Ruminating about graduate school has caused me to reflect on a lot of things in my life. Some of those things I have wanted to share, so I started a separate blog about it. The journey has been eye opening and I am grateful I am here, even though there have been some bumpy spots along the way.
COML 509 is definitely the class that has put me through the ringer thus far. I was looking forward to the class (Social Dynamics of Communication Technology), but I didn't expect anything of what I got in the end. Most of my classes have offered two weeks for reflection and thorough discussion, along with a due date. But that was not so in this class.
Reflecting on the rapidity of our required posts I think to something one of our last authors wrote. In his book Media Unlimited Todd Gitlin writes, "Speed is the workers enemy" (105). The world we live in calls for things instantly and this class called for deep reflection instantly.
Another point of reflection I have had is that of no deadlines. The only deadlines in this class were for our reflection papers and for our first few postings. Everything else was pretty "lax" in when it was due (but it really wasn't). Was Dr. Preble trying to teach us about rapidity and the need for quick response even though there wasn't a set deadline? Naomi S. Baron wrote, "A lot of pressure to compose-and-send seems to be social. As more of the population goes online and as asynchronous e-mail gives way to synchronous instant messaging, interlocutors are literally sitting and waiting for us to reply" (2002).
Now, maybe Dr. Preble wasn't sitting at his computer waiting for our immediate replys, but was he expecting quick replys because we "knew" he was waiting? Were we expected to know that speed was essential? Or was speed more important than taking time to internalize and reflect on the points we were learning?
Everything I have learned over the last eight weeks has given me cause for reflection on how I spend my time with different mediums. I am spending less time on my computer and less time in front of the television watching movies (I don't have cable). Network television is ephimeral and doesn't have anything to offer me in return for my time. The news seems to flow more and more to narrative information rather than fact.
In all of this I have questioned, "What is happening to our minds?", "Do we ever turn off?", "Why don't we teach about critical thinking when our students are young?", "What will become of future generations if we lose rhetorical value and the ability to question?"
I am looking forward to not only my future classes, but a lifetime of learning and study. School doesn't end when you walk across a stage and they put a piece of paper in your hand. We must continually look critically at the world and the technologies that engulf us every day.
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