Blogging

Finally attending a session on blogging, hurray!!

Michael J,. Sharpe (American living and studying in Germany) is presenting; he analyzed and studied blog entries in Israeli Settlers in West Bank blogs. fascinating work he did with what he found via his analysis. He found that the narratives of the blog entries revealed something different than the common stories we hear  about stories from “outsiders.” There is a settler victimhood perspective. I also spoke with him afterward about how he gathered his data for this research, which in turn made me consider how many options there are for studying this growing vast repository of artifacts online. Glad to see I am adding to all this!! Quite interesting research, especially given the academic work that Michael engages in; hope he continues to blog about this as well.

Karen LaBont is now speaking about her blog, All Hands on Deck, which she began in 2009. She did her blog work about the No Child Left Behind requirements for schools. Her paper that she is reading is about the importance of teaching and learning for their own sakes, rather than to successfully complete high-stakes, standardized tests.

Why Blog? A Case for Utilizing Blogs in Qualitative Research was the next paper by Angela Brayham. She read her autoethnographic paper about how blogging can relate to critical thinking and reflective blogging with a group of learners.Really juicy content.

Presentation of research on the Internet: Possibilities and ethical concerns — by Lori E. Koelsch and Amy C. Barackmam researched about privacy and  confidentiality on the Web, especially if using blogs. This is certainly an important issue, and while the definitions are even themselves still in flux, the main take-away is that whatever elements of participant data gets uploaded, it  is virtually always present.

A few concerns — once you post some of your information online, it may be considered already published. Additionally, there are (or should be) concerns about putting information wherever it goes online and if it crosses international boundaries with privacy laws, as well as who “owns” the information that one puts online. For example, if something were online, the issue of who owns it any longer.

Using Microblogs in Qualitative Research: Live-blogging for Human Rights by Julia Kathryne Daine. She studies how people used Twitter during the human rights violations in Iran. This reminds me of the program Haystack, to try to get around the Internet national censors. Very interesting research she did with this. Some very good implications for researchers. This becomes quite interesting with international cell phones that give access to the Internet, or at least posting to microblog sites for human rights issues.

As a blogger for years now, with the experience of having liveblogged several conferences along the way, I think I want to present some of my research next year in this area. Of course, by then my doctoral thesis idea should (hopefull!!) be approved!