Blogging

There is a trend in the decline in blogging as mentioned here

Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their allure for many people — particularly the younger generation.

I found this quite an interesting trend, as I have found many “fellow” bloggers slowing down in the postings in the blogs, or might have stopped blogging altogether.  However, there was also an increase in some of those bloggers participating or interacting in the Facebook and Twitter during the past year.

Why would people blog?  Why would people (bloggers) switch to other social media like Facebook and Twitter?

Why blogs: Personality prediction of blogging provides an interesting account on personality factors and how these factors could be used as a prediction of the likelihood  of being a blogger.

The results of two studies indicate that people who are high in openness to new experience and high in neuroticism are likely to be bloggers. Additionally, the neuroticism relationship was moderated by gender indicating that women who are high in neuroticism are more likely to be bloggers as compared to those low in neuroticism whereas there was no difference for men. These results indicate that personality factors impact the likelihood of being a blogger and have implications for understanding who blogs.

Future research should examine whether there is any such relationship between technology adoption and openness to new experience and whether the relationship between blogging and openness persists as blogging becomes more widely adopted.

If the above research findings are valid, then it may be interesting to explore the following:

1. Is blogging and openness related? Are bloggers more open as compare to others who do not blog?  What happens when bloggers shift their choice of expression from blogging to other social media such as Facebook and Twitter? Will such people maintain their openness in those media?

2.  Are the 5 major personality factors able to predict people’s involvement, participation and interaction in social media like Blogging, Facebook and Twitter?

3. What are the critical factors in determining whether people would use social media and Web 2.0 (apart from the personality factors)?

The big five predicting blogging are:

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Neuroticism

Openness

Reference: Guadagno, R. E. et al., Who blogs? Personality predictors of blogging, Computers in Human Behavior (2007), doi:10.1016/j.chb.2007.09.001

Postscript: Would genes link to social networking?

An interesting map here from this source of schoolzandtoolz.

Get a Life

I read this Goodbye Academia: Get a Life and Disposable Academic with interest.

Why?  For the Goodbye post, the author provides some realistic personal anecdotes and perspective that tells those who are interested in academia the pros and cons of pursuing an academic career, through a PhD study.  Not every one wants to pursue such an academic pathway, and though there were many who succeeded in achieving their goals, and having their dreams come true, it is not surprising that many others are enjoying or “struggling” their way through.

In the Disposable Academic post:

Indeed, the production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships.

This seems to match an Asian “motto” of: “Lots of “monks”, small amount of porridge”.  Landing on an academic career seems to become a dream for many, but a fantasy or even an ideology for many academically bright scholars.  A reality check means that many scholars have to strive hard in order to compete in the field.

To me, that is a hard lesson to learn, as I reflected on my own graduate study.

“Measurements and incentives might be changed, too. Some university departments and academics regard numbers of PhD graduates as an indicator of success and compete to produce more. For the students, a measure of how quickly those students get a permanent job, and what they earn, would be more useful.” Disposable Academic

So, get a life.

#CCK11 Should teachers blog?

Good advice from this Should student teachers blog?

Teachers won’t blog if the risks involved are greater than the value it derives from it. I also think it requires courage to publish blogs in public, as beginning teachers could easily “cross” the line, that would lead to serious consequences. “Be professional, be responsible, and be ready to admit my mistakes and correct them” is my motto in blogging.

My 20c share.. Thanks for making me think.

It is no surprise that a lot of businesses and institutions are posting social media guidelines and are expecting employees, educators and learners to follow strictly. “Make no mistakes, post and say the right things, think about the consequences and implications of any postings that would impact on others, educators and learners, the organisation, partners, stakeholders, etc.”

“Make a declaration that the information you posted does not represent the organisation’s views.”

Implications for bloggers

Some people are afraid that the artifacts would leave a less than perfect impression with their current employers, or potential employers, especially when they are perceived as a polluter of media, in the education or business media, that may not fully reflect an institution’s vision or mission.  That is understandable.

Blogging is a very private and personal “business”, and when presented as a personal blog, should and would not be in conflict with any business and organisation, especially when the bloggers are making personal voices that are based on facts, or views and perceptions that they think are important.

Besides, bloggers like me are using blogs as a means to think and reflect on “current education and learning affairs”, where a critical analysis is necessary to achieve meaningful learning.

See the horses. How did they learn?  No pain,  no gain! But have fun, through blogging your views and feelings.  And be free.

Photo: Flickr