Blog Post 1

There are many different types of texts from formal doctorate papers to people’s personal ideas on the internet.  However, all texts have meaning and value.  They portray the surrounding culture and the way people think, they also share ideas of how various aspects of life should work.  For example, while a scholarly paper can explain how certain portions of the brain send messages to the body, a post on Facebook can spread the word about a terminal brain disease that needs a cure.  Both of these texts are very different, but both are equally as important.  The different mediums of writing allow nearly everyone to have and express a different opinion or concern that can move society forward.  While many shorter texts are simple and clear in their message larger texts can have stories and writing devices that can distract from the purpose of the text.  The ability to summarize larger bodies of work, creates a deeper understanding of the text by the reader.  If the reader is able to summarize a work in a very concise and accurate way, the overall understanding of the text will be greater.  This allows the reader to analyze and comment on the effectiveness of the text in a way that enhances the understanding of others as well.  A strong understanding of other writing allows the reader to be able to write and think critically about many other writings as well as situations.  As a writer thinking critically means playing the devil’s advocate in order see flaws or holes in their writing and contesting these flaws with sound evidence and reason.  In everyday life it means never taking anything people say at face value, and if the person is wrong or disagrees, replying in an educated way.  Overall thinking critically is essential to being an educated and productive member of society.   

Todd Gilman is a librarian as well as an online professor for multiple schools.  Gilman begins by recalling a few interactions that he has had with “face to face” professors, where they expressed a lack of respect and understanding for online education.  He seems to think that the lack of understanding comes from a general lack of respect from colleges.  The difficulty with online education stems from the need for there to be hard work from both the instructor as well as the students in the class, and if either is lacking the education quality is less than ideal.  Students must be engaged and responsible and so do the instructors.  Online classes also must be very organized as announcements can easily be overlooked by students.  Gilman lays out two requirements for online courses: undergraduate classes must be taught differently than graduate level courses, and students must have a higher level of maturity than in more traditional classrooms.  Additionally, the software used for the course must be as user friendly as possible.  Gilman concludes by saying that teachers must be as readily available to the students as possible, and as easy to contact as possible by many different mediums.