Personal Reflection
When I first heard of the 'blogging' assignment for our ISU in English, I was pretty freaked out, as I knew nothing about blogging. I thought for sure that this would be the top reason for not doing so well in English, but that was not that case at all. After doing the first journal postings, I realized that I was not only talking to just the teacher, but fellow students and also pretty much anyone who randomly searches through blogs. This gave me more of a reason to put as much information as possible into my blogs as someone else may actually take what I have to say into consideration instead of just having a writing assignment handed back to me, the teacher being the only one who read my opinion. Blogging just seems to me, like there is more of a point in doing the work assigned and I feel that I did a better job on the blogs than I probably would have done if the assignment was to be handed into the teacher on a piece of paper, only for him to read. Therefore academically, I feel that writing the blogs has made me expand my knowledge on many things. For example, researching for valuable information and trying to may key connections. This is something that I never paid much attention to before, but I realized with making the blogs that the key connections I made, really helped me to understand the book more.
I believed that intellectually I have grown, as I am now asking myself questions to try to expand my answers and make connections. In the end, I feel that this blogging assignment has helped me intellectually, as I think of topics on a broader scale and overall think more creatively. I also believe that this ISU has made me a stronger writer in certain aspects as I am now able to write more without having to stop and think about what to write about. As for my understanding of Canadian identity altering my reading, I think that I will now give Canadian authors a chance instead brushing them off because I know the myth that "Canadians don't write good books" is a false one. As a learner, I have come to understand that I work better and try harder if there is a purpose to the work that I am doing. In this case, I tried harder and was able to work better because I knew that my writing and my opinions were going to be seen and heard by more than just one person. I can actually get my opinion out to the whole world on this little blog. Overall, I enjoyed this ISU, as I think it did expand my learning and helped me with my writing skills, although I did have some trouble with trying to find my way around the site at first!