Janella's Blog Portfolio

Before this class and my initial expectations

Once upon a time about eight years ago, I tried to maintain a blog because several of my friends blog and they said it was therapeutic and informational. I, however, was only able to complete one posting because I found it difficult highlight anything I wanted to share with the world at large on a regular basis. 

Possibly, this negative reaction to my initial blogging dates back to my employment at a daily newspaper, writing and publishing at least two stories daily really took the love of writing out of the process. When I tried my hand at writing columns, it was more fun but still I tired of sharing my opinion regularly. Blogging, as in column writing, is not just journaling or reflecting on personal experiences. There is the need to justify thought processes and references for every opinion stated and make it relevant for an entirely different type of audience.

Speaking of the audience: why make the effort to write if no one reads the end result? Do you know how many blogs are already out there? One member of my doctorate cohort continuously reads at least eight blogs a week. He enjoys sending us links to the blogs he reads. It is inspirational that he has the time to spend reading these as well as that many areas of interest. This level of engagement and application to his life gave me incentive to believe a class focused on Current Issues using blogging as a means to share information could have merit. I hoped that, if others are also asked to accomplish the same feats of blogging once a week and comment on four other blogs, then they will read and hopefully appreciate my efforts as I do theirs.

I grew up reading Kappan, the magazine for Phi Delta Kappa, a professional association for educators and I have been reading the Chronicle of Higher Education for about 10 years.  I currently receive periodicals for professional associations, such as American Federation of Teachers and the Association for College Personnel Administrators. Usually, my outlet for expressing and discussing items from these sources as well as my understanding an application of the subject matter, is limited. I have lessened my efforts to keep on top of current affairs and stories, so I feel a little out of the loop and I looked forward to catch up on the news with others.

Also for me, current issues originally meant those things with which I am already acquainted and I hoped to find other areas of discussion regarding Student Affairs.

Therefore, I entered into the class hoping to find a different perspective on the act of blogging, based on the topic of Current Issues and the general sharing of knowledge with classmates. This type of exercise is always helpful in making people more aware of how other columnists, editorialists and the like use references to make their points. I hope others have found an appreciation for those in the world who make their living by selling their opinions to others. Especially if the information these people provide is faulty or inconclusive. Get the facts to back up your statements, otherwise be ready for much negative feedback!    

Self assessment: My blogs, my process

I rated highest the three blogs that really impacted my week and thought process about a topic as well as received thoughtful comments from others. The next three blogs, I rated middle because they were not as influential nor did they receive as many well written comments. Finally, the last three are rated lowest because of a lack of insight on my part and the least number of astute comments.

1. Blog #1 on 9/20/2011: Both students and college see ill effects from over exposure, in“Student Athletics” (6 comments)
2. Blog #6 on 10/29/2011: Halloween is a controversial culture event, in “Protest andConflict” (7 comments)
3. Blog #3 on 10/06/2011: Alumna fights against proposed differential tuition, in “Access and the Cost of Higher Education” (4 comments) 
4. Blog #2 on 9/27/2011: Bake sale stirs up more than one controversy, in “Unbelievable” (6 comments)
5. Blog #7 on 11/5/2011: KY AG fights for consumer protection, in “For-Profit" (3 comments) 
6. Blog #5 on 10/14/2011: A proud moment for my school, in “Unbelievable” (3 comments) 
7. Blog #4 on 10/21/2011: Connecting more with students through technology: Too good to betrue?, in “Technology” (0 comments) 
8. Blog #8 on 11/10/2011: There can be only 1 vote, in “Protest and Conflict” (1 comment)
9. Blog #9 on 11/20/2011: International cash incentives, in “International Education” (0 comments) 

My best blogs are the ones I felt most passionate about, mostly those involving students in some sort of conflict or receiving positive recognition. I especially enjoyed writing the very first blog about the Bethany men’s golf team because I took my stance partially based on a conversation with my father-in-law who loves debate and discourse. The event also hit close to home geographically and was personally relative, so it was easy to share my thoughts on the topic. Even if I disagree with it on principle, I also enjoyed learning about UNC's differential tuition for the "Alumna fights" blog. I felt it was something that needed to be shared so others were aware this was happening here and elsewhere.

The middle three blogs are rated further down due to lack of comments but still high because I enjoyed the topic matter. For instance, “Proud moment for my school,” was a fun way to share the positive current subject in higher education, not just the troubling challenges. The “double uses of technology” was also because of my levels of interest and relevancy to the students. As increasingly this and the next generation of students look to their peers and online for behaviorial and decision making, these means of reaching potential students become more established. Which equals a need for those of us in student engagement of any kind to be on top of what is said, who is saying it and who is listening/reading. Unfortunately, it did not receive the reaction from others the other blogs did, so it was not ranked as highly as the others.

My least impressive blogs were because I didn’t feel able to apply it to my own life or I didn’t do as much research into the topic as I felt it needed to be well developed. My blog about New York City Mayor Bloomberg and the race to build a new engineering school. There were not as many resources available regarding the story, which made is almost seem as though it was a non-event in light of other issues in NYC. That to me meant it was something that could easily be swept under the rug and deserved my attention, yet I do not feel I shed any light on the subject.  Similar to my differential tuition sucks” it was my foray into finance matters and mostly it was personal opinion, supported by references but not exactly tied to being detrimental to higher education.

Reflections and deep thoughts

One of the discussions I had with fellow classmates around the fourth week was that everyone was still being nice and friendly in their comments on peer blogs. I asserted that I was being honest and respectful and even when disagreements occur we should be respectful on how we state our differences of opinion. In particular, in my comment on Margaret’s blog about the San Antonio CollegeStudent Life Director and student media. I tried to be as informative and factual without sounding judgmental of any of the other comments or the blog itself. Which can be tremendously difficult to do if a comment is supposed to be less than 400 words!

I realize now I gravitated to mostly to the blogs of Margaret, Jason, and Aldo because of the relevancy and connection I felt with their topic matters.  I believe I may have commented on three of Margaret’s blogs because they were well written and outside of the typical weekly news stories.

Also, in the spirit of honesty, I also had difficulty reading some blogs, either because they took more attention than I had at that time or my interest level in the topic matter was waning. The topic areas we began with were broad and, I felt, all encompassing. By comparison, when we narrowed the field to the final four topics, I felt a little hindered by what news stories to focus on for my blogs.

My biggest disappointment was the amount of overlap in content matter, possibly due to the size of the class. With the high number of participants, we should have expected repetition of subjects. However, some issues, such as Prop 103 and slutty dressing received more attention than I thought possible, although I did enjoy reading and writing about the For-Profit Schools and International Education more than I anticipated.

As the semester continued, it became increasingly more difficult to discuss just one topic in a blog and I appreciate my classmates who turned to different sources for their information. For instance, relating their personal experiences to a current issue or news story, such as Braelin’s dining hall or Jill’s NASPA IV-West conference blogs, gave me insight into areas I had not considered as Current Issues. 


Finally, I was not sure at first how all the readings are tied to our current situations when the book chapters were more than 10 years old except in recognizing that everything old is new again in higher education. I feel we gained more from articles during our in-class discussions by relating it to personal experiences or to recent news events. 

I learned something this semester

Current issues for me originally meant with recent events with students and student life. I did not apply faculty plagiarism or unethical research practices to this thought process, but I was mistaken. Those issues, those stories, affect higher education on another level from the student affairs perspective. I was also amazed with the amount of people who are well informed on the financial aid process, something with which I am still at odds.

Weekend classes, though long in hours, are a great way to communicate thoughts more in depth. In a round table setting such as the class in McKee, it is amazing to watch how people react to topics of discussion and each other. The experience has a great deal to do not only with Current Issues but about bringing professionals together and making them think and speak about those thoughts. Without these types of classes, we may not ever delve past the “how are you today” question into more profound dialogue. 

I was glad for the opportunity to catch up on news, and even happier when others found different ways to discuss a topic that had been covered multiple times before. I especially enjoyed the discussions with classmates outside of class, in the office, in other classes or just being social. I gained a greater perspective of international education and how others in my field or classes or program react to different issues. It also taught me about the writing styles of others and made me think about how to write for my colleagues.

Therefore, I did enjoy having others with whom to share these readings and to hear what they thought about the current happenings affecting higher education. I also truly appreciate the different areas from which people received their stories because using only one or two sources, such as the Chronicle and Inside Higher Education, can become mundane.

My enthusiasm for reading and learning about new issues and about sharing this information with colleagues and peers in a different format has been piqued. Will I continue to blog on a regular basis? Maybe not but like my cohort colleague, I may take on a few co-curricular reading to stay on top of current issues, for higher education and beyond.