Technology

Learning online can be challenging as you do not have a specific class time that you must attend. You have to be self motivated in order to take a course online. Taking classes in person can be easier in the sense that you have the teacher available to you during class, whereas in an online course you may have to wait to hear back from your instructor about issues.You must be able to perform well in terms of dealing with technology. For instance, if you are not familiar with using a blogging website, this course may be somewhat challenging, as many of our assignments require the use of blogger. The benefit is that I am pretty comfortable with using technology, so I did not really struggle with many technological aspects of this course.Using the online library and databases were beneficial to me as I had no prior experience with them before this course. I am still not one hundred percent comfortable using them, but this course gave me the opportunity to at least become acquainted with databases.I enjoyed using YouTube the most as I like to make videos. It allowed me to use technology that I was already familiar with. I think that I will probably use the online library and databases for courses in the future. There is such a vast wealth of information available using this resource that I am sure I will be visiting the online library numerous times.




By Aerospace Solution (Own work) [<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0">CC-BY-3.0</a>], <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AC-4_Systems.JPG">via Wikimedia Commons</a>

Link to YouTube video on how to make videos:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsuy4cUJe9o

Revision

When I write something (an essay in particular) I like to type fast and get it done quickly. This is my way of getting all the ideas out of my head and not getting stuck in a certain paragraph. This of course usually results in a paper that is mediocre at best; it is at this point that I go back and revise my work. I believe revision is an important aspect of the writing process because it allows us to go back and correct any mistakes that we might have made. In my opinion it is a way of making our work more proper and refined. Revising can also result in the finding of grammatical or spelling errors. Sometimes we may also find that we wrote something that really doesn't belong or sound right, so we can go ahead and get a second chance to correct our mistake. We may also find that what we wrote sounds "weak," meaning it is what we want to say about the topic but we can actually make it sound better by rephrasing it. I will admit that I am not the greatest writer but if wasn't because of revision I would probably not even be passing the course. In essay #3 I checked for grammar and spelling errors, and also tried to make sure that my sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly, make sense, and prove my point.

Here is a link to an article on revision from the UNC College of Arts & Sciences: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/revising-drafts/

Visual: YouTube Video on revision:

Tentative Thesis Paragraph

“White Noise” by Don DeLillo is a postmodern novel told by a man named Jack Gladney.  Jack is a professor at College on the Hill and is married to Babette.  He is a professor of Hitler studies and has four stepchildren; Heinrich, Denise, Steffie and Wilder. The novel shows a year in the life of him and his family and centers around the fear of death and dying. DeLillo writes in a circular manner, as the novel always ends up going back to someone’s fear of death and the unknown. Death is shown throughout the novel, as it is always lurking in the background waiting to strike. Each character deals with and thinks about death differently. Jack is absolutely terrified about his own death and the death of others around him, Babette avoids any mention of it, Heinrich is very logical in terms of death, and Murray is fascinated by it and tends to see it everywhere. One of the themes or motifs of “White Noise” is the fear of death and dying; this relates to the purpose of the novel as DeLillo is trying to show that while one can be afraid and try to hide from death, we all eventually die alone. 
Visual:
 Attribution: By Thousand Robots Thousandrobots (talk). [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Here is a link to a YouTube video of Delillo: http://youtu.be/1Vdpd8A5sTg