We Did It!

We voted to have our last class at the beach. Well, as one of the students noted…

 

“Who else gets to have their last class at the beach – how cool is that?”

I have to agree. How cool is that? I digress. Class was all about their presentations about what they learned from their blogs. They had to address four questions and I have summarized their responses.

What I learned?

• about a topic I wanted to know more about.
• about topics that were unfamiliar.
• the importance of meditation.
• gratitude needs to be expressed more.
• about how positive psychology is reflected in their day to day lives.
• about a possible career in psychology.

#1 Advice Based on What I learned?

• slow down and savor more
• change perspective from me to we
• speak up and speak out
• gratitude is great, but in moderation
• need a therapist? find one with a positive psychology orientation
• get eternal sunshine

How I Felt about Instructional Blogging?

• It was fun.
• I got better – last blog was better than the first one.
• Liked learning about all the topics and reading other blogs.
• Got to know classmates better through their blogs.
• Didn’t like it at first but came around to find I did like it.
• Application to life was good.
• Freedom to chose topic and design the look of how to present ideas was great.
• Liked it better than the research paper option.
• It was interesting to blog to educate and guide other people rather to write about self promotion.

Professor observations: Several of them thought I was asking them to state why they liked it. I had to remind them they didn’t HAVE to like it. I was simply interested in how they felt about it. I’ll also accept that it was preferred over a research paper. (That means they like it right??)

It had not occurred to me that most blogs students might encounter are about self promotion (travel blogs for study abroad, etc) but this blog required they take the perspective of educating others and not writing about themself. This perspective is another reason to promote Instructional Blogging – it aligns with one of the goals for psychology undergraduate degrees – to communicate psychological findings to others.

Advice for Future Student Bloggers

• Pick a topic that interests you.
• Include interesting links.
• Select research articles that can also be understood by the general public.
• Keep it short.
• Like what you write about.
• Support your claims.
• Pick a topic that will let you learn about something new.

My Observations

It was amazing to me that everyone showed up, except one student who was an exchange student and had to return home to Germany. One person asked if their presentations were going to be graded (I was taking notes). I asked if they needed to be graded? Several said – no, let’s just share. Learning for learning’s sake? I call the semester a success.

And class – if you are reading this …

H = S + C + V

where Happiness = Set point + Circumstances + Voluntary actions