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Lesson learned.
Soon, I will embark on a new research journey, a pilot study of literacy teachers learning “new” digital literacies such as podcasting and digital storytelling as alternative formats for case study representation. Pending IRB approval, the study will begin in fall 2011.
The journal begins today.
I am dusting off this old blog and re-purposing it as a reflexive research journal. I am not sure of all the implications of this, especially since I have not yet fully formed my research design or invited participants to the study. But I am excited at the prospect of breathing new life into this blog. Even if I only use it to document "tasks, events, and actions," as LaBanca did (2011, p. 1164), it will be worth it. After my most recent academic writing experience, I am invigorated by the thought of having a "permanent record" and "memory prompt" (Watt, p. 83).
I started this blog in 2007 as a master's student in Instructional Technology. At the time, it was a place to document and reflect on what I was learning about web-based technologies and social media and how it all related back to my interests in language arts instruction, adolescent literacy, and 21st century classrooms.
Periodically, I have returned to the blog, mostly to model reflective practice and to engage with students in the technology course I sometimes teach.
Sadly, I have not used the blog at all in relation to my work as a PhD student in reading education. This was not a conscious choice or decision, just the result of the rigors and cognitive mayhem imposed by a graduate-level workload and a full and happy home life. I couldn't figure out how to fit it in. I'm still not sure how it's going to fit, excepting for the fact that I am required to post at least twice a week in connection with a course I am currently taking this summer titled "Digital tools for qualitative research."
Over the last four years, this blog has had three different names, two different hosts, and more different themes, templates, and header designs than I can count, but my core interests and passions have remained unchanged. Despite the long periods of inactivity, I am excited to keep past, present, and future posts together under one digital "roof," a document of my growth and development as a teacher/learner (and, now, "researcher").
Over the next several weeks in connection with coursework in EP 604, I hope to sort out some of my questions about using a blog as a reflexive research journal.
Primarily, I am wondering about audience and feedback, once peer and instructor support of EP 604 goes away. Perhaps it doesn't matter; I will surely benefit, as did Watt, from the "generative nature of this practice" (p. 83) regardless of readership. But then why choose an open and accessible medium -- a blog -- to begin with? Why not use a word processor and create a digital journal right on my computer desktop? And, assuming I secure the permission of participants for my hoped-for pilot study, what impact will my online, reflective writing have on them? More importantly, how do I encourage them to join me? How do I build a community of practice around this blog?
You also return to blog after a periond of time. I have the similar experience.
ReplyDeleteI love your writing, Jennifer - I remember that from the last time you were in my class. I do think that using a blog as a medium will change the nature of your writing and reflection - it will be different than if you were writing a word document on your computer. Different how? That's what you will discover, I hope.
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