Blogging

In the world of digital literacy, blogging is the new norm for communication. While static web sites are certainly still the majority resource for information gathering, blogs, or at least blog-like features, are increasingly becoming the norm in mainstream media, institutional communication, and personal learning networks. The most common feature is the comment option, which leaves the author open to both positive and negative feedback. Go to any major news organization's web site and each article will resemble this very blog post.

After reading "Why I Blog" by Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic magazine, I pondered his thoughts from Matt Drudge that a blog is a broadcast, not a publication; how the hyperlink "transforms the experience." If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it matter? If a blog is authored and nobody reads it, does it really matter? The answer is no, only to the author. However, once the hyperlink is shared, followed, and tracked back by other authors, the contents of the blog become visible for all to see. Those that work in mainstream media expect this as part of their new journalistic existence. Academics may not anticipate to get the same exposure.

Authenticated course management systems offer a security blanket of ideas and resources for faculty members and course instructors in the online educational environment. Exposure is limited to students enrolled in their course and possibly a graduate student. Trending upward recently is the use of blogs for course management and communication. Like many resources that are a part of the open resources movement, a good percentage of academic course blogs are not hidden behind authentication. As Andrew Sullivan comments, blogging is about getting as much out as quickly as possible without waiting for the editor and copywriters to scour the facts and figures. In the haste to post today and not tomorrow, what does the "now!" exposure bring to the ideas of academic freedom in higher education teaching and learning.? I suspect that the generation of Millennials in the K-12 system now and those that are in their first years of college are used to the less formal, instantaneous communication of blogs and are willing to give a faculty member some slack for fact checking and bold statements in such a public forum. They are comfortable with posting something "Now!" on Facebook or Twitter and thinking about it later. However in peer review, are blogs protected under academic freedom? In a few cases that have made the media, the answer has been no.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Banished-For-Blogging/1893/

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/University-Sacks-Prof-for-P/756/