Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Reflections on Academic Blogging as a Vehicle for
Professional Development
Peps Mccrea
University of Brighton, UK
p.j.mccrea@brighton.ac.uk
Abstract: This paper is a work-in-progress: it outlines the earliest stages of a larger inquiry into the affordances
of academic blogging as a vehicle for professional development. During this time I have been immersing myself
in the online environment and grappling to figure out what academic blogging means to me. To offer the reader a
rich insight into this experience I present a reflective account together with an analysis of these formative
experiences of social media. Higher Education (HE) in the Western world is currently grappling to position itself in
a shifting landscape of economic rationalisation, too-fast-to-keep-up technological innovation, and escalating
marketisation (OLTF 2011). Blended learning and social media are being explored as potential solutions to these
pressures. In this paper I explore the potential opportunities and challenges afforded by academic blogging for
professional development. The concepts I have used as a framework for discussion are: exposure, engagement
and networking. It is argued that these features combined with the non-hierarchical structure of social media
(Siemens and Weller 2011) mean that academic blogging has the potential to create a self-organising, highly
responsive and digitally reflexive staff, for a relatively low cost. However, not all academics or institutions will be
comfortable with the time investment or risk associated with writing in the public domain. However, if institutions
refuse to accept blogging as a form of scholarly activity then academics may struggle to position themselves as
public intellectuals in the digital age (Kirkup 2010).
Keywords: academic scholarship, professional development, online identity, social media, blogging
1. Introduction
This paper aims to capture the emerging experiences of my inquiry into the affordances of academic
blogging as a vehicle for professional development. It is composed of a reflective account together
with a brief and somewhat superficial analysis of my formative experiences of social media. I hope
that this approach will offer the reader an authentic and rich insight into this newish area of scholarly
activity (Hayler 2010). Comments on the narrative in Mccrea (2011) such as 'wondering if you
somehow read my mind about tweeting, blogging etc.' and 'best insight into power of blogging, Twitter
and network I have ever read' could be see to add some credibility to the experiences described.
This paper comes at a time when Higher Education (HE) in the West is grappling to position itself in a
shifting landscape of economic rationalisation, too-fast-to-keep-up technological innovation, and
escalating marketisation (OLTF 2011). As blended learning becomes increasingly attended to as a
panaceaic response to these pressures, the demand for digitally literate academic capacity grows. I
suggest that blogging challenges existing rubrics for professional development in HE, and offers a
exposed, engaged and networked experience that has the potential to foster robust levels of digital
literacy over time.
One day someone convinces you to try Twitter. You don’t like it. But you persist. You
respect your friend and they say it is not like Facebook. You upload your best profile pic
and fill in your Bio. You only have 160 characters. Who are you? Your professional self,
your personal self, a mixture, or the whole bag? You have your first online identity crisis.
A couple of weeks of frustration go by and you start to follow people who are of interest
to you. They are ‘tweeting’ some interesting stuff and even seem to be having
conversations. How do they find the time? Do they not have jobs? You are becoming
increasingly aware that you are watching but not contributing. You are ‘lurking’.
Most of the people you follow blog when they want to say something substantial. And
then tweet about it. And then other people you follow comment. And then tweet about it.
You consider your first tweet. The big one. Oh how they will judge you. You type it,
delete, retype, and then leave it for another day.
Your first few tweets come and go. Not much happens. Your friends congratulate you.
You are a bit disappointed. You comment on a few blogs. They reply! You feel a little
excited. You look around, but no-one’s watching.
By now you have a good handle on Twitter, and you use it as a kind of personalised
newsfeed. You are up to the minute in your area of interest and feel a greater sense of
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