My reflections on the last few days...
On Friday, I chose to spend my time in the profile section. It was great to read everyone's posts. I think I got carried away and responded to many of them. I guess I got excited about 'meeting' everyone and starting to get a sense that there really was a community of interesting people that were excited about the prospect of working and interacting with one another. This was a great experience as it increased my enthusiasm about the course. I posted my bio and anxiously awaited replies from people.

Today, I spent my day in my new classroom (Panera Bread). I enjoyed lunch, coffee, and my coursework. I must say that the interactive component of the forums is crucial to the process. I really find myself looking out there for new responses, emails from classmates, and the back and forth discussion within the forum. It certainly helps to diminish the isolation / lonliness that could come form taking an online course.

I read three of the articles and wrote my responses in the forum. I struggled a bit with the directions regarding playing devil's advocate and arguing for something that I don't agree with. It felt counter-intuitive. It seems like it would have made more sense to argue against the point made by the author. At the same time, I completely understand the educational value of the assignment as it was given. It was a healthy challenge to get over how I thought the assignment should be compared to what the assignment was.

Now I am done for the day - I put in many hours today. I need to find time over the next few days to respond to posts from my classmates - arguing their point if I understand correctly. I believe I have one more forum to post in (about blogs) and then I am done for the week. I feel as though I am a part of the class and I really enjoy the people in the class. I feel great about this course and the overall program!