No Open Blockers

There’s been a discussion going around the blogs on the teachingopensource.org planet blogs about teacher/student blogging that’s really gotten some interesting ideas going. It started out with a great post by Matt Jadud outlining some basic tenants of a blog in a guide for students. It also got picked up by David Humphrey which highlighted that it’s important for teachers to serve as a model for this sort of learning reflection as well.

My blog (as in, the one I’m writing this on) started out as an experiment to give students some outside information I thought they could use but couldn’t fit into class time. It’s since evolved (and continues to do so) into the sort of technical blog that I’ve found helpful in the past when looking for an answer to a specific question.

That evolution has proven to be important. Using a blog as the medium allows me to introduce a lot more of my personality into the entries than if I were to write a formal academic textbook. I think that’s a really important concept that I’ve seen unfortunately get lost on a number of professors. I’ve always found it easier to keep interested in a more conversational tone than when reading a preachy lecture.

My blog also gives a good insight into my tech-related projects and interests. I know many professors are looking for students to get involved in their research and projects. Often, the students either don’t know about the projects or are first presented with an ominous (read: cold, formal, dull) white paper describing the research. A blog is a natural marketing tool (not my word, I think Matt used it, but it’s a great term) for driving interest in these projects.

Meanwhile, a student authored blog is, among other things, a resume-padder. When I interview candidates, one of the most important factors I look for is enthusiasm. I want people who enjoy doing this stuff. A blog, even if it’s not 100% technically focused, shows the level of interest I’m looking for. Bonus points if you installed and administer the blog software yourself. Extreme bonus points if you contributed back to the blog software you used.

It’s also practice. I had one particular CSC professor stress the ability to write. I didn’t fully understand it at the time; I was going to be a coder and wouldn’t need to write. I’ve since told her, on a number of occasions, how much I came to appreciate the experience. The English/History/Philosophy papers students are writing for other classes are a very different voice than trying to explain to someone else why a project is a good idea or how you got around a particular bottleneck. Getting a feel for how to do that early on will be a tremendous advantage when students find themselves on team projects.

And like Matt said, it can even help propagate the awesomeness of keyboard cat.