the world around us. If we can't really do that then we haven't really participated in research.