I would never have started this blog if it would not be compulsory to the Open Network Learning (ONL) course. Especially writing an own blog was new to me. I have been writing blog entries two or three times before. Those where texts to a certain theme for example for an existing blog of an institution. In that context I wrote conference reports or reflections on activities of a certain school.
Writing an own profession related blog is very different from writing occasionally entries to existing blogs: this is my blog, my platform; I decide what I write, and I am writing regularly. That means I can go back to see what I have been writing before and find out how the writings developed both in terms of literary expression and development in what I am writing about.
For me writing an own blog is also quite different from writing a diary. Since the platform is public, I am writing for a public. Even if I do not advertise my blog at all and the number of readers will stay very modest it is enough for me to have a potentially public for my writings. This changes my attitude towards writing and I decide on focusing on something I want to say. In writing a blog for ONL I have started a profession related reflection platform with a potential audience that has a focus on teaching and learning related communicational issues. – That reminds me on how little time I usually have for reflecting profession related issues concerning methods of collaboration with colleagues.
In my profession as a visual artist and researcher I have the possibility to use experimental methods and use for example free association as a method of working and incorporate seemingly very different things into strategies of working. That means I can suggest to myself: what if I combine the lack of reflection time and the new tool of writing a blog?
What if I continue writing this blog using it as a professional self-reflection tool and depository of ideas on how to collaborate, teach and learn with colleagues and students? I envision entries of small details, communicational downfalls, and highlights in everyday university live, that would get forgotten if not verbalized and collected. I would write about things that are by themselves almost nothing but in a collection and over time they might be experiential and experimental research material for reflecting and assessing on my own collaboration and communication methods and skills as well as on developments of these skills in general.
To sum up the two most important things I got out of the ONL course: first, I met and collaborated with wonderful people: Karin, Emina, Achref, Alexander, Anna and Bianca. Thank you for the past twelve weeks! Second, I might have at hand a new tool for professional self-reflection and self-assessment: writing a regular working blog on communication in learning and teaching experienced on an everyday bases.