Through the Lens: the blogging process (or, Notes from the Blogface) - Part 2

Now here`s a tangent.

Like a comet, my next moves are deft and precise: I must search for the first blog EVER! Back to Allthe Web. Type in `first blog ever` and click search. Pause. No way. How many blogs are called `My First Blog Ever`?!

That can`t be! Perhaps I should Ask Jeeves? `Jeeves, who has the first blog ever?`

Jeeves replies in much the same way as AlltheWeb. I feel deflated. My efforts have not been fruitful, so I abruptly halt my investigation: there are certain things the WWW just will not bend to!

A few more clicks back on the Amazon site and I`m growing bored. I hjave not yet tried Blood`s blog, so back to AlltheWeb to my first search page. I do a quick scan and see an article at Slashdot.

I quickly scroll down through the article (`scroll` in this context could be interchanged with `glance`), then I spotted a linked phrased towards the end of the document; ?freely available on her website.? Here was my door to Rebecca`s website! But not before scrolling quickly back up through the Slashdot article for another quick ?glance?. I subconsciously scan the screen for the oft-present `print this article` button, but was unable to find one, so hit the print button in my browser instead. This article would make for juicy reading later on, curled up in a warm bed! I continue with my scrolling and happen upon readers comments at the bottom of the page! What a find! Always an interesting read. I skim the first few comments and am struck by two. Interesting to note that of the first 6 comments, 3 were from the same user.

At this point, following my printing of the article, I remembered I had some other articles on blogging so again swivel back to my paper-cluttered desk and sift through he stack until I find what I am looking for: one article by Rob Enderle and another given to me by a colleague, entitled, `The Revolution Will Not Be Blogged` (Packer, 2004). Both of these articles refer to the tension between the blogging phenomenon and the current state of play in journalism profession, particularly in relation to online news and electronic journalism. Other articles I recall focus more on the potential of blogs in teaching and learning. So, in all this I think to myself, `Self` I say, `Would it not be a good idea to dig deeper into blogging and see what has gotten so many people into a spin?`

I finally return to my article on the Blogosphere once more to finish my highlighting and pen-scrawling comments, having previously decided midway through reading that I`d search for `R. Blood`.

Throughout this process I carefully thought to not only print articles for further reading, but bookmarked pages for future reference, thinking I might include these references in my blog post! I have hundreds of bookmarked pages and articles. My bookmark manager has become my virtual `safe place` for storing all that interests me online and beyond! I`ve learnt over the years to be methodical about my bookmarks and now have a rather sophisticated filing system that rivals my `My Documents` folder!

Through the Lens: the blogging process (or, Notes from the Blogface) - Part 1

So, this blogging thing is pretty big now, huh! Well, I was curious having recently read articles and papers to really dig into this process that is blogging.

In this rant, I don`t intend to throw out an opinion on blogging, more to chew the fat on blogging a little deeper and record a blogging process. So I said to myself, `Self, I should note done in detail my own blogging process in preparing a blog post as I would, any other day.`

So, this is my story, from the blogface!

I log into my blog and open a second browser window in preparation to search the web as needed (AlltheWeb is my preferred engine).

I swivel around in my chair and grab an article I had scanned recently, by Ferdig and Trammell, on content delivery in this ?thing? called the Blogosphere. I begin to read the article more deeply and with a purpose, which is, to reference my upcoming blog post on blogs. As I read, I take up my fluoro-green highlighter pen and begin highlighting phrases and comments that stand out for me, and in addition, I jot down comments in the margin with my pen. I note in the article, extensive reference to Blood (2002). Swivelling back to my computer station, I type `R. Blood` into my search engine. Missed. Results returned referred to something about W.A.T.E.R. Blood...not what I envisaged at all! I refine my search a second time, after reviewing the reference in the article once again, to read `weblog handbook`. Bingo! Lots of Amazon links and all sorts of reviews. Things look very promising.

A quick scan through the first page of search results and I notice a Slashdot article with a partial line `...time weblogger Rebecca Blood`s The Weblog Handbook`. I have a name. Rebecca Blood was a blogger. It would be most interesting to see her blog then!

I scan the list of search results looking for interesting phrases, when a heading catches my eye `a romantic view of weblogs`, the summary concludes:

Rebecca Blood`s The Weblog Handbook is an inexorably romantic guide to building and...

I must read more! I click (my AlltheWeb preferences are set to open search results in a new browser window) and up pops a book review on Blood`s book, at HYPERTEXT|NOW| by Eastgate Systems Inc. It looks fairly legit to me. I scroll slowly through the review. A couple of quotes from Blood`s book punctuate the article and already I`m thinking that this is worth printing! I scroll quickly through to the end of the page and note with a smile that the author, Mark Bernstein, also has a blog!

I hit the print button in my browser (no sign of the oft-present 'print this page' icon) and hear the networked printer groan to life down the corridor. At this point I think to myself, `Self, now is probably a good time to actually check out this book by Blood, at Amazon.com`. The HYPERTEXT|NOW| review links directly to it.

Wow! Before I even notice the book by Blood on the Amazon page, I see a screen full of books related to the art of blogging! How can this be? Surely blogging is still fairly new isn`t it? Perhaps there is call to be alert to the hubbub that is blogging!

The education design and development process - Part 2

Moments in the Process

I've mentioned moments a couple of times in my last post. Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) talk about moments in their work on Action Research (see The Action Research Planner and The Action Research Reader)

I feel comfortable with the use of the term 'moment', as it does not hang on to any particular part, stage, phase or any other pre-determined element of a process and is not necessarily constricted to a certain time or space, or even a topic!

A 'moment' allows some space to breath, to experience, to 'be', and to not do anything really at all! A 'moment' can be described along a continuum (although somewhat primitive and perhaps more appealing to the pragmatist in all of us!):

At one end sits the "flash" - that moment that almost slips by unnoticed and is very hard to put into one's conscious mind, let alone into words.
At the other end sits the "momentus moment" - that moment which is, well, huge! - all engaging, life changing, steeped in meaning and cannot be missed!

There is also reflective moments, challenging moments, tense moments, moments that slip by, "just a moment" and so the list goes on... but if you take these moments and set them within the design and development processes, it almost allows you to capture those often intangible 'moments' that tend to move fluidly back and forth through the processes developing and maturing.

Scott Berkun talks about design being a reflective process, in which he too mentions 'moments':

Some moments require an emphasis on the logical and rational. Others demand creative exploration and expression driven work.
May 20, 2002

Capturing Moments - more than Serendipity

How can we capture the more intangible elements of the design and development process to then use to inform better practice and clarify expectations and outcomes? One approach I hope to take is to write case by case stories of the developments I work on and capture firstly my thoughts, insights and questions, then the views of those others who might collaborate on the development, most especially the academics for whom we support in such developments. There are many examples of case studies, written to reflect on processes, extend conversations and record a series of moments for future reference.

I feel case stories are much more than a reflective journal or a professional diary, and offer a more consolidated view into some of the intricacies of the development as told from one or more viewpoints. On that note, I'll leave you with a great piece from Seth Kahan, who interviewed John Seely Brown about the nuances of storytelling.

The education design and development process

Just last week I presented a poster with others involved in a university-wide project aimed to accelerate the development of units across most faculties, to provide a 'showcase' of exemplar units using online technologies.

It was an interesting activity and although a small-ish turnout, got many people talking especially about experiences of processes.

With every development a different approach was taken but within a similar process. The developments are dependent on many factors mostly consisting of;
- level of skills of those involved
- roles of those involved
- motivation of those involved
- rationale or agenda of those involved.

As you can see it's all about the people! Without people there is no process! I was keen to not just talk about or display in my poster what was developed, but attempt to highlight the intangible developments of the collegial relationship between myself as education designer and the academic, and the collaboration with multimedia artists and developers to bring a 'product' together. In using the word product, there were 2, a CD-Rom and a webCT site, at the one level, and mutliple intangible products at another level - things like negotiating a "common dialogue" between education designer and academic to vocalise each other's understanding of moments occurring in the development over three months. Gradually, a "shared meaning" resulted from active and reflective conversations between the two.

This relationship brought professional development processes to the fore, as well as making the process of development more explicit, another 'product'. As education designer, I am now more familiar with sytematic processes which support (and sometimes confuse!) the development process. I am also aware of an increase in my own confidence in supporting academics during this process, with a greater understanding of elements and moments that occur in the development process.

Creativity, education design and evaluating process

I must convey my recent collection of experiences on work I've done with a bachelor of nursing unit for post registration nurses (across the globe).

Since beginning my education design career, I have felt bombarded by the magnitude and scope of the myriad tasks which constitute my workload. I seem constantly to get stuck inside the mundane, administrative activities, and have forgone reflecting on the more creative elements of my work - of which, I must say, are quite substantial. I ask you to broaden your definition of 'creativity' to encapsulate the elements of personal development to be learning experiences (most are aren't they?!)...

I find the problem solving aspects of my work offer a creative challenge - this, to me, is the essence of education design. The learning is immense - and intense! I have, in the last fortnight or so, reflected more closely on the actions and conversations of and with my colleagues in light of this word 'creativity' and my problem-solving thesis has been proven many times! You can almost feel the cogs turning, well-oiled, with full service history!

Having turned my focus more to these creative moments, I have felt new life being breathed into my work. That is not to say I've dropped all administrative and other mundane tasks (oh to dream!), but I have realigned my thinking to centre more on the processes of creative thought instead. Now, many would say "I told you so!" - but as with all experiences, you must feel it yourself, rather than rely on others to be your 'wise eyes'. Although, I do recall a saying that goes something like this:

A fool learns from his mistakes; a wise person learns from the mistakes of others.

Perhaps not a very practical idea, but it sounds promising!

I have digressed...back to creativity...
Another 'creative catharsis' arose from presenting the findings of an evaluation conducted on the same unit mentioned above, which ultimately informed the development I worked on. Reflecting on the evaluation has me reflecting again on the creative experience and the time spent building a rapport with the academic coordinating the unit. This relationship combines a fluid arrangement of creative input and negotiating the academic terrain, which often involves critiquing the content presented within the unit itself. Content poses many challenges and education design often asks the academic particularly to release this content from the 'sanctuary' within which it resides. This means building avenues of trust and allowing time for this 'release' (usually more than one development phase, often at least two) to manifest.

Education designers have become quite adept at not only supporting this release, but empathising with the academic position. The content, in its released form, becomes 'public property', 'naked' for all to see - transparent.

Sharing content in this way is perhaps challenges the legitimacy of the academic's own position. So too, education designers are challenged - often their position is in danger of being construed as lacking academic discipline. However, education designers usually display a wide ranging scope of interests and skills, which stand them in good stead for the work they must do.

My partnership with the academic of the nursing unit has brought this very interesting relationship struggle to the fore, not for her acknowledgement of a lack of my position, but has shown herself to build her own picture of me as an education designer. This has developed through the negotiation of tasks and of initiating and supporting various aspects of the development process, as each stage has presented itself. to me it is reminiscent of constructivist learnign theory, that we all bring prior knowledge and experience to a new learning encounter; where we then restructure our knowledge framework to distill and appropriate this new learning with our existing knowledge. Constructivist learning approaches seem to most naturally fit the education design paradigm.

I am most grateful for this experience with this academic and to be privy to such a relationship early on in my career is a big plus - I feel my ideals have not been sullied to the point of anonymity!

Long live education design!