Alex's Thanks and Learnings

As you read this, I am not actually at the computer. In fact I am in Chicago right now, at a conference, and thus unable to join you all for the last few days of class. (I hope that you're being nice to Joanne while I am gone!)

Be assured though that I will be reading your reflections once I am back this week. Every one of you in this class has been a pleasure to spend time with, and each of you has brought some great learning and experience to the table. This class was meant to help you to explore the vast realm of Social Media, and through exploration to gain familiarity and understanding of how this landscape of tools can profoundly change the way we communicate with each other.

Even so, I have to admit that Joanne and I have learned almost as much from you as you likely have from us. Discussing this point, we decided that before this class was out, we would thank you for the experience and share what we took away from the class. This post contains my thoughts; Joanne will be posting hers as well.

The biggest thing that I think I have learned from our short time together is just how quickly these mediums can be learned. It was very amusing and heartening to see many of you shift your viewpoints to ones similar to our own, not because we prodded you to these conclusions, but because you "thought your way there."

Another point that came home to me is that, even to someone who is as steeped in Social Media as I, there are huge aspects of this field that are as yet unfamiliar to me. It seems that any given hour researching some Social Media tool or platform leads to yet another new one I had not heard of, or yet another new way of using them.

As we draw to a close, again, I want to thank each and every one of you for the pleasure of being part of our class, and any of you who wish to stay in touch, you know how to do so! (And on a side note, although the class is ending, Social Media is endlessly fascinating to me, and we barely scratched the surface of many topics, so feel free to drop me a message if you want to continue the conversations we have begun.)

Lastly I want to make one "plug:" the Communication Studies department here at Marylhurst has both a facebook page and a new blog called Conversations. I invite you all to become a fan, and subscribe to the blog.