I think these blog assignments were helpful in learning management. It didn’t really help me learn the specifics of the subject - the books helped me with that – it helped me see what other people thought about the topics we discussed. Given that management is primarily about interacting with other people, seeing what people have to say about the various aspects of management was definitely a plus. There have been multiple instances when I have talked to my classmates and the things we wrote about in our blogs have come up. When we do talk about our blog assignments, we end up adding on our thoughts and elaborate what we think about the topic. I found that very helpful not only in understanding the topic at hand, but also in communicating with my classmates.
The reflections on the class activities were especially helpful. I’m sure everyone will agree that the class activities were different and fun. It is so different from how we are taught in our other classes and because of that it becomes something we share with people outside of our class and even outside of our college. Having done the reflections, talking about the activities becomes easier. Throughout the semester, I found myself describing these activities to my friends outside of school and what I had written in my blog often became the base of my explanation. It was something I could refer back to when explaining certain things. In that way, it was more cohesive than just repeating the activities in a procedural manner. When explaining to my friends, I often found that I understood more of the concept at hand; I was put in a position where I had to think about the core concepts in simpler terms which could be understood by anyone not attending our class.
Before this class, I was a skeptic when it came to blogging. I am definitely not a “convert” after this class, but I can say that my views about blogging have changed. Now, I see blogs as a useful tool. I am considering using this tool for the various programming/web projects that I do on the side. Given how these blog posts have organized my thoughts for management, I think it will be a good idea to use blogs as an aide to get my projects a bit more organized.
