Connecting the Dots

This was an interesting exercise, seeing how not only my writing has changed, but how the content of the blog posts have changed over these first seven weeks of the semester. Re-reading my prior posts, there were definitely some themes that were present throughout multiple posts (or at least themes that should have been evident, based on the prompts). A theme that seemed to reappeared seemed to be costs, and how they mattered in the context of the prompt. Transaction costs were discussed in the organizational change post, and the costs of taking advantage of certain circumstances were present in the opportunism post. On a smaller scale, there was some talk of costs in the Illinibucks context, maybe in more of an opportunity cost format (the next-best alternative to using Illinibucks for a certain function).

For me personally, the connections were clearer after I read your responses to the post. Whether it was me not understanding a concept or connecting the dots the wrong way, I got a better understanding of the purpose of the prompt, and I attempted to make those corrections in my responses. It always helps your understanding when you’re able to get feedback in your work, and I have found that I’ve been able to grasp some of the concepts more easily after reading the replies. Sometimes I left out key aspects of my experiences that would have contributed more to the discussion. Sometimes I didn’t understand a concept correctly or use it in a proper context. Getting feedback on those “errors” allowed me to understand that theme better, as well as build on those corrections for future blog posts. I think the feedback aspect, as well as encouraging students to respond to the feedback, is a very helpful aspect to the blog posts. It allowed me to correct some things from blog to blog.

My process changed slightly after my second blog post (the one that was way too short, not sure what I was doing there). I took more time to take away as much from the prompt as possible. Instead of reading the prompt and immediately putting full sentences together, I found myself taking more notes and dissecting the prompt more thoroughly. This method made the writing easier since I had more information and ideas to work with, rather than trying to create sentences right after reading the prompt. In the first couple blog posts I didn’t really dissect the prompt to the proper extent, and it hindered my writing. Getting as many ideas on paper (or the computer) before actually constructing the post was very beneficial for me as the semester has continued. It prevented me from repeating myself to fill up word space, and since then I haven’t had issues of trying to formulate sentences for the sake of the word count. Really analyzing the prompt, and each sentence within it, opened some doors in my blog-posting abilities relevant to this course.

For the future blog posts, I probably wouldn’t change that much. I think that they’ve done a good job of getting students to at least think about how some of the concepts can be applied. From that point, its on the students to connect the dots between the concepts and their own personal experiences, but in terms of the prompts, I think they’ve done a formidable job provoking thought and application. If I had to change some of the content of the prompt, I would maybe like to see the posts build on each other from week to week. I know sometimes the concepts we are learning are not always connected, but a more progressive building approach would be beneficial, in my opinion. Maybe connecting the blog posts to the excel homework a bit more. However overall, I think that the blog post prompts have done a fine job of provoking some thought.