“Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.”

Well the semester has come to an end and an end with no final exam for me!  So I figured why not write another entry before they are all due about a brief summary of what I’ve learned and will take with me from this unique learning experience.

Before this semester, I knew of a blog but wasn’t using one.  When I first read the syllabus I immediately felt that this would be a class full of overwhelmingly amounts of work.  With working a full time job, 45 to 52 hours a week, I jumped at the idea of taking an online class.  So I did and with myself needing 3 COM classes to graduate, I decided to take this class section of Cyberporn and Society, better known as COM 497.  This provided me with my own time schedule of when to “attend” class lectures.  This was usually done on Wednesdays when I would spend anywhere from 2 to 3 hours just watching the lectures and taking notes.  Then I’d spend another couple of hours writing up those infamous blog entries that Dr. Halavais is known to love.  With the amount required to write, I thought I was getting myself into something that I shouldn’t but in the end it turned out great.  I started off writing as a Virgin Blogger but felt I got better as the semester went on.

Most of the topics I found out to be very interesting.  I really like learning about this history of pornography and how it has evolved into a money making juggernaut today.  I also found the topic of obscenity to be very interesting and confusing.  This also leads me to thinking about how porn has changed the way we view it through the eyes of our children.  Many laws or regulations have been unsuccessful in the past from protecting our children.  Our government needs to come up with a set standard to charge people with the showing, producing, or creating of obscene porn and how to keep it away from our children.  Obscenity is without a doubt the most confusing topic we talked about but is perhaps the most important in the understanding of the pornographic/adult industry.

Our class wasn’t just all about viewing then commenting on the lectures.  We also got to read each other’s blogs and comment.  I found this entertaining as well as educational.  We taking an online class sometimes you miss things or the whole idea presented completely.  By reading other student’s blogs, I was able to grasp some topics that I misunderstood and helped me soak up what I needed to.  I also, for the first time, started to use outside the class blogs as a way to expand upon what our class lectures were talking about.  It’s good to get away from all the educational stuff and actually gain an interest in what you’re learning.  Another task I enjoyed was guessing the class leadins.     

I had fun with that even though I lost and won’t get the coveted limited edition

School of
Informatics size XL t-shirt.  I did manage to get parts of 27 out of 35 correct, while missing the others with those damn cover band names, oh well.

I would like to conclude by wishing Dr. Halavais success in wherever his future lies after instructing @ UB.  He helped introduce me to the world of blogs and cyber pornography.  I plan on continuing to use blogs since I feel it’s a great way to express how you feel and a way to learn about topics you know nothing about.  Also, I will take on stronger feelings about topics I learned this semester that I probably never would of without COM 497.  So thanks for an entertaining/enjoyable/educational class that I won’t soon forget.