Reflections and feedback on Blogs

Research Project – Blogs
Your reflections and feedback

Please take the time to answer these questions thoroughly. The responses are both for you to better understand your writing, and for us since this is the first time we’ve used blogs in the classroom.

1. Describe the ways in which knowing your work would be public, able to be read by members of the class and anyone else on the internet, affected your writing.
It was helpful that my work was public because if someone had a comment on one of my blog postings they were able to give me helpful criticism that made my posting better. This affected my writing in making it better and more specific. It was also easier to go back and edit my postings.
2. Describe the process of learning how to create and maintain a blog worked for you. What are some of the particular challenges or successes you had?
In the beginning it was a little bit difficult to understand how to create a blog but after I started playing around with the blog it was easy to maintain and easy to work. I liked working with a blog because it was a totally knew experience for me. I didn’t really have any challenges with the blog which was good.
3. Describe the process of researching, using the various databases and electronic tools available to you. Were you able to successfully navigate them?
The process of researching, using the various databases and electronic tools available to me was fun and it was easy to get information and look back at information that was on my blog because it was all in one place. I was able to successfully navigate these.
4. Describe your work with the final presentation. Do you feel like you were able to fully express your thoughts and ideas? Were there things you wanted to do but couldn’t because of the software? Are there other ideas you have for what you would have liked to do?
I liked the final presentation because it was like an over view of all the ideas and thoughts I had on my project. I felt like I was able to fully express my ideas and thoughts because everything that I wanted to use did not interfere with the software. I do not have other ideas of what I would have liked to do for the final presentation and I actually really enjoyed the final presentation because we were able to structure it any way that we wanted to.
5. How would you describe the connection between what you learned during these past three weeks and the ways you were asked to read, write, and present about it? In what ways was this more effective or more challenging or otherwise different from or similar to the ways we usually work in this class?
It was a good connection between these two things because it was easy to find information and it was nice that I only needed the internet to fulfill my blog. I liked doing this was with reading something then writing about it then presenting about it better because it was something different. This way is more effective because it was way easier to look at other peoples work and learn more than I think we would have in class. Something that was challenging was that sometimes the internet ran slowly and it was hard to post some things.
6. Do you feel like you received adequate assistance during the process? Were the different steps explained to you? Did you receive help and guidance that helped you to be successful?
Yes, I felt like I received adequate assistance during this process because whenever I had a problem with something, I could just go on the class blog and their were instructions on what to do which was nice and the instructions were always very specific and not confusing at all. Yes, I did receive help and guidance that helped me be successful.
7. What else should we know about this process for you? Is this the kind of thing you want to do more of during class? What ideas do you have for how to use blogs in our class in the future? Do you plan on maintaining your blog?
I liked this process and it was something different and something I have never done before. Also, I feel like it helps us more in the “real world” because it’s something that we might have to do again. It’s something I would like to do again. Some new ideas for using blogs in the future are that we could maybe use this blogging idea for a book we read in class. I might maintain my blog if I have the time to do so.

Third response to Danielles Blog

The last blog that I looked at Danielle's Blog. Her topic was religion. I liked the way she introduced her topic on her slide show. In the begininning of her slide show, it talks about how the United States of America is one of the most religiously diverse countries throughout the world. She says in the introduction of her slide show that United States is dealing with the challenge that people are entitled to their own beliefs, yet those same people are not willing to accept the choices and beliefs of others. There is a difficult and necessary goal that American's need to work towards: Religious Tolerance. Then the next slide talks about how Americas independence was motivated by religious freedom. This was interesting to read about because its cool to connect back on how America does try to be as free as they can. On the next slide, there was a pie chart that showed all the different religions in the United States and had a controdiction between people that believed in Religion and people who were atheist. In general, both of the ideas make sense. It was interesting to see how many people were catholic and buddist and muslim and jewish in the United States and it shows how much diversity the United States has. There was a picture that was interesting on Danielles Blog with a quote. The quote said, " Religios freedom means any religion". I found this quote to be interesting because it made me think that this quote was trying to say that there will only be religious feedom if people accept the other religions around the world. There was a youtube video that I found interesting on Danielles blog. It talked about Coexist which I've heard about before but, ever really learned and knew what it was. Coexist is when People are making more conscious efforts to coexist with one another, and learn to tolerate other religions that do not necessarily agree with their own ideas. This was interseting to watch a youtube video on and interseting to see what the coexist was because I always wondered about it. Overall, it was interesting to see how Danielles blog talked about the differences between atheists and people who believe in religion.

Second Response to Thoughts of Kolis

The next blog that I looked at was Thoughts of Kolis. I never really knew anything about his topic and his topic was about how an artist affects a listener by not only by their music but also on the actions that they portray and that this could influence the listener. He talked about the history of hip hop and it really intersted in reading about it. In his slide show he talked about how in the 1970's hip hop was credited with reducing violence and giving an alternative to violence but then his slide show said that all that changed in the 1990's hip hop emerged which was centered around violence and drugs.With this new form of hip hop, the connection between rap and violence emerged. I find this very interesting and I never knew that there were two types of hip hops and its intersting to see why and how hip hop changed. In one of the youtube videos that were shown on the slide show, it talked about how having a gun shows a sign of masculinity and this was influenced from the rap that artists rap. This shows a negative influence on rap because it could create people to be violent. He then had a slide about black celebrities like Oprah and Russel Simmons and how they think its best to change the lyrics to their music which is a conteversial concept because people may believe that by changing the lyrics to their music there will be a postive influence to the society. The artists then responded to this idea and they said that their cds would not sell because their idea and image is a ganster and people like that. I found this to be very interesting to read about and I never really thought about how Rap does have an influence on violence. Also it was intersting to see rappers that dont base their ideas on just violence like Lupe Fiasco which I thought was good. Also he brought up the focus and topic that music isnt the only issue He brings up the point and says that the problem is also our society and how we live. Music isn't the only thing that is violent in our society, so are movies and television shows.

First Response to Thoughts of Yesturday

The first blog that I looked at was Thoughts of Yesterday. This persons topic was about Gays and Lesbians which connects to my topic because I had the same one. I wanted to look at what another person focused their ideas on and learn even more about Gays and Lesbians that I did not know before. I first looked at the slide show that was posted on this blog. I first looked at the slide show and the first youtube video really caught my attention. There was a picture of a church that this guy painted and on the painting it said "I hate my parents for raising me into a religion that taught me to hate myself". This was sad to read and it was interesting to look at how Gays and Lesbians were also discriminated against their religion also. When I researched about Gays and Lesbians, I didnt really focus on the religion part of it which was a new topic for me to learn about in Thoughts of Yesturday. Also in a youtube video, there was a paiting of a person sitting and there was a quote on the picture that said, "I once left a 50% tip because the server treated my partner and I like we were human". I found this to be sad because people dont treat people like humans based on their sexuality which is sad. I focused on this idea also of discriminating against Gays so it was nice to see that Thoughts on Yesturday encorporated that idea. Thoughts on Yesturday also talked about the Stonewall riots which I had read about but something different that she did was include a youtube video on the Stonewall riots and I learned even more information about the Stonewall Riots which i found was helpful. Something that i learned more about was the Day of Silence which I found really interesting because I did not write about that at all and i learned a little bit about that too on Thoughts on Yesturday. When I was reading the current event portion of Thoughts on Yesturday, she talked about Lambert’s performance and how it was such a controversal topic. Thoughts on Yesturday talks about how it brought up so much controversy was that it was a representation of homosexuality. When I was reading this it was very interesting and it was something I never talked about in my blog so it was good to see where another person took the topic of "Gays and Lesbians" in a different way.

Works Cited Page

American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010.

American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

"Barney Frank." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Beatrix Kiddo. “U.S. Government Reconsiders Dont ask Dont tell policy for the military .” lifestyle.com. 2/2/10. 2/2/10. .

Craig Whitlock and Michael D. Shear. “Military scaling back 'dont ask dont tell.” WashingtonPost.2/2/10. Web. 2/3/10. .

Ellen Howard. Am I Blue?. New York, 1999.

Mark Thompson. “Dont ask, Dont tell turns 15.” Time.com. 1/28/08. 2/4/10. .

McFadden, David. "Gays Live--and Die--in Fear in Jamaica." Miami Herald (Miami, FL) 20 Jul 2009: n.p. SIRS Researcher. Web. 02 February 2010

Michel Martin. “Future of 'Dont ask,Dont tell' policy.” npr.org. , 2/3/10. 2/4/10. .

Stonewall riots." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE IMAGES

Current Event of Analitical Study for Gays and Lesbians

The approach of the situation that was researched for a current event was the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy which prohibits Gays and Lesbians that want to serve in the army are allowed to, if they do not tell people that they are gay or lesbian. But, if someone finds out that they are, they are kicked out of the military immediately. The two obvious different perspectives were people that agreed with this policy and people that disagreed with this policy.
First off, the background of this policy came in 1993 from Clinton while he was serving as president. In the article, “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” turns 15, it says, “It was 15 years ago, Tuesday, that President Clinton rolled out the policy that came to be known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which relaxed the long-standing bar against gay men and women serving in the U.S. military. While the move was initially hailed as progress for the rights of gays in the military”. This describes what the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy was made for because before 1993, Gays and Lesbians did not have the right to serve in the military. "Don’t ask, Don’t tell" policy is that about 12,000 service members have been booted from the military since the law took effect, including dozens of Arabic speakers whose skills are particularly prized by the military since the advent of the war on terror. This shows that because people talk and tell about their sexual orientation, they get kicked out of the military. Now in current events, they talk about if this law should be changed or not. The agreeing view side that agrees that the law should be changed for this subject says that by kicking someone out, based on their sexual preference, it is wrong and unjust. The opposing side that thinks that this law should not be changed thinks that if this law is changed, things in the army will get out of control.
Starting off with the opposing view side of this issue, in the article, it talks about this women that is named Ms. Elaine Donnelly (President, Center For Military Readiness) she thinks that changing the current policy would hurt the morale of the troops so, she strongly disagrees with changing the law. She says that if this law changes, soldiers will not re-enlist if the law is repealed. She also talks about how this is not a religious issue and she thinks that it’s very rational and not prejudice to have the "Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy. Ms. Donelly says, 'The weakest argument going, because of racial separation and prejudice was irrational and it still is. The military took it on head-on because it was irrational and we needed those good soldiers who are already in the military; they just had to attack the prejudice. However, separation of men and women in the military, in areas involving sexual privacy is not only rational; it is desirable and certainly customary in the civilian world as well as the military. The two cannot be equated. They are not the same".
With the agreeing view point of this issue, the article named U.S. Government reconsiders “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy for the military. This article talked about how Obama wants to change the law of "Don’t ask, Don’t tell" policy and they want to change this law because many people are losing their job to serve in the army so in this article, the view point is on the side where they agree with changing the "Don’t ask, Don’t tell" Policy. The author of the article says, “There is a school of thought which believes should the United States military allow its homosexual members to serve openly it will somehow deteriorate the long standing moral fibers of the organization. I have a hard time with this logic and I have had discussions with various service members regarding the moral codes of the United States military and they are so grossly outdated I don't know if anyone in this day and age can maintain them. You have a younger generation of soldiers trying to live up to codes set by men who existed in a totally different time, place and society".

Literature for Analytical Part of Gays and Lesbians

The story that was read was called, “Running”, by Ellen Howard. In this story there were many characters but the characters that the story specifically focused on was a lesbian girl named Sheila that was not accepted by her parents and a girl named Terry that is a bit different from others The context of the story is it is about a girl named Terry. Terry is a teenager and she has a best friend named Maggie. Also, she has a sister named Heather. Heather is in college and her parents let to go to Europe. When Heather comes back, she asks her parents if she could bring a friend back with her because her friend is having problems at her house and she got kicked out of her house because of her parents. When the family is at the air port they realize that Heathers friend is a lesbian but, they still accept her into their home. Sheila, Heathers friend, is really sweet and her parents kicked her out of the house because they found of she was a lesbian. This brings up many points to what has been researched and how Lesbians and Gays don’t feel accepted into their community because what they are doing is “wrong”. Continuing on with the context of this short story, Terry is first afraid to get to know Sheila because Terry thinks Sheila is beautiful. Terry finally starts to get to know Sheila and she really starts to like her because she is different and understands her. In the story, Terry gets upset about her best friend not coming to camp with her because she chose her boyfriend and Sheila was there to comfort her. Sheila shows Terry that it’s okay to be upset and that it’s okay to be different. For example, the last lines of this short story were, “And then she shipped through the door, leaving me outside. But the door was open. If I had the courage, I could follow"(101). This quote shows that everyone is different and to really fully understand yourself, a person has to be brave and accept who they really are. In this example, Sheila walked into Terry’s house and Sheila recognized that Terry was also lesbian and if she wanted to, she could follow and accept herself for who she really is. A problem in today’s world is that people that are Gay and Lesbian are afraid to admit it to them because of the way society rejects it. Society in this story rejected it in the way that Sheila’s parents kicked her out of her own house. So sometimes, its hard for people who are lesbian and gay to admit it, because of the negativity the society gives on the topic. The last sentence of this short story was saying that a person should always stick to being himself even if it’s a little different than other people. The perspective that this short story was written in a person that was confused about their sexuality and in the story it showed that it was okay and even sometimes better for someone to be different. This written expression adds to the definition of the theme in the way that its different than most but that in the end, it’s okay to be different. Also, the context of this short story showed that Gay and Lesbians are people with feelings and emotions and that they are not totally different than the "normal" person and that they just are attracted to the same sex. This short story connects to the real world in the way that people still feel this way and sometimes are afraid to be true to themselves. In this society, being Gay and Lesbian is considered as to being strange and weird. So, if a person is Lesbian or Gay which is something they cannot help, they will hide it and feel a sort of emptiness all their life. If this society accepted Gays and Lesbians, people wouldn’t be missing that part of their identity.