The Beginning…
When I first read the syllabus for HESAL 695, I was very hesitant about the blogging exercises required for the course. My first hesitation was that I had never done a blog before and with anything new, there is hesitation. My second hesitation was that I would be putting myself out there for everyone to be reading by thoughts and opinions about specific topics. Since this is my first semester back in school after being out for quite a while, I was less than confident about my scholarly writing/editing abilities. My third hesitation was that I would potentially be expressing my views on hot topics and after years of working within a strict environment that does not promote the expression of these types of opinions, I was leery. I also wondered how much I would learn from blogging.
With all of this said, I cannot even begin to express how valuable this course, and blogging, has been for me professionally and educationally. Before beginning this course, I was promoted within my institution. While I always welcome promotions, the new job duties were quite overwhelming. I am now over financial aid, recruiting, new student orientation, and the registrar’s office. With so many new areas to learn (not to mention starting a PhD program), I did not know where to begin. This course helped me identify a new way to be informed about subjects related to my area of work, as well as many other areas of higher education. I feel like I have a grasp on how to go out there and get information about what is going on in higher education so I can discuss and maneuver myself in future conversations at my institution. Taking the time to read the Chronicle of Higher Education and/or Inside Higher Education was not as difficult or as time consuming as I had previously thought. I now try to give myself 5-15 minutes each morning to look over what is going on in higher education. Many times, I find that other institutions are facing the same challenges we are at my institution and everyone is looking for ways to improve.
The comments that were required of blogs were a challenge at times. I did want to write “I agree,” but of course that was not enough (per our directions). Looking back, I am glad that was not enough. Going a little further on each comment forced me to look into that topic a little further, which was helpful because I tended to select blogs that had nothing to do with what I had written about that week. At first, I was hesitant about agreeing or disagreeing with blogs, but in the end, I felt that everyone in the course helped to create on online environment that welcomed different ideas and opinions. I did not worry about folks leaving hard to handle comments on my blog or getting into a back and forth comment war.
I did not run into very many technical challenges during my blogging for this course. The one thing I would advise future students to do, would be to type everything up in a word document first and the paste into Blogger. I would keep one master Word document on the comments I left as a way to count them as there is no way to track this easily in Blogger. I did hit “post” once and Blogger kicked me out of the program. I lost my entire comment, which was bad, but not as bad as it would have been had I lost an entire blog. From that point on, I did everything in Word first. Keeping track of the blogs and blog comments is not that easy in Blogger, so I would highly recommend Word docs and then cutting and pasting.
My Top Blogs…
To be able to reflect on my most prized blogs, I first had to put together a list of my blogs for the semester. I created the chart below:
| Blog Title | Blog Category | Blog Date |
| Group Project: Do you need a tissue for your issue? | Friday, September 16, 2011
| |
| Gainful Employment | Saturday, September 24, 2011
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| Religious Institutions Free from Antidiscrimination Laws? | Thursday, September 29, 2011
| |
| Bad News: No More Subsidized Loans for Graduate Students. Good News: Income Based Repayment and Loan Forgiveness. | Friday, October 7, 2011
| |
| Admissions Question: Would you consider yourself a member of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community? | Wednesday, October 12, 2011
| |
| CO Financial Aid Could Be Reduced by 30% 2012-2013 |
| Friday, October 21, 2011
|
| Sexual Harassment or Limiting Academic Freedom at University of Denver? |
| Friday, October 28, 2011
|
| Complete College America – Colorado’s Newest Initiative? | Tuesday, November 1, 2011
| |
| British Overhaul to Higher Education | Friday, November 11, 2011
| |
| Is This What Gets Students Protesting? | Protest and Conflict | Friday, November 11, 2011 |
Of these blogs, these are the three that stand out:
2) CO Financial Aid Could Be Reduced by 30% 2012-2013
3) Complete College America – Colorado’s Newest Initiative?
Yes, there does seem to be a common theme. Financial aid/financial issues. Financial aid, my newest and most scary part of my job, is large and somewhat complex and these blogs really helped me take a stab into a world that can be intimidating. I found that I wanted to do more digging for these articles because I cared about the issues and they related to by every day work life. Financial aid is at the heart of so many debates occurring right now in higher education and yet, folks outside the financial aid office act as though these issues really do not affect them. I would argue that these financial issues will soon have a large effect on all student affairs. For example, in blog number two (of my favorites), we are potentially looking at every one out three work studies not being funded next year. This will have a huge impact on student affairs since many of the offices heavily rely on work studies to operate efficiently. Overall, I think this goes to show that the more you care about what you are writing about, the farther you will research and the better you will write. Passion and interest play a large part of our writing abilities and there is nothing worse than writing about something you do not care about (hence why I did not write anything in the college athletics section).
Blogging and Discussion Experience
Blogging for this course, a course with intended outcomes geared towards teaching graduate students on higher education current affairs, was a terrific way to ensure weekly research into current events. Blogging, with the requirement of citing journal articles, made each user dig a little deeper and connect thoughts. It was not enough to take an article at face value, you had to continue looking to see what other information was out there in order to connect the dots and provide a bigger picture. This often led to a more expanded view on the topic, which is extremely important when trying to understand current events. The comments left by others expanded the knowledge base even farther. By reading comments left by others, there was an opportunity to gain even more insight into a topic and comments provided alternative views, which may not have otherwise been explored.
The discussions that took place in the classroom were a great way to bring these topics full circle. I enjoyed not only the discussion piece, but also the selection process for which topics we would discuss. It was interesting to see which topics were of the most interest to my colleagues. Once we were in smaller groups, I was able to contribute and learn a ton from my colleagues. It was interesting to see how four-year institutions were different from two-year institutions, but how we also face some of the same issues. I never felt as though my opinions or ideas were being shot down simply because I work at a community college, which does happen in the professional setting. I feel that my cohort is pretty amazing. We all have different experiences that we bring to the table and together we create and bounce ideas off one another, which led to greater insight on challenging issues.
Overall, blogging created a information sharing environment that fostered great ideas and debates. I really enjoyed this course and the information I learned from my own research done in blogs, the research done by others and getting to read their blogs, and the discussion piece facilitated around the most hot topic blogs. This was a course that allowed me to take away a lot of practical knowledge, which I appreciate greatly. I now know how to use The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education to my advantage. I see the importance of these online tools and will continue to use them in my daily work life. In many ways, I am very sorry this course is over. While I will continue my daily readings, I know it will be challenging to continue the in-depth, cross-referencing, practices that were required through this course. This was a great class and I really appreciate the way in which it was facilitated.
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