blogging in the Landing - 2010 pause-point.MP3

When did you begin blogging. What were your reasons?

I began blogging in an academic setting when I started the MDE605 course in September 2008. I had started a few other blogs to try them out, but had only really began to be committed to blogging in September as part of the coursework.

Has your blogging changed over this time? How? (topics, focus, frequency, etc.)

The main focus was on coursework for MDDE605, MDDE603, MDDE690 and MDDE691. The blogging shifted from within a cohort, to a seminar, to a couple of independent studies courses.

After the coursework, I began preparing my portfolio, and used the blog within AU landing when it first started up in early 2010. I documented the e-portfolio preparation process on my blog. Fro March 2010, till the present, I have continued using the blogging feature to work on presentations, workshops, and started an academic blogging circle over the summer.

Over this time, I found that my frequency increased over time, but has shifted now to include a second blog outside AU landing that focuses on literacy instruction and internet literacy.

How has blogging helped you with learning?

Blogging has required me to focus on the way I organize my ideas, and has helped me formulate theories about how we might potentially use blogs within a practice network.

What are the main reasons you have persisted in blogging?

I have persisted because I find it increasingly useful – not all the changes made were voluntary – I need to revise tagging conventions, for example. Also, I needed to reformat blog posts migrated over from Me2U, and decided to migrate some content to my own external blog. Overall, though, I found that at a certain point I began to look forward as often as I looked back, and addressed multiple audiences (multiple selves) in more voices, so I realized that the more you give voice to your ideas, they tend to aid you with more spontaneous idea generation. Undoubtedly, the blogging about blogging has helped me focus more on how to use the tool for teaching...there are steps that learners need to pass through on their journey, and issues about selfhood, identity and balancing yourself. The development of the academic self leads to the development to the other selves, so that you need to eventually shift from blogging just for academic/professional purposes to including more and more about yourself.

How do you think your blogging activity will change in future?

I am unsure as yet if I will continue blogging in an academic environment. I would very much like to, and hopefully, I can enroll in the Ed D program in the next year or so. So that is one direction to definitely pursue. Another direction is how to apply what I have learned about blogging to help others, to work with literacy learners, for example, or develop online courses that encourage blogging (and all its interconnected technologies that make blogging so worthwhile).

How has the Landing influenced your blogging?

The Landing has helped me realize that one can use the blog as the central focus, or the hub, that ties all the other activities into it. I realize that how one blogs has a significant impact on others – I think that the Landing has helped shape many of the ideas, thanks to access to a community of learners, faculty, alumni, and researchers.