Whew! This class has been interesting to say the very least. It is unconventional, challenging, and awesome all around. This will be my last English class at UF so I suppose I’m in an appropriate situation to shed some light on the structure of the learning screen versus the typical research papers that I’ve encountered in my other classes.
In some ways, the learning screen is a lot like a research paper. For this class, we were required to read four books: Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Graphic Design: The New Basics, How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay, and Joseph Cornell’s Vision of Spiritual Order. And I’m going to admit it: this is probably the first time that I’ve read every single page of my assigned readings. It’s a sad truth but there’s always something that gets in the way – but not this semester! The exams on the books helped to ensure that I was reading the books and that I was fully comprehending them. I think I could compare this to the “research” part of a research section. However, I often feel that in research papers I spend too much of my time summarizing the articles I’ve read, and not enough time analyzing them.
This class is chock full of analysis! And the great part is that it’s all personal and original! I think that there is something about doing most communication via web that is really unbridled. I think it is often the case that people are more willing to let loose and speak more brazenly when they’re speaking to a computer screen instead of a room full of judgy, posturing peers – not to say that is a description of anyone in this class. On the contrary, I have undoubtedly gotten to know my classmates better through the learning screen than I ever do in a classroom.
I think the other benefit of the learning screen is that it is a compilation of knowledge over a larger span of time that the typical research paper. Also, it allows you to incorporate your own interests with those covered in the course material. Overall, I think I have learned much more from doing this learning screen than I have from any of my other English classes!
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