Blogging in Higher Education has become an important part to the whole process … one of the people I find myself linking to/talking about/wanting to hang out with is the author behind Unit Structure, Fred Stutzman. In one of his more recent posts, he discusses the perceived value of academic blogging. In my world view, blogging across the academy is as nearly important as any development to hit our shores in quite some time. I know that providing a platform for everyone in Higher Education could be a critical step towards moving our spaces forward. It is one of the things that keeps me going to work everyday. One thing I can say with confidence is that we will provide a platform that will empower a whole new set of opportunities. Fred’s post is worth a read and some reaction. What do you all think?
The weird thing is that currently (at least in my case) my blogging is almost exclusively an outward-facing thing. The vast majority of the readers of my blog are from off campus. Something like 5% are from ucalgary.ca domain. So, whether I blog to capture “knowledge” on campus, or point to innovative stuff, or whatever, it’s not being seen by those on campus. I think that’s slowly changing, but it seems like the vast majority of on-campus info sharing happens via email, in workshops, or in printed newsletters…
D–
Inside UCalgary you probably have a loud voice that reaches many more people then the 5% blog traffic … it just happens to be your real voice or a representation of it through the projects and opportunities you create … just a thought.
I actually get some readers from within PSU, it probably doubles the amount of people I can interact with and that is a huge bonus. One dimension of my job is to get people interested and informed about the rich teaching and learning with technology resources we offer … so the more people I can engage in a conversation — via a f2f encounter or here at my blog — is a good thing. On campus there are a lot sharing opportunities, through the things you mention. I guess two of the big reasons I try and capture a combination of those opportunities and my thoughts are to provide a larger conversation opportunity and for my own intellectual development tracking. Sounds crazy, but writing quickly and openly really has changed my ability to communicate ideas — again in a f2f encounter or here online. I find myself, I think b/c of blogging, to be much more comfortable with giving a talk, producing a podcast, or just hammering out some ideas. It has proven to be a very important decision in my life and career. Having more than a handful of people read and comment is always a good thing, but my two reasons don’t include big blog traffic or becoming a blogstar.
Cole – good point about blogging changing how you approach communication. I think the same thing happened with me. Basically, I stopped worrying about being perfect. Letting go of perfection is a side effect of blogging (all of that casual/informal/realtime writing) and, ironically, has a very positive effect on other forms of communication. I don’t spend 2 weeks crafting The Perfect Powerpoint Presentation. I whip one up a day or 2 before it’s needed, based on near realtime contributions from my online social networks (whether they know it or not). Same for other forms. It’s a very good thing. Also, I agree that traffic isn’t important. It’s interesting (at least sometimes), but not Important. It’s not why any of us do this stuff – otherwise we wouldn’t be in higher ed, we’d be in the corporate world chasing larger audiences 🙂