“Resurgens.”
Latin for “rising again,” it is on the corporate seal of the City of Atlanta. It’s appropriate for the city, which burned virtually to the ground during the Civil War, only to resurge as a vibrant Athens of the South, a center of business, media, commerce, culture and diversity.
SM thought of the word “resurgens” as an appropriate way to bring his Interactive Communications blog full circle. He used the city seal to illustrate his first blog posting, and felt the motto would be appropriate for this one in making a personal assessment of this class.
This semester is only the second for SM in two decades, nearly a quarter century away from the classroom. SM had no idea that during the semester, there would be a challenge of a new job in Atlanta, the struggles of relocation, adapting to a new work and life role, and completing the first year of master’s degree program entirely online.
It’s a lot harder than one imagines.
Blown assignments, struggles with understanding new technology, missed deadlines: this has been the reality of the semester. But SM did reach the desired outcome, a new understanding of working in digital media, and an understanding through this course of the concept of interactive communications, and what it means to all of us.
The modules are easy to understand, and the deadlines are not entirely unreasonable. The video lectures are unique; if this is the way the program will be administered online, SM looks forward to it.
Blogging has been the highlight. Make that the highlight. Once this course is over, SM plans to continue blogging and join a web ring in the Atlanta region, to pass along ideas, thoughts, opinions and commentary to a new audience.
If there was one recommendation for the class, I would suggest a discussion room for those in the course to exchange ideas.
SM is exhausted and looks forward to some down time before the start of summer classes. But one last order of business. He’s working on preparing for today’s final. Time to finish with a surge.