Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Laura Kee and I am 21 years old. I am currently a senior at Marshall University majoring in Communication Disorders. This weblog was created for the college class CD 315. The major portion of this class was to create a Multigenre Research Project. I invite you to take a look around. I would love to hear your thoughts about this project. Enjoy!

When this class began, I decided that I would strive to complete each week’s assignments in that given week even though we are given two weeks to do so. As I have said before, I am a born procrastinator, but I’m trying to change that. Therefore, my goal for this class, as a whole, is to discipline myself. This week, I set a goal to finish all of the assignments by Thursday evening so that I wouldn’t have to spend time on assignments while visiting my family and friends for the weekend. While I did not completely achieve this goal, I am still proud of myself. I have completed all of the assignments except for one. Failing to accomplish a goal within a certain allotted time frame is not necessarily something to get upset about. I realize that I can’t change over night, but I am taking steps toward my ultimate goal of being the most disciplined student that I can be. I feel that I’ve been quite successful so far. I’ve found that I haven’t stressed over any of the assignments, as I sometimes tend to do. I think that this is because instead of having the added stress of an upcoming deadline, I am free to fully think about the assignments from several angles without the added distraction. I think that this is the reason I have learned so much in the past two weeks.

This week’s assignments focused on learning more about different types of internet services and discovering what types of learners we are. I read several articles about email and surprisingly learned that there was much information to be learned about this topic. I couldn’t believe how much information there was to know about email. This was very informative and helpful. I also enjoyed reading about hoaxes. While I tend to delete this type of email before reading it, this information was beneficial. Other topics that I read about this past week included mailing lists, acronyms, and the World Wide Web. Most of the information about the World Wide Web was new to me. This definitely helped to better understand the way everything works. The visual aids used in some of these articles were very helpful. I attempted to find people using the people search sites, which was somewhat frustrating after failing several times to find my friend. However, it was worth the learning experience. This past week, I also learned how to subscribe and unsubscribe to a mailing list. We met at the Moo on Tuesday for our regular class meeting. We addressed how the media portrays communication disorders and SLPs, and therefore what the general public knows about these topics. The general consensus was that the general public knows very little about communication disorders and the SLP profession, and that there seem to be some misconceptions regarding these areas.

After reading the assigned articles, I attempted to better organize my favorites list. I have always used my favorites list, but I must admit, it wasn’t organized at all. I had things on there that that I haven’t used in months. Now, I have deleted all unneeded information, and have organized everything else into categorical folders. This looks much neater and makes finding everything much quicker and easier. I also answered a few prompts this week. I really enjoyed writing about my personal history. Reflecting upon what it was that made me choose this profession made me realize all of the reasons I know that this is the right profession for me. It’s a great feeling to know that I am doing what I want to do and am going to be happy with my career. Responding to the prompt about personal values took me on a nice trip down memory lane. It makes me smile to sit and think of all of the people in my life that have cared about me and helped me to succeed. Sometimes I forget about who and what experiences got me to where I am today. This prompt helped me to realize how important an education is and how it has played a major role in getting me to this place in my life. Responding to the prompt about learning futures actually took me the longest. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it took me three hours to complete this assignment. Those three hours just flew by! I enjoyed writing about this topic and feel that I actually learned a lot from it. I guess that’s why I lost track of time. Reflecting about the benefits of research and the ways in which I learn led me to understand that it is my responsibility to fulfill my maximum potential.

I have learned a lot about myself this week. I rediscovered the reasons that I want to be an SLP, explored the root of my educational values that got me to this point, and realized the ways in which I best learn. I’ve also learned about the person that I want to become and how to become that person. It seems that learning about myself is somewhat of a prerequisite to learning about how to become an independent thinker (researcher). I must learn what works best for me in terms of what my education needs are and how I can best fulfill those educational needs. I feel that, with each assignment, I am building upon the previous assignment. It’s like I’m taking steps toward an unknown goal. I know that, as far as this class is concerned, I’m taking steps toward the final project, but it seems like so much more than that. I feel as though what I am learning now is going to affect me at many different levels. Not only have I learned what it means to be information literate, I’ve learned how to research, the importance of research, the effects that research has on professional and educational development, the reasoning behind reflection, how reflection aids in the learning process, and the ways my attitudes and understandings have been shaped as a result of all of this. Some of these areas may not have been a specific goal of any one assignment, but the process of completing these assignments directed me toward these realizations.

I only have one question at the moment. Like a few other people, I too have been wondering about the discuss option at the end of each response to the prompts. May we use this option to respond to peer responses, or should we post these comments on the group list?