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<p>5. Tell us about your thoughts and feelings about the process of taking part in this learning community this semester. Try to explain “what did I go through as a learner?”</p>
<p>I really don't want to revisit this question, and I really don't want to have to discuss it because I don't think it's wise for me to be honest about my feelings in this regard, and I really don't want to have to have a conversation about them...but that's what you want me to do. Okay, fine. I came into this class wanting to learn about learning communities as a structure and as a methodology. While I understand that respecting the whole human is important, I found the heavy emphasis on sharing personal background and emotions to be irrelevant to the task and counter-productive -- the more we were exhorted to share, the less I wanted to participate. I want to take a class -- I don't want to invite a bunch of strangers into my life, and to require me to do so feels invasive. Maybe the idea is to build an atmosphere of trust, but boy, did that backfire for me. (Hell, I find just writing about this is physically painful -- my shoulders are tense, my body aches, and I'm starting to cry about it.) So, yeah, that stuff (including this current writing) really, really doesn't work for me. I tried to express how the visual chaos of KF is anxiety-inducing for me, and got told I needed to be more "open-minded"...ooof. This absolutely should NOT be a requirement for participation in a learning community unless you want to drive off anybody who is anxious and shy, but otherwise trying to learn about the SUBJECT MATTER. So, okay, there it is. Please don't ask me to explain more about it...you won't get a response. I was intrigued and enthusiastic about the class at the beginning, but right now I hate it. </p>
<p><br />6. Tell us about your thoughts and feelings about the process of taking part in this learning community this semester. Try to explain “what process did the community go through?” </p>
<p>We were doing okay at the start, but it fell apart. There simply isn't time to force the type of candid sharing required in this vision of a learning community during one semester of an asynchronous course. I guess it worked for some people, but I don't really see it other than with the people who already knew each other prior to class.</p>
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