d) playing well with others

None of the posts I commented on had only my comment - I think the class as a whole chose the posts that they found the most interesting. At least with the blogs I saw, the vast majority of comments were linked to the "extra" posts that students did (not specifically assigned posts). It was the same for my own blog - if you're reading this you can check it out right now - I had a number of comments on the post I wrote about a news article I noticed online and its relation to computer mediated communication. I think the reason for this might just be that these extra things we blog about are the things we find most interesting, and thus others can assume that we are more passionate about the subject (and therefore more entertaining to read).

I commented on three different blogs, in addition to responding to comments on my own. I pretty much randomly chose names from the class to comment on - I didn't just want to comment on people I knew, so I just picked random sites from the CICADA page. I would say that overall it isn't the best method of communicating within a class setting, mostly just because of the fact that you have to navigate between pages, there isn't one site that everyone communicates on. It would be more efficient to have a home base (like CICADA) and then everyone gets a page that has a link from that original source. That way it's just simpler to get from page to page.

Just from personal experience I'm not a huge fan of blogs, simply because I don't have the stamina to keep up with any (including my own). I think it's not a bad tool to use for the purpose of writing about a class or something like that - it's kind of a nice, slightly more personal way of online work submission. It's a good way for a professor to keep up with his or her students, and to see all of their work in one chronological location. Otherwise... ha... as you can tell I'm not the biggest fan.


5. What are the advantages/disadvantages of this method of communication?