Janet's Blog Portfolio

Introduction

I was unsure of what to expect coming into this course. To say that I was a novice in the realm of blogging is a massive understatement. I had zero experience at writing and reading blogs. Besides using the internet for email correspondence or occasional Google searches, my internet experience was limited to checking in on Facebook for updates and pictures of my grandchildren. I am still perplexed by the whole “tweeting” phenomenon. The practice of using the internet to post opinions, thoughts, and mundane updates is not appealing to me as a reader or a writer. I find the Facebook updates and ramblings amusing at best, and am confused as why a person is compelled to share with cyberspace details of daily living such as “grilling steaks for supper tonight.” Why do folks find such postings to be newsworthy? I have “unfriended” dear close friends from my Facebook because they post so many irrelevant updates that I am less than interested in and I do not wish to waste the time scrolling through the junk to get to relevant and interesting updates.

Prior to this course, I utilized the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) Library databases such as ProQuest Education Journals to research scholarly peer-evaluated journal articles and studies for my coursework in the Higher Education Student Affairs Leadership (HESAL) program. I intentionally avoided online resources such as the Chronicle of Higher Education because the nature of the majority of the articles was opinion based and were rarely primary sources. So, it came as a bit of a surprise to me that as a part of this course, the students were directed to subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education and the students were encouraged to review the articles and use articles of interest to base their weekly blogs. I was also unprepared for the extensive use of technology utilized for the coursework. Although I have taken online courses during my undergraduate experience, the HESAL courses I have taken did not contain an online aspect beyond email for turning in assignments and using databases for research.

Best Blog Entries:

Defining Community College Student Success
High School Endorsement
Online Community College Students Struggle with Completion and Transfer?

Reflection on Blogging Experience

Despite my early reservations, trepidation, and technology ignorance, I came to appreciate the format of this class and the blogging experience. I was particularly impressed with the peer to peer learning I observed as well as experienced myself. The individual perspectives and rich diversity of the students in regards to the postings and the class discussions challenged my paradigms and allowed me to expand my viewpoints. The weekend classes were ideally scheduled to reinforce and compliment the postings. Although I was able to explore the various experiences and perspectives of the students by reading their postings, the classroom discussions allowed for in depth analysis which gave me a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. The combination of online and face-to-face discussions, in my opinion, exemplified the peer-to-peer learning environment. The postings allowed for topics to be introduced and explored and the classroom discussions allowed for the intricacies of an issue to be examined in layers. This was my last semester in the HESAL program and although all of my classes have had a focus on peer-to-peer learning, the format of this course captured the epitome of a peer-to-peer learning environment.

I was especially impressed with the vastly different viewpoints shared by students while maintaining a respectful and engaging environment. It was obvious from the postings and the classroom discussions that the students brought with them an assortment of backgrounds in relation to age, education, religion, politics, etc. Given the connection between the aforementioned aspects and the issues facing higher education, it would seem likely online and classroom discussions could become heated and emotional. Although many issues raised triggered passionate input, the participation demonstrated civil discourse. I found myself on several occasions starting out the face-to-face portion of the class on Friday evening with a certain stance on an issue only to find by the end of the day on Saturday, I was questioning my stance if not of a completely different opinion. This was not the result of anybody’s attempts at persuasion but rather the presentation or examination of an issue in a light that I had not considered or perhaps fully understood. More often than not, it was the result of the latter.

Summary

Although I was initially intimidated by the technology involved in this class, I found it to be an enriching experience. The combination of researching topics to post about and reading the posts published by other students allowed me to consider issues I otherwise would not have explored. I tend to be narrow-minded in my focus on higher education as my blogs reflect. Community college had the most impact on me as a student, it is where I currently work, and it is where I plan to continue my career in higher education. However, reading the blog posts, forming comment responses, and the classroom discussions expanded my body of knowledge to the world of higher education across the board and gave me insight to the connections between higher education in society as well as globally.

For example, I had not contemplated the effect of technology on the continued need for a space to be dedicated to house books. Imagine a university sans the library as discussed in “Multi-Tasking Technology and the ‘Need’ for Physical Campus Libraries” by Kylie? Academic freedom was a concept I took granted prior to reading “Sexual Harassment or Limiting Academic Freedom at University of Denver?” by Lori Kester. Before reading this post I was unappreciative of the balancing act professors must exhibit in this era of hyper sensitivity and potential for leaving an institution in a legally vulnerable situation.

Given my limited exposure to the four year university setting, I was quite enlightened by the social, financial, and cultural perspectives shared in the online and classroom discussions. I believe this was best illustrated by the blog posts and classroom discussions related to the Occupy Protests and the Penn State scandal. I had formed opinions based on headlines but after reading the numerous blog posts, comments, and participating in the class discussions I realized my opinions were founded on traits that merely scratched the surface of the actual issues.

In addition to the blog posts that illuminated the complexities involved, the classroom discussions made me realign my formerly simplistic view of the fiscal elements of higher education. I now realize that throwing money at an issue may merely address a superficial aspect and even worse, may cause more problems than it fixes for the long-term. There were several blog posts about the financial aid system in Australia and I would whole-heartedly support such a system being implemented in the United States. However, as I mentioned before, I tend to lean towards simple fixes and as Kelsi pointed out in her blog “Australia Might Have the Answer” the system may be detrimental to scholarship awards. These are just a few examples of what I learned from the informative, thought provoking, and well written blog posts from my classmates.

As outlined in my introduction, the technology component of this class presented me with a steep learning curve. I have this course to credit with the fact that I am now proficient at inserting a hyperlink. Before this class, I will admit that the mere mention of the term “hyperlink” made me hyperventilate. Furthermore, navigating and disseminating the massive amounts of emails from the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed proved to be a challenge for me early in the semester. Eventually I adapted and discovered that I did not need to read every single article and instead focused on areas of interest. The number of blog posts and comments came as a surprise to me and had I realized the time required for the researching and reading each week I may have postponed taking this class until the spring when I could devote the time to it that the class deserved. This is not a reflection on the class, but rather a testament to my life outside of school at this particular time.

In summation, I would be remiss if I did not address what I learned about myself as a result of this endeavor. In retrospect, I recognized that I veered towards safety and avoided taking risks. This is evident in my choice of blog posts and blog post titles. In reviewing the blog entries of myself and others, I saw that I restricted myself primarily to areas related to community college issues. At the time, I thought I was selecting the topics based on interest, but if I were to be honest I would have to admit that my selections had far more to do with comfort level. I do not believe I wanted to take the risk of addressing issues that I had little familiarity with and run the risk of failing to grasp the issue in a critical fashion. Even the titles of my blog posts were uninspired and bland. After reviewing the blog posts, I noticed the creative and innovative titles associated with the majority of the blog posts and I regret taking such a “vanilla” approach in my writing.