I’ve attended education conferences where an organized blogging team team posts regularly about presentations and other conference activities (most recently, the National School Boards Association T+L meeting in Dallas), but this is the first time I’m aware of that a team will blog live at an annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Check out Blog AERA, a project of educational psychology doctoral students at Northern Illinois University. I will post occasionally, although I’m not part of a team. I’m just curious–how many others will be blogging the meeting?
April 6, 2007 at 9:23 am |
I will be blogging the conference but not on my own site – it will be over on Peabloggy (http://peabloggy.wordpress.com/).
April 6, 2007 at 9:48 am |
That’s great. The more blogging, the more web presence for AERA and for our colleges and universities.
April 12, 2007 at 5:05 pm |
Paul,
Thanks for the reference to our BlogAERA blog project on your blog. While I’m having a lot of fun with this experiment, my novice doctoral students are proving to be a bit web-shy. I’d like to think this experiment in live-blogging will be the start of an important trend.
Best,
Cecil Smith
April 12, 2007 at 8:31 pm |
I agree with you that live blogging will become more common. I’d estimate there were a dozen or so people posting blogs from the AERA conference, some graduate students and some veteran teachers (well, at least one). I scanned my Google Alerts the whole time to get a flavor of what people were saying about the conference, and I mentioned the value of Google Alerts during my own panel presentation Wednesday. On the other hand, I heard two academics express pretty serious doubts about the value of blogging in the education world (they’re just stream of consciousness! and they’re not peer reviewed!) , and another said he just doesn’t understand blogs and what is this all about, anyway? And he is on an official communication committee. So stick to your guns; academic blogging will find its place in time, as today’s grad students become tomorrow’s faculty.
April 13, 2007 at 7:37 pm |
I’m thinking about writing a piece for Educational Researcher about my AERA blogging experience — in the hope of trying to influence others to do so. Thanks for you words of encouragement.
Have enjoyed reading your blog reports from the Annual Meeting!
Best,
Cecil Smith
April 14, 2007 at 10:13 am |
Hi Cecil
That’s a great idea. I’d bet yours would be the first ER article on the topic. Too bad ‘blog’ is such a stupid sounding word. We should call it virtual networking or disruptive media or ‘under the radar academic communication’ or something equally as subversive sounding. That fact that people were blogging from AERA allowed me to (virtually) meet many people whom I otherwise would not have. I can’t wait for New York next year. The bloggers will be legion.
April 14, 2007 at 8:15 pm |
I like your subversive mind, Paul. Great synonyms for “blogging,” — I agree, a silly word. I made an announcement about the blog at a session in which I was a participant, and I left lots of flyers lying around during the meeting that said:
“We’re live-blogging the Annual Meeting. You can participate, too, at:
http://blogaera.blogspot.com
While I didn’t have any takers, I have no doubt that people saw them and there was some awareness that a few attendees were, indeed, blogging the conference. I think you’re correct–there will be many more bloggers next year!
Cecil