Tag: LRNT 522

Reflections on copyright

Melanie Wrobel’s presentation on copyright was an informative discussion that shed some light on legal grey areas for me. Of particular interest was the discussion relating to blog posts from this course. I had, incorrectly as it turns out, assumed that “if you cite its alright”. It seems that is not necessarily the case, and use of more than a small percentage of an author’s work requires you to seek permission. I don’t expect I will ever need to post more than a few lines at any one given time, but it is good to know the reality of the situation.

Thesis publication, which seems light years away, seems to have a lot of headaches attached to it and I must confess, I am not looking forward to the process if I decide to go the research route especially. In this journey, I am thankful that people like Melanie Wrobel exist to help navigate the murky waters of publication and copyright!

Reflections on Academic Writing

After being out of the higher learning sphere for nearly a decade, it did take a bit of time to hit my stride as an academic writer. It is probably more accurate to say that I have not yet hit it, but am stumbling toward the straight direct line that such writing requires. In my writing for LRNT 521, I had a tendency to wax poetic in my blog posts, and be more philosophical in my writing. I suppose I had hoped to distil some profound understanding of the world of e-learning networks that no one had ever considered in quite the same way I had. Ultimately, I discovered, I was mostly rambling along the same lines as everyone else. It is hard to be original. It is more difficult still to be a quality content creator. I found the feedback from my various cohort members and my instructor for LRNT 521, Elizabeth Childs, to be especially helpful and encouraging in the development of my writing. My cohorts because of their complimentary comments on my blog posts, and Elizabeth because of her pointed critique of my academic assignments that both pointed out strengths and highlighted areas for growth in a way that made complete sense, and I hope from assignment 3 to 1, made for slight improvements to some aspects of my writing. Writing is a journey, and in just nine weeks I honestly do feel like I have come a long way. Continue reading Reflections on Academic Writing