Silence in Class (Rant)

Friday's class, in my opinion was a waste of time. Most of the time was spent on Plurk, and the discussions on Plurk were not even relevant to what we have been reading. In most cases I feel that Plurk hinders the class, I know the point of Plurk is so that those that are embarrassed to speak can still share their opinion. But the constant use of it during class, interrupts discussions and distracts from the focus of the class. This is especially the case for Fridays class, the idea to turn class to Plurk instead of an actual vocal discussion distracted us from talking about anything important.

The fact that not everyone had a computer to participate in a Plurk discussion, except from the use of a projection of it and writing on the white board (and then being frantically counted to make sure it did not exceed 140 characters). Many people walked out, which should have been the cue that this may not have been the best idea. The only person I believe truly benefited from this is the student who remained home and was able to participate fully in class through Plurk (I wish I would have stayed home). Although many liked the fact that we only used Plurk, I admit it was interesting to have class for the most part silent, but I walked away that day with nothing to think about except for how we used Plurk instead of talking. I'm not sure what I will do if class continues this way, I am sure that my attention will be a lot harder to keep. I would be forced to bring my computer to class, and that is by far the biggest distraction, the world wide web is just so appealing when class seems to be going no where.

Now that I've ranted about my distaste in how the class went last week, I suppose that I should post a blog on something actually appropriate to the discussions we have been having in previous class. I hope my point was made that the over use of Plurk have wasted time inside of class and outside that could have been spent on things that are related to the class (unless some how this all relates to the focus of the class and I just have no idea how, if so it should be clarified).