Blogging: A Loose Cannon

It's been on my mind for the last couple of days. Here I am trying to figure out the essential life force of blogging, of professional development and thrown in along with these Web 2.0 concepts, I have to write a post on the matter. I guess all this contemplating finally got to me. My approach to the topic didn't hit me until Saturday morning. Between the snooze button and my hazy dreams, the notion came out of no where. I rolled over, scribbled it on a piece of paper and fell back to sleep. But as I look at my scribble, I know it's true. Blogging is a loose cannon!

Look at the definition of the phrase:

An unpredictable person or thing, liable to cause damage if not kept in check by others.

Does that not sum up blogging within the academic world? Wandering down memory lane of previous links, I have to refer back to Anne Trubek when she said that "Critics bemoan blogging as the province of the amateurism. Journalists rue the loose ethics and shoddy fact-checking of citizen journalists." But there's always a flip-side to the Internet coin. You and I know that blogging was not originally intended for the professional arena. However, we both know that any Web 2.0 tool has quickly adapted from professing the inner workings of selves with little regard to audience to personal development and career advancement with an acute awareness of self (see slideshow).

Blogging and academic identity

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Blogs are loose cannons. The issues alone can make a person cringe. There's the identification of the blogger. Are they a ghost or for real? Then there's matters of privacy. What you're putting out there will it get anyone else in hot water? Are blogs accessible to visually and hearing impaired individuals out there? Comment spamming can be a problem when bloggers blogs are used within wikis as sources. Getting the picture? Okay, things may have changed concerning these issues, however its difficult to dissuade those from these particular points of views.

I think Eszter Hargittai's reflections that some individuals "dismissed the idea that blogging should be counted as rigorous scholarship although they seem supportive of the idea that it could be considered under one’s academic service," but argues that blogs cannot be comparable to journals. However, blogs in of themselves hold value in its peer review process. Eszter writes that blogs are, "much more conducive to intellectual exchange and the advancement of knowledge than publishing articles in journals that no one will ever read." I concur.

So how are we tying down this loose cannon? Comments. We are using comments as a means of establishing a form of credibility within the blogging world. Those that comment are the ones verifying what is written is true or false. We may not necessarily agree with what is being written, which also allows for argument (which is not a bad thing). But a pattern emerges. We start to follow a few blogs, than several than many. Here comes another rope to tie down that rolling piece of metal: RSS feeds. RSS feeds allow all of my information into one sphere of Internet space. Talk about convenient. I stuck with Google Reader, because first, it was highly suggested and secondly, I've found not problems with navigation since starting. Interacting with this web app has been slow business, since I've been changing the blogs I follow or adding onto the list. All of this saves me time when I am wanting to comment.

And don't give up blogging. It's an art. You're still developing your voice, your presence within the blogsphere. I'm learning that blogs comes in all lengths and sizes. Darren Rowse presents a few interesting tips on reasons you shouldn't quit blogging.

I don't think I will ever quit. Reading my classmates blogs, reading other teacher/librarian blogs, I am truly inspired. In other words, I am now interested in my own professional development. I suppose professional development can be summed in Wikipedia terms as "skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement," but I think the definition needs redefining in context to blogging. It's not just about my personal development but also the development of my students/patrons I also have in mind. Blogging is about community and it's about interacting with others. By writing, I contribute and I connect. Weblogg-ed refers to Karl Fisch's example of profesional development as staff development where he encouraged and challenged teachers to "reflect on their practice and create community around common goals" that focused on improving ""teacher and student use of technology, to achieve curricular goals, to help transform the school to a more student-centered,constructivist approach, and to prepare students to succeed in the 21st century.”"

I see blogging as a loose cannon only because the general view of it rolling about the Web 2.0 deck seems to be relevant. Am I correct in assuming this? Or is this changing? I am reading a lot of edublogs that are saying the loose cannon is slowly being put into place. But really, in the depths of us all, do we want this? What new controversy would we talk about? Oh wait, I forgot...there's twitter. Let the cannons roll!