As we close the semester I have a few thoughts on the course and how I've changed because of it which I think will help Bud in future semesters. First, with regards to blogging, this course may be the only one I've ever taken at Michigan where I got to hear relatively frequently about something, anything from everyone in my course. Normally you have a few students who make a lot of points, but many who you don't get to know at all. Beyond making me more informed about others, it was kind of fun to see when people were thinking about what...just kind of made BIT 320 a part of life whereever and whenever. I found myself checking blog posts when I was bored, because I definitely agree that it is more fun to read stuff that is written by people you know, and blogs are short enough to hold your interest. As far as the value of it for class, I think it did encourage people to communicate common issues that they were having, but the inter-student communication was very weak. Often it felt like a simple email to the professor would have really done the job instead of posting and waiting for a response, because most people want to hear from the prof anyway, even if someone else responds. Maybe in the future, people should receive credit for responding well to others. With the projects I think everyone wanted to blog about what they were doing, but at the same time not give away a competitive edge because of it. It might have been better to say "the projects will be graded based partially on who got something to work first and wrote about it instead of just who got it to work in the end."
Beyond blogging I think this class was valuable from the perspective that you really learn something you can't pick up in the Wall Street Journal, or even on your own very easily. Some courses seem to be glorified discussions of business week articles and don't seem to have much practical value unless a student happens to be a CFO, CIO, etc. Meanwhile, students of this course may actually be doing some of this, or at least communicating that this is what needs to be done, in the future, and will have some understanding of a fairly advanced technology that is used in business all the time. Also, interestingly, it's not really until the very end that I felt like I really 'got it' and I'm sure as you become more advanced you continue to have those revelations. The first day discussion about what XML is and what databases do seemed so nebulous and abstract versus feeling like we were doing so much good for an organization by the end using those exact concepts. As with my other CIS programming course, I feel a sense of pride leaving that I don't seem to feel with other courses where you memorize several texts for an exam and walk out wondering when you'll forget it all. I feel like we all accomplished something that will be with us indefinitely.
Now, before I get all teary eyed, I'll sign off, but I wish everyone the best and enjoyed working with all of you.
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