The first hurdle I encountered in becoming a researcher was to loosen the passion and enthusiasm surrounding my personal perspective. My professor told me that research is not about feelings and that I should put a lid on my enthusiasm. Years spent teaching students to write about personally significant meaning is difficult to erase. And, to be honest, I love my perspective! Learning is always about looking at something outside our comfort zone. I am willing to try to change my way of thinking. But…fall is in the air and I long to write about the crisp air and collect some colorful metaphors as they float about. Oh, research, where is thy beauty?
Category: Writing
Blah-blah-blog
In the back of my mind I have struggled with the concept of “blogging” since the moment I encountered it. As a writing trainer, I have spent many summers training teachers on the recursive writing process. A writer is encouraged to revisit writing again and again to revise. The writer takes an idea and revisits it to form word pictures that can vividly express thought (hopefully) to a particular audience. Blogging, imho, is quite different. I am not certain where revision fits, I am not certain of my audience…the only thing of which I am certain is my willingness to learn and share what I learn. Perhaps my audience is nobody. “I’m nobody, who are you?”
For some reason, however, my blog has kept a focus on themes and topics within the field of librarianship. While that is not surprising (and I do feel I ramble on about personal perspective entirely too much), I seem to have steered clear of other interests: music, faith, philosophy, cooking, hiking, and so on. The topic of blogging falls into my goal of investigating current technology tools for the purpose of information delivery and education.
Writers must be willing to take risks- being misunderstood, making mistakes that are exposed to the reader. As more people are writing through new technological modes, publishing opportunities have changed. Anyone can publish on the web through blogging. I have felt this sense that my blog is contributing to a huge mass of trivial electronic clutter of little value. My ears perked up when I heard of a book with the title Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger. We now live in the age of push-technology instead of pull-technology (in the words of librarian Joyce Valenza), where society provides the bulk of information instead of a “top-down” hierarchy. This video by Michael Wesch shows that change better than anything I can say… (Watch in high-quality.)
Still learning
I visited my home town of Seattle this month for my sister’s wedding. While there I helped my 81 year old father make a website. He is having so much fun learning! He is writing about the wedding and uploading pictures. How great to see all ages learn new technology in creative ways.
Technology and Writing
Tomorrow I will be presenting at a writing institute with the titile “Technology-Enhanced Writing Workshop.” When I became a writing trainer, almost ten years ago, I never dreamed how much technology would impact the writing process. It seems people are all at different levels in their use of technology, both for productivity and for creative expression and entertainment. Integrating technology into writing may be exciting, but does not necessarily make writing better. Good writing will always be about expressing what is personally meaningful and the significant through effective means.
Blogs, wikis, and writing
Writing is changing. There is no need for a pen and ink. The dilemma of where to place the paper is gone. Embrace the opportunity to express and take the risk. A blog can be a personal diary. A wiki can be a combination of newsletter, bulletin board, and community anthology. Every advance in technology brings some type of sacrifice, some down-side. The information age brings a flood of too much information. The dam has broken and we are swirling in information, but I refuse to be afraid. Information is nothing to fear. Get your blog! Get your wiki! Just swim!