Pleasure or Pain?

Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back on my time throughout HTM 491, I have come to realize that blogging was actually extremely beneficial. During the time of actually completing the blogs, I felt like I was just doing them to complete them. But now, I can look back and realize I have actually gained new knowledge from these assignments. At times the blogs were very tedious, but when I try to think of another format that could provide the same level of freedom from creativity, yet the same level of education, nothing comes to mind.

If I am to take away any one lesson in particular, it is that these blogs not only showed me the kind of leader I want to be, but the kind of leaders that are effective and want to work for in the future. Whenever I am at work now, I compared each individual manager, server, food runner, etc. to all the different types of leadership theories we learned about. While some people are the same, it is intriguing to witness a variety of different styles in one work environment. We talked about the concepts of asking not telling, passive aggressiveness, and the desire to educate your peers/subordinates to become better than you (the leader) are. I picked these few concepts because there is a particular individual I work with because she utilizes the first two concepts, and forgets about the third. She creates a very difficult work environment that nobody wants to be a part of – thus why I know I cannot and will not be a leader of that type.

Pros:

1. Creative – gives the writer the opportunity to explore different topics and express him or herself how they interpret the topics in the classroom setting and work environment.

2. Freedom – there is no one-way to create the blog. It gives you full creative freedom to add pictures, videos, adjust layouts, etc.

3. Learning – forces the students to use their brain to think and process the week’s teachings. By asking the students to complete the blogs, reinforces everything we learned rather than allowing learn & purge.

Cons:

1. Time – in the grand scheme of all the work to be completed in the week, these are typically the last things a student wants to do. They tend to be tedious and time consuming.