When I begin to reflect upon the Creativity
& Multicultural Communication course, it was a steep learning curve for me.
As I come to the close of my journey with this course I wish I would have contributed
more to the overall direction of the coursework. Since we began this semester my
life has been crazy. I began to pastor a church in the Philadelphia suburbs in February
and I did not anticipate how much my life would change. My schedule has been
insane and my focus has not always been where it should have been. But one
thing out of the many things I have learned in this unorthodox course is that
Communication is multifaceted. I have always understood that being husband and
father but I took on a brand new meaning since I became a pastor. Everyone does
not possess the same communicative skill set. In our communicating we bring all
our experiences and the diversity of experiences. So there can be a great chasm
between what is said and what is heard.
While I Tweet and Facebook for my own
entertainment purposes, I had a difficult time grasping using those mechanisms
as “textbooks” for learning. I have always tried to keep my academic life and
social networking life complete separate. This class shattered my ideology.
This class taught about the connectivity of communication. There doesn’t have
to be compartmentalization of how we communicate.
Lastly, this class caused me to start blogging again.
My wife always encouraged me to share my perspective with whatever audience that
would listen. I was hesitant but through this class I had the opportunity to
share some of my views and I got some google feedback. (Especially while
venting about my struggles with the class LOL.) This class was extremely
different for me and I would take this again. The key is to stay engaged. Communication
means noting if all parties are not engaged. It doesn’t matter if your
Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, or having Google hangouts. Engagement is
crucial. #CMC11