The light bulb moment

I like to call this blog the light bulb moment because it was the first time I felt comfortable and relaxed to write this blog relating to CMC. First of all I have been writing my blogs as assigned from day one of class, I haven't missed an assignment but still didn't feel connected to the class. We even had a weeks worth of online discussion for class, I just couldn't figure out what I could possibly be doing wrong or did I miss something in class that I wasn't on the same page as the rest of the class. No, I was there I just couldn't figure out how Computer Mediated Communication had anything to do with me.

I had been blogging since I've opened this account, but before this class I never knew nothing about a blog and then relate it to CMC. OK the other blogs weren't horrible, but it was frustrating trying to figure out this foreign way of communication and for me I love communicating. So, here we are week 10 and I'm reading other classmates responses when 'BAM' the light bulb comes on, this relates way too much about me and my family. Just because I am not communicating as much on the computer doesn't mean I'm not communicating at all it just means I'm a little behind the rest. I am now figuring out little short cuts that are helping out my very full and complex life, it has gained me now 45 minutes on completion time.

I enjoyed writing my last response to our online discussion on virtual worlds and Second Life, and how people use them for community and community building more than traditional ways. I realized that I may not have been the one on the computer but I have spent plenty of times by the side of my husband who was fully engaged in online communities. He also used the computer to communicate to many people at once. When I checked my response to see if anyone responded, to my surprise there were four. I had always wrote about feeling a sense of belonging and how feedback and responses make people feel like a community. I just never expected to be the one who didn't feel like I was part of the class community, until I finally after 10 weeks of class I got a response.

I hope to have further responses especially to my weekly blogs, but it could be just a click of a button I could be missing.