The semester is winding down at Grand Valley State University, and it’s a good time for a little reflection on my blogging experience so far this year:

I’ve never been much of blogger in the past. I’d had a few other blogging assignments in other classes, but that’s exactly how I treated them–as assignments. I truly enjoyed this blogging experience, or perhaps I should say that I am enjoying it, because I don’t plan on stopping this blog. In semesters past, I’d research a topic, write up something that sounded nothing like a blog entry in a word document, and copy and paste it into some blackboard “gated community” type website for my professor to read and grade. That’s not blogging. That’s just turning in something online. So lame.

This experience taught me that a blog entry is a genre all its own; that is to say, there are rules. Even as I read through my posts I can see the gradual change in my “blogging voice” over time. Having the freedom to loosen my academic necktie in writing for this blog has been a pretty liberating experience. There’s still a lot I want to learn how to do on this blog, though, for example, how the heck do I embed a video into a post? I tried a number of times and I couldn’t get it to work right.

I’d like to give my sincere thanks to bloggers like Sara Bennett, for all the great information you’ve shared, and lastly, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has made thoughtful comments on my blog, and I look forward to continuing to share ideas with you all in the future.