Final Presentation

 

Here is a video I made to show the importance of commas from our lesson in week 11. Hope you enjoy.

Technology

 

Online learning this semester has been a great experience. The way this course is designed is significantly different than a traditional in class course. The major difference with online learning compared to in person learning is that nearly everything is virtual. If a student wants to ask a teacher a question or have the teacher check a paper, it is done via the internet rather than in person. For many students this can be particularly challenging. I happened to be fortunate enough to have done much of my high school learning through online classes, so this transition was not terribly difficult for me.

The disadvantages I think are that the students do not have the opportunity to learn in a "hands on" environment. This is a hard concept to grasp. Motivation and self-discipline play a large role in the online experience. On the flip-side, the benefits are that the course is for the most part self-paced and creative in style. I can honestly say, having taken 30 or so online course in the past couple of years, this particular course is one of the most creative. The blog system I feel is the catalyst behind this. The blog allows students to express themselves in a way different than most classes afford. This creativity aspect is a huge plus for this course.

The blog was the most beneficial and the most enjoyable part of this course. Having to write a paper just about every week seemed a lot less intense because of this blog. I love the fact that as a student we were able to express our own unique characteristics, not only through our writing, but also in the diversity of assignments. I don't think I've ever felt that I had this freedom before in a course, whether online or in person. I will more than likely use this new found skill in blogging in the near future. I think this a great platform to express ideas and opinions. Thank you Professor Cline for not just assigning assignments with due dates, but instead making this course a fun experience. It is greatly appreciated!

For more information on blogging in general, click here.

Technology

End of Semester Post

This semester has been an interesting one full of new experiences. This semester I took all my classes online. I did not anticipate learning as much as I have this semester through each of my online courses. I did a year and a half of my high school schooling online and it was similar in many ways to the learning style that is incorporated in college online learning. However, the technology is now more advanced than the methods we used in high school.

In this English course in particular, we did not have a blog like this one set up. This blog I think was the best part of the course. This blog not only allowed for each of us to express ourselves individually, but it also allowed us to collaborate together with our ideas. Many times when I was struggling to understand something I was able to communicate through my blog with classmates and have a firmer grasp on the concept I was misunderstanding. Having a friendly online environment to do this is crucial.

Some of my main challenges in this course were not procrastinating and specifically focusing on what each assignment was asking. Often times I will wait until Sunday to finish up my papers. This was and still is the general trend by which I submitted my papers each week. However, this class helped point to me that this could later become a problem. Consequently I am working on no longer procrastinating and have made great improvement. Staying focused on what each particular paper was asking was another challenge I encountered in this class. The writing styles that we were required to write in were not my particular favorite. This caused me to give a little extra attention to staying on topic and in character concerning writing style.

Overall I have enjoyed this English 102 course. I have had the privilege of participating with many great classmates this semester. I have learned how to be a more effective writer as well as how to create a blog. Thank you for this course.

-Rysen Barnett

Who Am I?

Rysen Barnett

English 102

Cline

22 April 2012 

Who Am I?

The Ryan Bingham story is very unique, but yet not so rare in the hearts of many people in America today. Ryan Bingham spends his days, nights, weeks, months, and years in pursuit of what is to him and admirable achievement. In the novel the benchmark Ryan is seeking is one million frequent flyer miles and in the film it is ten million miles. His pursuit, although for the majority of the reading and film seem very lofty and important, by the end are just the opposite, irrelevant and materialistic. Though the presentation of this story is presented very differently between the novel and movie, the main idea is the same. Up in the Air is about a man who has built a false reality around himself in an effort to muse the seemingly aimless endeavor that is life. Our society has come to follow the path that Ryan Bingham first did, unfortunately many people’s lives ultimately finish on that same path.

In the film Ryan Bingham is a middle aged man who for a living flies from city to city firing people. By constantly being in the air flying, Ryan is able to accumulate an enormous amount of frequent flyer miles. His ultimate pursuit in life is to reach ten million miles. This pursuit and this life in “Airworld” as Bingham calls it, is all he knows. Back home Ryan has a small family that consists of his two sisters, one of whom is about to be married. However, his siblings feel no attachment towards Ryan because he is gone nearly the entire year. Ryan casually states, “Last year I was in the air three hundred and twenty two days, which means I spent forty three lousy days at home” (Reitman). This remark shows the nature of Ryan’s shallowness. He is a man who is undoubtedly materialistic. Although for a time this shallowness is tolerated by Ryan himself, and his goal seen as a worthy cause, eventually he realizes he has been living in a dream world rather than Airworld. The movie helps bring this revelation about through Ryan’s relationships with Alex and Natalie, the novel does it a slightly different way. Eventually Ryan comes to realization that life is better off spent enjoying it with someone and that intimate relationships are important. His internal and emotional journey are the same journeys that many people choose to avoid or ignore in the United States today.

Works Cited

       Kirn, Walter. Up in the Air. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. Print. 

Reitman, Jason, dir. Up in the Air. Dreamworks, 2009. Film.

Up In the Air Intro Paragraph

 http://storyfanatic.com/articles/story-analysis/up-in-the-air

Ryan Bingham is in a desperate pursuit of obtaining one million frequent flyer miles through his current job. His story of traveling from airport to airport, and acquaintance to acquaintance on this pursuit is depicted in both a novel and movie. In the novel, Ryan is a more self seeking, lonely. isolated individual. In the movie he is much of the same however, there is the addition of his business partner that travels with him who also happens to be somewhat of an interest to Ryan. The way Ryan is depicted in the two stories is similar yet different. In the novel Ryan appears more bitter and greedy, in the movie however, Ryan's true emotions are more adequately expressed. Our society has come to be one of tolerance and acceptance, that is why we have the difference in emotions that are presented between the novel and movie.

Click here for a great website and more information on the novel you might not have considered.

Up in the Air

http://teaser-trailer.com/movie/up-in-the-air/

Initially I found "Up in the Air" a bit hard to read. The style in which the author writes is very different from any novel that I have read before. Many times the author will have one character answer his own question, this can get a little confusing in keeping track of dialogue. As I kept reading, and eventually got past the author's style, I started to enjoy the story. It is vague, dry and seemingly pointless in its intent, at least so far. This vague reading however is turning out to be what is actually intriguing me. I find the main character's story very interesting and meaningful. There are a lot of hidden emotions behind the main character that are not completely being revealed, just yet. I enjoy trying to interpret the psychological perspective of the main character as he lives a very unique and different life than many people. This novel is definitely a contrast from "Winter's Bone," but I hope to really get something out of it by the end of the story!

Here is a link to the movie portraying this novel! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/