Braelin the Blogger

An Introduction to Braelin’s Blogging

I started off the semester really looking forward to the blogging. I have blogged before, albeit not for a remotely academic purpose, but for a public audience on a personal topic. I figured this would be similar--- just a matter of sharing my thoughts, right? People who have spent any time with me know that I am an open person, and for this reason I think that I have been fairly comfortable with the blogging environment. That said, I learned quickly that writing an effective blog post for the class was beyond simply sharing my feelings. I needed to stay abreast of the current events, and then use my experiences and knowledge gained through additional research to share perspective and insight about the current event in a way that would inform and educate my peers--- a large task as I realized that my peers were largely already well versed in current events and the implications for higher education.

As a first term student in the PhD program, I appreciated one area about the blogging experience most of all: I got to know my fellow students. I got to know people in my cohort better, but I have also gotten to know Greeley students through their posts. I have developed a sense of who’s blog posts tend to resonate with me, who’s opinions tend to trigger me, and who may be able to offer me helpful perspective in a variety of ways down the line in this program. Because the blogging experience melds current events with research, fact, and opinion with a dash of lived experience (both professional and personal), we’ve not only gotten to know one another as fellow classmates, writers, and future researchers, but also as colleagues, allies, and in some cases, friends too. Early in our HESA 761 class we spoke about the socialization of a doctoral student. We discussed the importance of developing a community of fellow scholars and the importance of collegiality in doctoral student success. The blogging experience has been an integral part of my own early doctoral student socialization, and I appreciate having had the opportunity to make connections with a broad range of HESAL students so early in my program.

Premier Posts & Class Contributions

In all of my posts I tried to examine a current issue from several perspectives. I also tried to raise new issues related to the topic or event that may not otherwise have been shared in the news and/or may not be a first thought when initially reading the article. As I read others’ posts, I most appreciated those that allowed me to look beyond the issue itself and consider different implications, such as the impact on particular student groups, legal and/or political consequences, and/or other ‘ripple effects’ from a particular issue. In turn, I attempted to provide similar insight in my own blog posts. At times, this meant that I took risks by writing about topics outside of my immediate area of expertise, resulting in some suppositions that may or not have been entirely on target. For example, in my last two posts (Travel Troubles & Public Opinion and Tax Time-- Indian Ideas & US Awareness), I addressed issues related to potential future legislation regarding how state funds are used, and possible shifts in tax codes for non-profits. My knowledge of both the financial world and political legislative process is incredibly limited (an understatement… I honestly am very very naïve in both areas), yet I took a stab at bringing issues to light that I think are important, even with my limited knowledge. Certainly I think that I would have had different contributions to the class if I had take the Finance and Public Policy classes prior to this one! Despite this, I always hoped to contribute to the conversation in thoughtful and pertinent ways. The blogging environment allowed me to take such an approach, since the blogging community (outside of this course too) is accessible to diverse writers with varying levels of knowledge and expertise about the topics on which they blog.

Commenting on others’ posts was as much, if not more at times, of an opportunity for me to contribute to the class. I am a student affairs generalist, which can be both a blessing and a curse. For the purpose of the blogging however, I saw my broad scope of experience as a benefit, as I was able to draw upon my varied professional experiences and knowledge to comment on others’ diverse posts. From veterans services, and disability services, to retention strategies and student conduct philosophies, I feel fortunate that my professional experiences equipped me well to contribute to the class blogosphere from a practitioner’s perspective. Likewise, I believe that I am one of only a few class members who have worked in for-profit education and closely with online program development. As such, I had unique perspective to add to the discussions in these two areas. Beyond my professional experiences, I also tried to include pertinent data, research, or even connections to other current events to my posts and comments alike. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the influence of my social identities in my posts and comments. In reading back over my writing, I see that my female identity was particularly salient throughout the term. As I blogged about Slut Walks, and commented on numerous posts addressing women in higher education, I was certainly bringing my female perspective to the conversation. Likewise, many of the posts regarding the LGBTQ community and higher education were interesting to me and compelled me to comment. My comments were from my vantage point as a heterosexual woman and ally.

All that being said, I think that my posts this term which are most indicative of my blogging style are:

· M(D.B.A.)

· Food for Thought

· Internationalization for the Sake of Diversity... Really?

· Lifetime Learning—Lifetime Storage

Lessons Learned

As the class it entitled Current Events, I want to address what I learned about current events. However, I also want to acknowledge what I learned about writing and information gathering in this course, because I believe that these lessons are as significant, if not more so, than my knowledge gained about current issues.

Contrary to my initial perceptions about PhD student writing, I realized a few weeks into the semester that perfection in writing is an unattainable goal for me. Perfection is paralyzing. Rather, I should be striving for excellent writing that I can only achieve through practice and a willingness to take risks by putting words down, even when I’m not 100% certain of my outcome. A Chronicle article that we read in 761, entitled 10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly, makes the suggestion that graduate students should write every day. Granted, I believe that the article is directed towards students working on dissertations, and is likely encouraging progress towards the dissertation, but for me, the simple act of forming sentences, linking ideas into paragraphs, and connecting my own thoughts to the world’s current happenings has proved to be an excellent exercise in getting me back into a writing groove. I have used the blogs as ‘breaks’ from the writing in my other class, which requires a more formal writing style, to help me feel a sense of productivity and accomplishment- invaluable motivation for an otherwise writing-frustrated graduate student! The shorter, less formal, and more easily contained blog post expectations were often the necessary antidote to my writing ailments this term! So lesson learned: really do write every day (proper prose not needed… though I am one of the lone APA fans in the class…).

Secondly, I am not a news buff (that is nothing new—certainly not something that I learned in the course). Sure, I usually listen to NPR on my drive to/from work, but otherwise really do not pick up on local, regional, national, or international news, unless someone else engages me in conversation on a particular topic. I have long recognized this to be a ‘flaw’ of sorts- but had not found the appropriate way to manage the slew of information. As a leader in higher education I am fully aware that I need to develop a mechanism for availing myself of the pertinent happenings. My daily routine with scanning the regular email digests from The Chronicle and InsideHigherEd.com and reading the articles of interest to me, as required by this class, has helped me grasp the way that I plan to acquire my higher ed. news in the future. These daily emails, along with my time spent jumping to the education section of the online New York Times, Denver Post, and Washington Post in search of potential blog topics, have shown me that I really value the ‘filter’ of a news outlet that can highlight the relevancy of particular happenings to my work. I realized that previously the task of being ‘informed’—in a broad sense—was too daunting for me. There was no way that I was going to be fully up to speed on global business developments, scientific discoveries, political strife in 17 countries, not to mention local and state government. It was simply too much. The act of reading the higher ed. news has shown me that I do not have to be an expert in all world happenings. The Chronicle, in particular, will cover the news happening around the world that is relevant to higher education, and present it to me in a way that (typically) makes sense to my otherwise news-naïve mind. That said, I have also read enough on the blogs to see that I must not rely solely on one news source. However, I am going to keep up my new email news subscriptions (despite the number they are doing on my in-box!), and use those as the launch points for further exploration as needed.

Now about current events, what have I learned? In short, a lot! There are 2 areas that come to mind most of all when I consider the areas covered in the course:

1) International higher education. Ironically I considered myself fairly well versed in international education issues prior to starting this course. I realize now that while I did (past tense!) have a strong understanding of international student matters, particularly relating to visas and regulatory matters, I had very little understanding of the climate for higher education outside of the United States, and how the global higher education environment can impact our own system. I have learned about the experiences of students in Pakistan, Mexico, and Ghana, just to name a few! I have learned that the US can learn a lot from other country’s higher education systems, and that we also serve as a role model for many. It has been a long time since I have worked on a campus with a robust study-abroad program, so I have appreciated the posts about study abroad which have refreshed me on the myriad of both challenges and opportunities that study abroad brings to an institution.

2) Athletics. I had a lot to learn, and still do. The blogs served as an excellent ‘introduction’ of sorts to college athletics. I was one of the students who groaned when the initial topics were announced and athletics was included. Immediately I vowed that I would not be participating! That was silly. Really, I read each posts carefully. I am fully aware of my own anti-athletic biases and wanted to hear about the benefits of college athletics from my respected peers. I was particularly surprised to learn about some of the discussions at the NCAA about trans. student athletes, and the complexities of athletic funding—for coaches and otherwise. I found the comments on the College Athletics blog most interesting, as they included some of the most dissenting opinions in the class and were both educational and entertaining to read. Despite that I have maintained my general adversity to college athletics (events in the last two weeks may have squelched any spark of athletic acceptance that had begun to develop deep within me…), I do leave the blogging experience much more informed. In fact, I have recently begun conversations with colleagues in our Athletic Division about a potential partnership on an upcoming project. I likely would not have considered approaching them had I had not begun to think more about the role of athletics on campus as a result of this blog!

As we wrap up the term, I’m a bit sad to see the class blogging experience end. In fact, I talked with a friend in the Lowry cohort about possibly forming a cohort blog, outside of any class assignment, as a space to continue to dialogue, question, ponder, and yes, even vent, about the issues that we face—be it a current event that someone needs to process, a place to bounce research ideas off one another, or just a space to go when you need to procrastinate (…err… I mean, when you need a break…) from other academic or professional responsibilities. Lowry friends- let’s make this happen!

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I’ll close by giving thanks to everyone for providing such insightful and interesting posts. I’ve genuinely appreciated learning from each of you and enjoyed getting to know you through the blogging experience.

-Braelin

The Blog Spectacular!

The Blog spectacular!

I have always loved the first day of class. It is great people watching. Everyone is usually walking on egg shells and not quite sure what to say or how to say their viewpoints so they will not offend someone else. Due to the minimal times actually spent with peers in this class, there was not much time to sit back and sit on your hands and not communicate with someone face to face…or through a blog. The blogging experience was a perfect way to keep in contact with various viewpoints and discussions used through class discussions, or from interesting articles found browsing through magazines and articles. When I first saw how this class was designed, I was a little on edge about how to respond to it. Blogging? Does that mean I get to “tweet” too?! Then I was excited about it because I thought it was a very new age way to communicate, and every time I used the word “Blog” in a sentence, I felt like Elaine from Seinfeld saying “my fiancé”! Then reality kicked in, and I realized that everything I was writing was going to be seen by everyone in the program. At first, that made me very tight and conservative in what I was writing, but as more people were posting, the more I became attached to reading what people were saying and the more I wanted to respond with just how I felt, without the formality of writing an essay paper.

My frustrations:
The actual process of blogging I did not find difficult at all. The only thing that I can’t stand is the hyperlink…yes I still can not figure it out! I can make it work on my word document, which I am really excited about, but I can not make it work within the blog space. That has been the most frustrating part of this whole process. I actually found the first round of blogs a perfect introduction to graduate school and for me, higher education.

One of my biggest struggles as I look back on my work is trying to transform my thought process from my world of K12 education to higher education. These blogs and current event topics forced me to open up and see how the higher education system works which in turn was a great educational experience for me. What I found to be most enlightening to me was reading everyone’s blogs and their opinions about topics, but also reading their responses. It was a 21st century way of creating a Socratic seminar.

When this semester first started, I was really anxious about how to research again, how to write formally again, and making sure that I was doing everything correctly. This class eased a lot of my stress because of the structure of it, and how easy it seemed to do research, write about it in a semi-formal way, and do so on topics that I was interested in. To me, this was a perfect way to get back into a graduate program after being “on the bench” for the last 10 years. I learned how to dive into articles, higher education magazines, and newspaper articles and read about and find myself becoming invested in what was being discussed and then write about it. I eventually found myself reading about articles and various blogs that I usually would have no interest in, but when I was done, I found myself responding to a person about my feeling and opinions about their main blog. Because of this, I have gone back and looked at my blogs and created a top three list.


My 3 Favorite Blogs:
When doing so, I seemed to always drift towards the College athletics blogs because of my background and my interest I have in college sports. However, when the Penn State debauchery occurred, I stopped going there. I could not read anymore out of disgust. Anyway, based on that, I really liked my first blog I wrote in this class about athletes and law suits mostly because I was very interested in the topic and found myself reading tons of articles the following week about this. I realized because of this main topic choice of College Athletics how many different types of articles and headliners are out there that one can write about at any given time.

My second favorite blog I wrote about was called, burning the midnight oil. http://currentevents695f.blogspot.com/2011/11/burning-midnight-oilin-co.html. I really enjoyed writing about this blog because when I first saw this on the news, I immediately researched it and found out more information about it. That is what this class has done to me. As I hear about current events that are happening on issues that I normally would not even think about, this class has opened my eyes to them and I want to know more about it. I found this exceptionally interesting because of the amount of talk that for-profit institutions are getting because their enrollment continues to soar, but now there is this push from community colleges and public university’s to keep up.

My third favorite blog is about the international conflict in Chile. http://currentevents695i.blogspot.com/2011/11/chilean-protests.html. This may not have been my best piece of writing, but again, this class has allowed me to search topics that I normally would not dive into. Because of the main International blog topic, I started speaking about this with my colleagues and we ended up taking a Spanish class down to the computer labs and having students research why students protest, and in this particular case, why the Chileans are so upset with their government. I was able to use what I was doing in this program in an everyday setting, and to me that is true learning.

The ongoing experience:
The design of this class was very fitting for a class that needed to discuss current events but did not have the people around to discuss them. Blogging allowed for people to remain connected to discuss areas of interest. As I pointed out in the beginning of this, people were unsure at the first day how to respond to one another. But by reading peoples viewpoints and concerns, it allowed for people to discuss and agree or disagree with what was being addressed…even if you get tongue tied in a heated discussion about politics. I felt the experience was truly an enlightening and engaging class even when we didn’t meet. I really enjoyed writing about something and reading people’s responses to my post because for the most part, I would just be thinking about one specific part of the issue being addressed, but then multiple people would expand on your topic and give you so many different avenues to think about. That I though was one of the most beneficial parts of the blogging experience.

The last part of this experience, as I sit back and reflect, are the class discussions and the last two assignments. The class discussions I felt were some of the most valuable instructional times that I have had in any class I have taken. From my standpoint, I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to higher education because my world revolves around the K12 sector. For me to sit in on discussions and learn about financial aid, student loans, residence life, international affairs, veteran affairs, or even non-documented students, it opened up doors to college that I honestly never even thought about as far as student affairs is concerned. The topics were fascinating and worked perfectly for where I am at right now.
The other part to that are the two assignments. The letter to the editor I found interesting to do because I have always read them, but have never had the courage to actual write one. This made me craft fully create a letter…in 150 words…and submit it. Mine did not get published, but it was awesome to see someone from class get hers published, what an accomplishment! The other was the letter to my supervisor. I have never done on of these in my life. It really made me figure out how to address my boss when I have a pretty good relationship with him in a formal manner. I did have a legitimate issue I wanted to address with him, and now I know how to do it.

Overall, I have to say that with only meeting a handful of times, this was probably one of the best college classes I have ever taken in my life. I learned more from this class, and higher education, than I ever anticipated doing. And that is shocking to say with how little was lectured to us. I really enjoyed the opinions from my classmates and learned a lot from their point of views as well. I hope they can say the same for me…on that note, thanks. Blogger…OUT

One Last Blog

Introduction to semester of blogging – frustrations? Successes and learning?

I was quite intrigued upon reading the syllabus for this class. The blogging format both interested and intimidated me. I have never been one to be shy about sharing my thoughts or opinions in class (especially if those thoughts and opinions happen to be about Ronald Reagan). I have also never been asked to “publish” these thoughts and opinions in a format that invites the same level of attention and comment from my peers as a blog. Blogging has always been something I have been interested in trying but haven’t gotten around to. I never thought that it would take a graduate course to get me started.

In general the process of blogging, at least the technical side, was fairly simple. Once I figured out which email account the invites to join the blogs went to, and replaced my stolen computer, I was off to the races. My favorite aspect of blogging was being able to readjust to writing without being thrown completely back into the APA madness. The casualness of blogging served as a gentle reentry into the classroom after a long time away. The forum and format were perfect for re-discovering and redefining my voice as a writer, and allowed me to use a little humor and cynicism as needed.

Throughout the semester I found myself struggling to pick topics and stories to write about. I was never lacking for something of interest, just trying to narrow it down and focus on one topic at a time. There were so many articles and events to comment on that I sometimes spent more time reading additional articles and clicking through than writing blogs.

In general my biggest frustration was that all too often the topics that really caught my attention had already been blogged about in great detail by others. Many times this was due to my own procrastination and not being “ahead of the curve”.

My Best Blogs

I going back over my blogs from the semester it was easy to pick out my favorites.

1. Educating Writers vs. Citation Obsession

2. American Education vs. Education from America

3. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

One of the things that struck me about these posts is how different they are from one another. The topics are varied; style guides and citations, international education and Chinese students, and tenure. The styles of the posts are also different, ranging from somewhat silly and humorous, to more introspective and thoughtful. It was fun to see how much I covered this semester, and in how many different ways.

This class was my first experience with online or hybrid learning and was also my first weekend intensive class. Initially it was challenging to get into the groove without a more traditional structure and schedule. As the semester is coming to a close I can now say I am a fan of the format.

The Blogging Experience and How it Contributed to the Class

Blogging was an ideal platform for a “Current Issues” class. What a great way to confront the challenges facing higher education in terms of technology by focusing a large portion of the class within that framework. Blogging, reading, and commenting on the blogs were also great ways for me to connect with so many stories and ideas I would have otherwise overlooked. Seeing what topics and stories were hot buttons for others was also enlightening and engaging. As I stated earlier one of my frustrations was when someone beat me to the punch and wrote about a topic I was interested in. I wish that I had been willing to “duplicate” a blog topic earlier than I did in the semester. In looking back over my blogs and comments, I came to realize that I really enjoyed topics and stories that were blogged about by more than one person. It was enjoyable to see how we all approached the same subjects so differently and to provide different perspectives in the blog format. The multiple posts about SlutWalks illustrate this.

The blogs also were central to the class discussions we shared on the weekends, both formally and informally. I looked forward to being able to engage with my fellow bloggers in person about their posts or comments. I also found myself referring to posts and comments in the small and large group discussions. The amount of reflection I personally engaged in after reading posts was awesome. While I am constantly reading articles I rarely have discussions with others about them. The blogging has changed that. I find myself sending articles to people more regularly.

What I Learned This Semester

The process of blogging this semester allowed me to learn several things about current events in higher education, the really cool people I work and go to school with, and myself as a blogger. All in all it has been an exciting semester in terms of engaging current events and really getting to know some of my colleagues better.

Staying Current

In general I have always been good at paying attention to current events, both in terms of higher education, and in general. I am a news and current events junky, receiving RSS feeds, tweets, and text messages from a variety of sources all the time. More than one of my blogs this semester refers to my obsession with news and talk radio as an introduction into my topic. What this class, and the experience of blogging did, was to help me to pay more attention to the things I thought I was paying attention to already. Reading everyone’s blogs and comments exposed me to new sources of news and information. It was also wonderful to have extended conversations, dialogues, and debates about a variety of issues. As was stated over and over again in class, there is not such thing as a “simple” problem or “easy” solution.

Cool People Becoming Cooler

I have always loved the people I work with and have made some great new connections this semester in my classes. Being able to learn more about people by reading their blogs and comments has been a great experience. Rarely does one have a chance to connect with the academic work of classmates in such a way. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to see how people interpret and process events and to get a flavor for folks humor and writing styles. It has been fun to get comments and feedback about my thoughts as well. It was great to have discussions and disagreements about so many topics. Bing challenged about my ideas help me to strengthen my own arguments and consider new perspectives.

The Blog and I

This semester has also taught me that I am not yet a blogger. I was hoping to leave the class and start my own blog with a following of devoted fans. Not so much at this point. The process of finding content was not as easy as I hoped it would be. I was not able to inspire the debate and reaction that I wanted to with some of my posts. I was not as anxious to be the pot-stirrer as I thought I would be. I think that there are several folks in the class who would be great bloggers… I am not one of them.

Other Insights and Personal Lessons

Class Discussions

I really enjoyed the classroom discussions this semester. Being able to engage with a group of peers for 45-60 minutes on a single topic was something I found to be an amazing experience. To witness one topic branch out into dozens of interwoven themes really illustrated how complex and challenging our work can be. This is a valuable reminder to keep in mind as I struggle with attempting to affect change on my campus and in my life. Baby steps and realistic timeframes for expectations…

I also realized that I still can and do fall into the trap of wearing and using my privilege as a white male in the classroom. I realize that who I am allows me to walk through the world in a certain way, and to say things that others cannot, in ways that they cannot. This can present itself through aggressive confrontations (Reagan) or in more subtle ways (talking too much). I try to use this privilege for good when possible (Halloween), and try to shelve it when possible. I am still growing in this area. This is not something I would have even considered as an undergraduate or master’s student. The awareness of my privilege reflects my personal growth and self-work, and the patience of those who have worked with me through that process. I hope that awareness will continue to grow into action.

10 Points – 2 Assignments – Huge Learning

The “Letter to the Editor” and “Memo to Supervisor” exercises were equally as enlightening and productive as the blogging for me. While my letter to the editor was meant to be a thank you to a group of student volunteers and a dedicated colleague on campus (one to be sent to them personally) it ended up being published in the Chronicle. Before I had a chance to send it to those it was initially intended for, it was published had been discovered and shared by a variety of people. What was meant as a thank you for others became what felt like a thank you to me for writing it. In the end it did not have the impact I wanted it to. I learned that one must be careful with what one submits to an editor lest it be published, and that timing is important.

The memo was also a valuable learning exercise. I am constantly making suggestions and sending emails to my supervisor and others. I have been known to formally propose a variety of things as well. The memo is an almost “forgotten” tool that can still have an impact. I sent my memo to legal counsel and my supervisor… why write it and not send it? I am excited to say that action is being taken on many of my suggestions. I am not as excited to say that I am responsible for more of that action than I had hoped. Another example of be careful what you ask for, I suppose.

In general this class has been a very positive experience and a great balance to my other class in terms of easing back into being a student. It was valuable to start the program by becoming familiar with current issues on a broad scale. It was also valuable to read articles that were not at all current, yet echoed current events. Well played, well played indeed.

Burning the Midnight Oil...in CO?

Burning the Midnight Oil.

Taking classes at midnight…who would ever think that would be a great idea? Since 2009, and thankfully Matt Damon in the movie, Good Will Hunting, taking classes at midnight has opened the doors at a half a dozen community colleges on the east coast, and has ventured most recently through the Midwest and into Arizona. The trend started at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, MA. and the idea has already spread down to Northern Virginia and out west to Ozarks Community College and even to Arizona. One of the professors at BHCC started seeing the growing number of students and how the enrollment rose nearly 25%, so all the sections were filled. The only other offer was to open section past 10pm. Once they did that, more and more students began entering through the doors. BHCC is supposed to only facilitate 2,500 students, but now has over a 13,000 person enrollment!

This is a fascinating story about people taking classes and trying to put themselves through school, but due to job overload and trying to make enough money to get by, the only time to go to school is late at night. NBC did a report from Ozarks Community College interviewing students and describing how the classes started at 1 and now has over 20 classes offered from midnight on. NBC also described how the nation’s poor economy right now has brought more people back to college, which has been many blog posts lately, but the costs are what are so alarming. OCC offers midnight classes at $260 where the private college down the street is offering tuition at over $2,000. This is linked to the growing number of students enrolled in CC’s across the nation due to the high increase of 4 year institution tuition. USATODAY reported on why students are attending the community colleges first and states that because of this growing interest in midnight classes, and because of the high costs of 4 year institutions, and the high demand for higher education, if the only time that students can go to school is when they get off their full time jobs, or after they put their kids to sleep, then they do. This USAtoday article states that over 2/3 of the midnight enrollees are employed full time as well.

I find this awesome that one of the professors at BHCC saw that there was a need to open an extra section of Social Behaviors class, but only late at night. Because he was willing to do that, it has turned into a new trend and has created a huge increase in student enrollment in the handful of students attending CC’s. I am eager to see if there is an interest in this in CO, or if there has been any talk about starting this up already? “How ‘bout them apples?!”

Final Blog – Meloni S. Rudolph

I was not a blogger before this class began. I had intended to become a blogger after my friend Rich died 2 years ago. He had blogged before blogging was cool and some of his writing, which was read at his funeral, was profound and moving. I appreciated having those pieces of him after he was gone and was thankful he had shared his thoughts with the blogosphere. In reality though, I opened a blog account but had some fear around actually engaging in the blogging, so I did not write. Was I nearly as good a writer as Rich was? What could I say that would be worthwhile? Is it anything anyone would care to read? I find now that it is more about the experience of writing and expressing myself than thinking about who might read what I have to say.

I am glad that blogging was a large element of this class. I have enjoyed becoming more familiar with how it works, and have enjoyed interacting with my classmates on interesting and provocative subjects. The closest thing to regular blogging I had previously done was a time when I used twitter a lot. I like the “microblog” venue of twitter, it fits well with my sarcastic cynicism but leaves little room to expound on any thoughts.

In using the longer blog platform, I learned a few things about myself and my writing as well as learning a few things about myself through my writing. If I were doing a blog on my own time, I certainly would not have had so many things I thought were worth saying. I find though, that I truly enjoy this style of writing. It is freeing to be able to write in a way that feels like my own voice. When I write in my speaking voice, I enjoy myself a lot more.

Frustrations of Technology

While I was posting blogs and comments in the beginning, I had a few instances where I lost some of my writing to the quirks of “Blogger”. I had tried to do some of my blogging homework on my lunch breaks at work and found that it did not let me post from the PC on my desk in my office. I vented about this in my comment to Aaron20’s blog post.

I also really hated how I would preview the blog and it would look perfect as far as margins and spacings and when I would hit “publish post” the margins would be all messed up. I hated looking like a slacker who couldn’t get the spacing right. But I promise, on my word document where I composed before hand, the spacing and margins looked awesome.

Other than that, I found that the technology did not hinder by ability to engage in this class and in this blog. I feel as though the blogging venue was an effective and thoughtful way for us all to think through our opinions and discuss them.

A Semester of my own writing

As I have been going over my blog entries for the semester, I find that a lot has happened since my first blog regarding Muslim Students and Free Speech. I am surprised by how much content we each covered as we (speaking for myself) sometimes struggled to get “blog” and “comment 1” and “comment 4” etc, off of our to-do lists.

Looking back, my blogs ran the spectrum of anger, to humor, to gratitude through the experiences of this semester. I honestly found that there were times where I was exhausted to continue to feel angry about certain things though. The Penn State blog I did was the most emotionally taxing for me. Given the fact that I have commented on many other blogs about my disillusionment with Division I football I was beginning to feel tired of writing the same thing. I then realized that while I try to be cynical about Division I football, I still seem to have room to be further horrified…which tells me I do have some idealism left within me. Or at least I did before this Penn State thing happened.

I also am continuously aware that I need to deal with my justice issues when it comes to athletics. I’ll be working on that…

I was writing from a very nostalgic place when I wrote Take me back to Old Havana. I will always love to write about my Semester at Sea experiences, as that was a chapter in my life that was truly life changing. I hope soon that the educational opportunities that Cuba holds will be open again to U.S. students. There is much to learn about the relationship between our two countries and it will be important for future leaders to have the opportunity to become familiar with these issues.

In a therapeutic way, I really enjoyed writing my procrastination blog I can still get things done. Yes, I am a procrastinator, but what I didn’t say in there was that I actually a little frustrated with what I consider one of my flaws. I wish I was the superwoman who does not procrastinate…but alas, I am human and often leave assignments until they are at a crucial point. I do not want to be one of those crazy scary overachievers I was referring to, but I do want to be better in my time organization. That’s the truth I did not share in that blog.

But I did have fun with it.

The one I am most hesitant about critiquing is my blog about how the letter to the editor assignment played itself out in the rest of my world as well. My blog a class assignment and a little bit of a miracle was written through a lot of emotion as well as illness. I find that when I am not feeling well, as I was when I wrote this one, my emotions seem much bigger.

The emotions I felt surrounding that weekend were certainly muddled together and were hard to sort through, but they were still very important. What this experience and this writing brought into my consciousness was the realization about how interconnected the different aspects of my world can be. I am a Student Affairs professional and I am a Christian. I am a doctoral student and a church member. I am the daughter of a pastor and a straight ally. I am reluctant to talk about politics, but wield a fiery opinion when I do. In regard to the Church (the big “C” Church) I have anger, fear and doubt. In regard to my current church, I experience gratitude, healing and love.

I have always been a person who is introspective and contemplative…often to an extreme. I cannot help that; it is how I was created. This experience and the time I spent writing about this experience made me realize that I need to embrace the introspective part of me. Being a spiritual person is not something I can check at any door of any room I walk into. I just need to be okay with knowing that it is a part of me as I embark on this quest of getting a PhD. It may not always be an element of what I do for research, but it is part of the lens I look through, and that is okay. We all have lenses.

My favorite personal blog from the semester by far was The Graduate Student Manifesto. I was laughing and smiling through the whole time I was writing that one. I think I write best when I am enjoying the craft of it. I was going for the appropriate balance of wit and sarcasm with just a dash of anger to communicate what I have long considered to be the bane of my academic existence. I shared it with a friend of mine who is a professor of Student Affairs Masters level students and she ended up sharing it with her students. I appreciate that Matt responded with his own blog on the subject and as I said to him in my response, I get why we have APA…I just don’t have to like it. And I REALLY don’t….

Overall thoughts for the semester

The learning I experienced throughout this class has an equal amount to do with the topics we discussed, which were fascinating, and my capacities in communication. I find that I am free on my blogs to write as I want to, which is liberating. However, I find that verbally in class, it is a bit more of a struggle to speak my opinion. Not so much that I don’t feel comfortable speaking, it’s just that there are so many people competing for the floor that sometimes I just let it go and process internally. I am exploring when I need to assert myself with classmates when I feel triggered, and when it is not worth the follow up. I find that in my laid back nature of communicating, I can easily get stepped on when a more assertive person speaks over me. Sometimes I don’t care, but sometimes I do. These are the things I am learning about myself.

Overall, I have very much enjoyed this class. I enjoyed having a different mix of people than our cohort class and I especially liked the larger gathering of our first weekend of classes. I find that the ongoing writing required for this class has been very positive for me. It is a learning experience in itself to write, but it is a good reflection to review what I have written throughout the semester.

I have always lived by the motto “life is a journey” and in re-reading my blogs for the semester, I have enjoyed reliving this particular journey.

HB 1023

Colorado House Bill 06S-1023 is legislation that requires that all persons eighteen years of age or older shall provide proof that they are lawfully present in the United States prior to receipt of certain public benefits. The act requires that persons demonstrate lawful presence by providing documents such as driver’s licenses, visas, social security numbers, U.S. passports, state and federal tax forms.

This law is particularly pertinent to the undocumented student experience in Colorado’s colleges and universities. My college requires three “proofs” in order to be granted in-state residency, as this is what HB 1023 dictates. Even if we as administrators wanted to provide in-state tuition to undocumented students for example, we cannot. While many states do not provide in-state tuition, they do not necessarily have laws that bar all public agencies from providing services to undocumented immigrants outright. I understand that there is heated debate over the right of undocumented students to gain in-state tuition rates and that this debate will likely continue, but I wanted to write a bit about how this legislation is effecting undocumented students beyond their inability to receive in-state tuition.

I bring this up because I work with a group of undocumented students who quite frankly, are some of the brightest and capable students I have met. The problem is that they are continually reminded that they are undocumented and that the state does not believe that they are entitled to any public benefits and this can be defeating for these students. While you may not agree that these students should be granted in-state tuition, should they be allowed to get a student ID, for example?

One of my students was denied a college id because she could not provide a photo id. She is undocumented and cannot get a government id as required by HB 1023. We cannot accept a Mexican Consulate Identification, therefore this student is unable to acquire her school identification. At my school, the ramifications of not being able to get a student ID are not too terrible. You really do not receive an tangible benefits by having the card. What you do get however is a sense of inclusion when you get your ID. I consider it almost a right of passage of the college experience. This is one right of passage that undocumented students take part in. I hadn’t though about this before writing this blog, but I wonder how school sponsored trips would work for these students. Would they be able to legally sign a waiver indicated that they did not hold the school liable for any personal harm that may come during the trip? Would the student be prevented from going on the trip? I am checking with the powers that be at my school to clarify, but this is an interesting topic. I just wonder why we can’t get undocumented students a college ID. Is it so damaging to allow them to feel a part of our institutions?

Blogfolio—Jill Creighton’s Final Thoughts

Blogtroduction

When I first read that we were going to be blogging this semester, I was very excited.  Blogging has been part of my life for approximately a decade, as I used to be a very heavy LiveJournal user.  Generally speaking (err typing?), I like the style of communication.  Blogging allows an author to communicate ideas in an uncensored and less formal way.  I have also seen Blogging be incredibly dangerous and go awry when people type and post before they think about the implications of what is going on the Internet.  My curiosity for the semester had been piqued.

 This style of communication and learning feels incredibly appropriate and modern for a current issues course, and I appreciate the willingness to try something other than a test or a formal, cited essay.  After all, learning can be demonstrated in a multitude of ways and what better place to explore that then in education course in current issues. 

Like many of my colleagues, I identify as a lifetime procrastinator mainly because I have always gotten away with it.  When I read that this was to be a self disciplined exercise and to be done on my own time, I may have panicked a little bit.  I made a personal vow that this time I would not procrastinate because doing 9 blogs and 36 comments in one night seemed like a really bad idea—and I probably would not have gotten away with it. 

To help with this problem, I created what I call a “Blog log” with date ranges for posts, comments, and titles of entries.  I am a Myers Briggs “P”, and though I do possess some “J” tendencies, this is probably the most organized I have ever been in my entire life when it comes to an academic pursuit.  Ultimately, the strategy paid off, and I have been very consistent about my posts and comments throughout the semester.

Here is the “Blog log”:

All-Star Blogs

This assignment asks us to link to our “best blogs”, but I think it’s more appropriate to separate them in a bit of a different way.  Instead, I will two blog posts that were most commented (or perhaps this means most controversial). 

My most commented blog post entitled, “Official Pub Crawl? Seriously!?”, centered around my institution’s homecoming practices.  This post it seemed to elicit strong reactions from my peers.  While I did not comment back to anyone, I was very intentional about some of the language I used around getting the name of the event changed, never using “I” or “me” directly.  I feel I received credit for some actions that were not necessarily mine alone, but instead of collective set of actions amongst my colleagues and me.  This post also felt somewhat validating for me, but I also appreciated my peers who disagreed with my position and opinion.

The blog post that received the second most comments, “Official Facebook, Official Strike, Official Mess at SIU”, discussed both first amendment right issues as well as the rights of governing bodies such as the board of regents or trustees and student voices.  This post also elicited a comment so long it would not fit in the comments section and ended up being an entirely new post.

There are a number of other blogs that I thought were topical an interesting, but they received between just one and four comments total.  These included, “Title IX: It’s not just about Athletics Anymore”, “And the CC's think enrollment is booming--Hong Kong's ENORMOUS incoming class of 2012”, “Free, Global Education”, “Student IDs Tied to Financial Institutions”, “My two days with President Obama('s Administration)”, and “Reflections on NASPA IV-W, Views that Inspire”.  One of my posts, “RateMyProfessors.com: This post is Chili-Pepper hot!”, was just written within hours of this blogfolio, so it is too soon to tell what kind of response it will receive.  Thankfully, none of my posts received no feedback whatsoever.

The number of comments on the posts (and by who—meaning by which cohort) also seemed to be determined by how close we were to the next weekend class meeting.  The closer we were to the meeting, the more activity I saw on my posts in terms of readership and time to first response.

Blogflections

The overall experience of blogging this semester has been positive for me.  As mentioned in my introduction, I really enjoyed the ability to demonstrate my learning and to contribute to a discussion without having to create a formally crafted, traditionally cited (citing by linking as opposed to APA’ing) essay that no one but my instructor will read.  I am a believer in constructivist learning, and the blogging model really allowed me to learn from my peers and, hopefully, for them to learn something from me as well.  I think the blogging could be used for something similar to Mendeley, and can be especially valuable as the doctoral students in the course approach comprehensive exams.

Also in my introduction, I discussed the fine art of procrastination.  Learning and writing in the blogging format also forced me to engage in the class on a weekly basis, whereas I believe the weekend format otherwise would have allowed me to push Current Issues to the back burner until the in-person meeting occurred.  I also appreciated that the blogging allowed us to drop an entire weekend of in-person meetings.

In this era of readily available information, it also becomes very easy to miss critical issues and hot topics even if one does regularly read the Chronicle of Higher Education and Insidehighered.com.  It was very helpful for me to read posts by my peers in order to catch up on current issues that I had missed in my daily research and reading.  Since there such a wide array of professionals enrolled in the class in a variety of functional areas, I also really enjoyed hearing about what my classmates thought of as current and critical issues.

My favorite part about the blogging experience was that the Lowry and Greeley cohorts were permitted to co-mingle in the blog setting.  While I enjoyed the first class meeting as a large group, I feel it would have been overwhelming for an entire semester.  I also feel there is a large amount of added value to the course by allowing this free flowing of ideas, as opposed to separating the two cohorts in the blog setting.

Learning this Semester

I absolutely love it when learning in a classroom setting does not feel laborious, dull, or repetitive.  For me, this class did not feel like any of these things, which I greatly appreciated.  The biggest learning moments for me happened while engaged in deep group discussion for extended periods of time.  I enjoyed the balance between formal readings and the discussion on those and discussions of the current issues as created by the blogs.

I think I learned the most from the discussions on “PC” Halloween, international education (including recruitment practices), tenure, and degrees and administrators.  The expertise demonstrated by my peers on all of these issues really helped me to engage in the issue at hand and stay present in the discussion.  I think the best learning moments occurred when we disagreed, were challenged by each other, and sometimes got a little bit heated.  At the end of the day, I really appreciate my colleagues’ ability to have levelheaded, yet intense discussions on a multitude of issues and still remain respectful.

One of my favorite observational learning experiences this semester happened during our second in-person meeting.  After lunch, the Lowry class was given three choices.  We could discuss women’s issues in higher education, guns on college campuses, or we could work on our letter to the editor assignment.  Our class divided by self selecting into one of the three categories.  Every single male in our class elected to discuss guns on college campuses.  The women in our class divided into the other two groups.  The women elected to talk about women’s issues possess a variety of professional roles.  The women that elected to work on the assignment fell into just two professional categories: student conduct administrators or registrars.  I am not sure exactly what this means, suffice it to say that student conduct officers and registrars tend to be a logical thinkers and task-oriented people.  I wish it were taken the time to ask a few more questions as to why people selected the way that they did, but it might make an interesting study someday.

Some of my learning occurred while learning the nuances of software.  I am challenged by some of the technical shortcomings of the Blogger site itself.  For example, I feel like I should be able to click on my profile, or anyone else’s for that matter, and see their entire library of posts.  I also feel like there should be a feature enabled for comments and/or comment tracking.  If I had not maintained a blog log for the entire semester, I would have had to have gone back and searched for all of my posts and all of my comments.  In casual conversation, many of my peers also expressed frustration with this technical shortfall.  Also, using Blogger required everyone to create a Google account.  Since I am already a frequent Google user this was not a big deal for me, but I wonder if this might create a barrier in the future for other students who are not as technologically engaged.

Overall, this class was a great introduction into HESAL electives and it makes me hopeful for the courses I plan to take in the future.  Moreover, I think this class balanced our core course in terms of practical application, intensity, pragmatism, and teaching style.  Thank you, classmates, for an intellectually stimulating semester.