The first seven weeks: A comprehensive look back

After hitting the halfway point of the semester, it's time to take stock of what we've learned this far. And while I may not yet be able to parse paragraphs, crazily comment or alliterate alligators quite like Heidi, I'd like to think I've picked up a few tricks along the way.

The overarching theme of the semester has been citizens doing things that professional journalists do, whether it's report information, comment on events, or even just create media.

I think the biggest debate was over the usage of Wikipedia by journalists. Stephen Lynn started the debate by advocating its usage. Most of what followed was support for his position, although I'm still not sure pointing out that Wikipedia is as accurate as Britannica is a convincing argument in and of itself.

Hayley taught us that self-portraits are cool.

Meanwhile Daniel Berk wrote about a citizen journalist who is living firmly in both worlds. It's hard to imagine the Bill Simmons model becoming standard, but it would make for a very interesting sports world if everybody was able to write about anything. Berk's blog title and article title combined to make for an interesting page title on the article: "Daniel Berk: The Ultimate Citizen Journalist." As though he's making some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

But I've completely neglected to mention the other half of the class, the web shift, where we have all learned a great deal about online video and production. Not to mention the web class routinely produces some of the best eHub material, like this, this, this, or this.

Now if only I could learn to talk like the Sharmanator. That would be something.