Please check out this video in which I discuss the issues and struggles I am going through with my blogging. Please leave comments here or on the video.
Thanks so much!
2 Comments
Shoshana21 months ago
Hi Jake,
I appreciated your sharing your troubleshooting issues and giving us a chance to offer some advice. I would like to step back from the immediate issue–what goes into the blog post vs. the video blog–and instead ask: “What should your weekly work accomplish?” Then it is possible to look at that and consider the best format for expressing your work.
Each week you are reading material of real depth and significance. Each week you should be able to:
1. Summarize the key themes you read about along with the “who, what, where, when, why”.
2. Analyze the material you read with a view to answering these questions:
a.What does it mean?
b. What do you think about it? Insights? Surprises? Disagreement? Agreement?
c. How does it relate to other authors you are reading?
d. How does it relate to your experiences and observations in the contemporary world of politics and society?
I believe that you are now at an age and stage when you should routinely be able to express this in writing. There should be a routine of producing two to three page documents each week on your reading that address these questions. Your writing should be substantive and use many examples–no need for throat clearing, just meat and potatoes. By producing these thoughts in an orderly and systematic way each week, you will have all the material you need to integrate your learning and use it as the foundation for a capstone project to culminate your IS.
Each week you are also meeting with Ralph to discuss your reading. I know that these conversations are rich and exciting. I know that you want to be in the moment and be wholly present in the conversation with Ralph. At the same time, you can take informal notes that help you stay in touch with the highlights. You can also turn on your laptop to record the conversations, so you have a record if you need it. You want to keep track of new insights that come from the conversations–what you learn about the reading as well as and what the learning means to you.
So, back to your original question: how to use the blogs, written and video.
It seems to me that your blog post could easily be a short summary of your two to three page written work for the week. Once you have your written work complete, it will be easy to summarize in a post. You won’t have to agonize over it because you will have figured stuff out already.
Then your video blog could be a way of sharing your conversations that week with Ralph. It would give you a chance to convey your learning and excitement from those sessions–the insights you had, what they triggered in you, things you two discovered together, connections made, surprises points of agreement or disagreement, new things revealed, etc. Your video can include your thoughts on the reading, quotes, or other references, and it can also be a dynamic exciting testimony to your learning process with a wonderful mentor.
I hope you find this helpful. Let’s talk it through and also see what others think!
Hi Jake,
I appreciated your sharing your troubleshooting issues and giving us a chance to offer some advice. I would like to step back from the immediate issue–what goes into the blog post vs. the video blog–and instead ask: “What should your weekly work accomplish?” Then it is possible to look at that and consider the best format for expressing your work.
Each week you are reading material of real depth and significance. Each week you should be able to:
1. Summarize the key themes you read about along with the “who, what, where, when, why”.
2. Analyze the material you read with a view to answering these questions:
a.What does it mean?
b. What do you think about it? Insights? Surprises? Disagreement? Agreement?
c. How does it relate to other authors you are reading?
d. How does it relate to your experiences and observations in the contemporary world of politics and society?
I believe that you are now at an age and stage when you should routinely be able to express this in writing. There should be a routine of producing two to three page documents each week on your reading that address these questions. Your writing should be substantive and use many examples–no need for throat clearing, just meat and potatoes. By producing these thoughts in an orderly and systematic way each week, you will have all the material you need to integrate your learning and use it as the foundation for a capstone project to culminate your IS.
Each week you are also meeting with Ralph to discuss your reading. I know that these conversations are rich and exciting. I know that you want to be in the moment and be wholly present in the conversation with Ralph. At the same time, you can take informal notes that help you stay in touch with the highlights. You can also turn on your laptop to record the conversations, so you have a record if you need it. You want to keep track of new insights that come from the conversations–what you learn about the reading as well as and what the learning means to you.
So, back to your original question: how to use the blogs, written and video.
It seems to me that your blog post could easily be a short summary of your two to three page written work for the week. Once you have your written work complete, it will be easy to summarize in a post. You won’t have to agonize over it because you will have figured stuff out already.
Then your video blog could be a way of sharing your conversations that week with Ralph. It would give you a chance to convey your learning and excitement from those sessions–the insights you had, what they triggered in you, things you two discovered together, connections made, surprises points of agreement or disagreement, new things revealed, etc. Your video can include your thoughts on the reading, quotes, or other references, and it can also be a dynamic exciting testimony to your learning process with a wonderful mentor.
I hope you find this helpful. Let’s talk it through and also see what others think!
Good stuff to work on–can’t wait–see you soon.