Blog #1

Part 1:

               As we move farther into the semester summarizing larger bodies of work will be beneficial to us as we continue to advance our comprehensive skills. This will help us because as documents (whether they be in Ethnics of Higher Education or other articles) become increasingly harder and longer. This will help our understanding of the text due the fact that we will be spending more time on the piece. In turn the higher level of difficulty will make us stronger readers and writers for the future. As of right now I am in the process of becoming a civil engineer here at Colorado State University. Although this major is very math driven career path I think critical writings skills will be beneficial in time. For example, besides the math involved in engineering very strong communication skills are required for being a trusted person, that companies would like to partner with for their next project. A good, well worded E-mail to a company can prove one’s professionalism and level of skill for the job at hand. I believe that learning to think and write critically will help me immensely in the future. As of right now though I have enjoyed the different ways we have viewed texts. Such as these blog posts, tweets and certain articles we have read. I am a very visual and adaptive leaner I like to see feedback and well-constructed arguments in readings, and believe is very prevalent in our classroom material. For example, when we do our group discussions as small groups and as a class, I believe are very powerful and engaging. Also the use of visual aid when leaning is a big game changer as well, like the source sandwich and the rhetorical triangle in circle thing.

Part 2:

               The article that I have chosen for our P1 assignment will be Combating Myths about Distance Education by Todd Gilman. I have chosen this article because I too am in an online class enrolled here at Colorado State University. It is a multiple math course spanning the course of this semester. In this article Gilman explains the importance of online college courses and how it has been viewed wrongly in today’s society. For example, Gilman is a very prestigious Yale librarian that also teaches online courses. Gilman has been mocked for being, quote not a real professor due to the fact that his courses aren’t taught in a traditional classroom. “You’re not a real college teacher, are you? If you were, you’d be interacting with students in a brick-and-mortar classroom like I do” (Gilman 100). Gilman has received a lot of bad press like this due to investigation of certain online courses. Later in the article Gilman also explains how to be a professional and well organized online instructor. For example, near the end of his article Gilman uses a good software tool and course management that can mean all the difference as stated here. “Another feature of quality online courses-both undergraduate and graduate-is good course-management software that instructors use to design highly functional, easy-to-navigate virtual classrooms” (Gilman 104). With the instruction of a well-received online instructor like Gilman, Gilman believes that it will give the online courses a second chance.