Comments (0) From the past ten days…
under construction, aka sagrada familia
graffiti near san sebastian
rainy square in the hague
Back in HK on August 2, starting orientation on August 3. More posts and thoughts to come then.
It’s gotta be said, the stereotype of the Ivory Tower, that academics are lost in their research and out of touch with reality, exists for a reason.
The first week the fact that I was in a completely different realm hit home when I received the following handout:
The Rainbow of Confusion
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After some time to adjust I have found that I enjoy the challenges that this “Ivory Tower” brings with it. But at first there was culture shock.
To be frank, out of the dozen or so professors I have heard speak, a few of them spout out loads of rubbish, or (in American), they are full of bullshit.
But the professors are aware of it. In the first week, we heard the following in a lecture:
“Now when you are using a questionnaire or a survey to get data from students, you need be careful. Sometimes you get invalid results when you have subjects who are cognitively or linguistically challenged…[there is a pause, and then Prof X starts to laugh at herself]…I mean, students who can’t read very well!”
And then Professor Y opened the course on Multilingual and Multicultural Education with a lecture full of crazy new words…”degustation”, “bilinguality”, “equilingualism”, “plurilingualism”, “triskadekalingualism”, etc. (Okay one of those I made up.) But then he recognized how verbose he was being and ironically described it using more of the same sorts of language:
“I don’t speak this way at home to my wife. I am adopting an academic register, using vocabulary that I don’t use outside of this linguistic domain, this context.”
But it can be sort of infectious. At the end of the first week, when I was explaining my research proposal to my classmates, there was the following exchange.
Me: “…so one reason I am concerned about that approach to collecting the data is that it might not be very efficacious.”
Sitting to my right, SC shakes his head, “Huh?”
“It wouldn’t work.”
Does this look as nerdy to you as it does to me? Academia. Sigh. But coming up: the bright side of it.
So to follow up from my previous post, I went hunting for models / discussions of how to start up a blog, and specifically, what it means to have professionalism online.
I started with a big player – Will Richardson – and specifically this page, where he has posted all sorts of resources and relevant links about blogs. I clicked on about a dozen links that seemed at first glance to be relevant.
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is a “retroactive live-blog” of the highlights of my one hour hunt. (Stealing a page from Bill Simmons – his passion and humor deserve all praise.)
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First Stop: Anne Davis.
Hmm. Nope, this is a post to get educators convinced of the value of the blog, both in and outside of the classroom. Not for me – I’m already converted!
But before I leave her page let me skim the right sidebar…wow, she’s been blogging since I was in college! Back then, all I did online was Napster. Maybe there’s something else to be found, under “Beginnings” (3 posts), or “Obstacles” (3 posts)…nope…and the category of “Weblogs” is too big to spend time on, with 349 posts.
Repeating the fruitlessness of this experience with the blogs of Clarence Fisher, Chris Lehmann, and Scott McLeod, I wonder if I’m going about this the wrong way? What else can I do in addition to scanning tags and categories and few searches?
We’ll try again: Konrad Glogowski
Vygotsky reference in the title of the blog is a plus. Nice prose as well – despite running on for substantially longer than your typical blog post.
Initial reaction is that this looks like more of the same, preaching to the converted, as the ideas in this post are on how to foster student blogging. But upon a closer reading of this related post, I wonder if what I am looking for isn’t contained in the ideas there. I also have the feeling after reading the bio that if I dive deeper into the archives I’ll find what I’m looking for here.
We end with one last flicker of hope: Karl Fisch.
I remember his blog fondly as one of the sparks for my first ever presentation on technology – it should still be alive online at slideshare here.
And it looks like with Karl I have again found something worthwhile! His last two posts are on the topic of protecting student identities online. Not directly related, but this would be a great chance for me to add my two cents and put in a question as well.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76206184@N00/775521097
So – what did my hunt catch me? Konrad’s (dormant?) blog and archives which should occupy me for some time, and a “happening now” conversation related to this topic at The Fischbowl. Hopefully I have enough food for thought to formulate whatever will satisfy me as a “code of online professionalism”.
I have to say it, though – should I have had to look so hard for this? Or am I tilting at windmills when the answer to being “professional” online is something simple and right in front of my face?
Here’s a new puzzle facing me on this fresh blog:
Am I allowed to refer to my professors by name?
The bigger issue is, what topics do I feel comfortable putting online? What’s fair game, what’s in season?
On my last blog, I was only blogging about specific lessons and how I saw my career progressing. I made it a rule to not mention any specific names, certainly not students, and to refrain from posting anything about my school that I wouldn’t want to email to all users. The result of this was that most of the issues and events that made me passionate and got my mind twirling stayed off of the blog. A bit of a conservative stance, but a safe one.
But with this fresh start on a new site, I want to expand my definition of what it means to have professionalism on a blog. There is so much more that I want to write about, so much more that I want to write to a level that I feel is “publishable”:
So to do all that, I must expand my definition of online professionalism. Where shall I start? With the guru, excuse me “Learner in Chief”, Will Richardson. Not to say I’m comparing myself to him – but I bet I can find a link or seven from there that will serve me just fine.
We’ll see what I come up with.
A couple of significant developments in my career are taking place this summer, so I thought that it was time to say goodbye to my old blog over at blogger and start up my very own domain here.
First, I am finally getting started towards a Master’s degree, in International Education from the University of Bath. It’s part-time, so I’m going to be reading my way through two courses while working this coming school year.
And second, I decided to return to my previous employer, Hong Kong International School. However I’m not going back to the high school: I’ll be teaching grade 7 & 8 Social Studies. I will dearly miss everyone in the Secondary Division back at The ISF Academy – colleagues, administrators, staff, students, and parents – but it was time to go.
My aim is for this blog over the next year is that it will be a place where I am able to refine my thoughts on my coursework. I’m enrolled in two modules: Research Methods in Education, and Multilingual and Multicultural Education.
And…that’s all I’ve got for now. But I DO have plenty of questions / plans / next steps for this blog. I want a new theme and I don’t like the title. I hope my professors will let me mention them by name. And as I fall asleep, I wonder: will I be able to turn this into a Real Blog that Real People read, or will the realities of school life crush my hopes and dreams yet again?
Talk to you again soon!
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