Tuesday 11 August 2015

What is this Space?


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In this world of social  technology that we live in, many of us have a presence in multiple spaces. Personally, I have a Facebook page, an Instagram page, a Linked In profile, a Twitter account, a Pinterest board and now my own blog.  Different parts of my identity are revealed in different spaces. For example, my Facebook is personal and is shared with family and friends. LinkedIn serves a professional purpose and my twitter account is mostly professional, with some filtered aspects of my personal thoughts and experiences. 

This blogging space is relatively new to me, and I am still getting a feel for how it fits and what part of my identity is comfortable here. It has the potential for serving as a journal, but it is open to the public, so that makes me want to filter it and make it a little more formal. I haven’t gone out of my way to publicize this blog. Right now I imagine that my blog is guarded by the parameters of this course, although I realize that this is not the case. Many people post links to their blogs on twitter or Facebook, but for now, that is too far outside of my comfort zone.

There are many different views on academic blogging. Estes (2012) describes blogging as a space to think about things and to invite informal conversation. Asselin (2011) identifies blogging as a way to augment communications and effectively network.  I hadn’t previously considered blogging as a way to have a conversation. I see it as a way to share thoughts and information in a more transmissive way. People can comment on your blog, but I had never thought of the process as a conversation, as the interaction seems limited. I view it more as a series of one way conversations. 

Although blog styles and purposes are as unique as the people that write them, there are some critical views of blogging. In the article Blogging in the Academy, Nackerud and Scaletta (2008) share examples of critics, who express frustration with the perceived poor quality of informal writing in some blogs. 

I have enjoyed discovering other people’s blog spaces, with entries relevant (and sometimes not) to our studies. Previously, the blogs that I have sporadically followed have been predominantly from the other side of my career. As you can imagine, there is a marked difference between fashion blogs and academic blogs (although I find inspiration in both). From our own cohort blogs I have found inspiration, comfort and humour.

I still don’t know exactly what this space will become for me. I do intend to continue using it throughout the MALAT program. In our discussions during residency, we talked about journaling as an effective way to track our thinking, especially in regards to research. I don’t think that my blog will be the place where I capture all those thoughts, but I can see sharing versions of my journal entries along the way. Who knows?  - maybe as I continue to gain confidence as a budding academic, I will be  apt to publicize my blog more widely. For now, I am happy to be sharing with my residency cohort. 

References

Aselin, K. (2011). Blogging: The remediation of academic and business communications.  Ann Arbor, Michigan:ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing. 

Estes, H. (2012). Blogging and academic identity. Literature Compass, 9(12), 974-982. doi:10.1111/lic3.12017

Nackerud, S., & Scaletta, K. (2008). Blogging in the academy. New Directions for Student Services (124), 71-87. doi:10.1002/ss.296



2 comments:

  1. Lori,

    For someone who has not “blogged” before, your are doing a great job. I really enjoy reading your perspectives on what we have learned so far at RRU. Your posts have also helped me gain a deeper understanding about some of the topics that we discussed and experienced during our classes. Maybe this space will become a place where you can share your own lessons on learning and technology? Have you thought about writing posts on how to format an article summary/critique? Or maybe creating infographics about conducting research?

    Personally, using social media has helped me get accustomed to blogging. Whether you know it or not, posting status updates, instagram posts or linkedin publications are all forms of blogging. They're actually micro-blogging. :) If you loo at your timeline, you'll notice that it tells a story when viewed as a unit, which is kind of what your blog has become. It's a place where you can tell your story. You can give other students, colleagues or the world insights into your perspectives. I know it's a scary place to showcase your thoughts but I think with time, or personal growth as you mentioned, you will feel differently about sharing those perspectives. I think you have so much good advice to offer others that this would be a great platform for you to utilize.

    M.

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  2. Mark,

    Thank you very much for your encouraging words and for sharing your thoughts. I too have benefited from reading our classmates posts on the learnings. They serve as a great reminder of all that we have done over the last 6 weeks. It is interesting to take in other perspectives and to see where the impact has been for everyone.

    I actually bit the bullet this morning and put myself out there by posting my more recent blog to Twitter. I only had a slight pit in my stomach as I pressed 'Tweet,' Thank you for your encouragement.

    Lori

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