Essay: Book Groups

Book Groups:
I think that the discussions we held in our book groups were similar to the discussions in class, but not quite as in depth. The whole time, I got the feeling that everyone was just giving their three posts for the grade and then leaving. With that said, I feel that some of the posts within those three were inspiring original thoughts.
The book we read, Dust, was great. I feel that this book involved many of the concepts covered in the class. Nanobots (of course) were a big part of the book. Alterity existed somewhat in the Angels and the dead souls contained in fruits. Gender issues were covered, but nothing like The Ticket or The Filth. The concept of the small also appeared in a way at the end, when Rien sacrifices herself. A fellow book group-er points out that by giving herself to the small, Rien is really getting bigger. In my mind this is one of the bigger themes of the class, that smaller is actually larger, and I think that carried over well into the discussion board.
As compared to blogging, the discussion board added much more structure and inspiration to my ideas. I loved having feedback on my ideas, as people tended to agree, disagree, or elaborate on the thoughts I gave. This can occur in a similar form with blogging, but no one really took the initiative to comment on another’s blog. I wish I had done so. However, blogging has its own form. While writing a blog, I often just “put the pen to the paper” and let out a semi-coherent stream of consciousness that discusses a particular subject. As opposed to rigorous academic writing, I almost never revised my blog postings, but left them as they originally were created. On the discussion board however, my ideas came out in one coherent statement at a time. They tended to remain concise, and did not ramble as my blogs did. Then, my ideas would receive feedback as I gave feedback to those posted before mine. Whereas a blog is one single stream of consciousness, I really liked the arguments contained in the book group.
Some ideas for book groups in the next nanotext class: I think it would be great to include peer feedback in blogs. Perhaps it could be a requirement for each student to reply to several blogs each week. This could also keep the blogging schedule a little more synchronized. Also, as for the discussion board, Blackboard sucks. It’s a pain in the ass, sometimes it would crash or not let me login. I think there are better forum templates to use that achieve the same objective. Also, it would be great for the book groups to meet more than we did. Our meeting was really unanticipated, and as a result we didn’t really discuss the issues as well as we could have. Mostly, our group discussed the grading system instead of involving the text. Perhaps each book group could schedule three or so meetings throughout the class (and make sure everyone knows when in advance)?
Overall, the book groups did great for the maiden voyage of the class. I think that book selection was excellent and pertinent to the class, and that the book group ran smoothly.