Pulling myself from the depths of typography (where I have been failing miserably in finding the correct font for my project), this seems like a good time to reflect on some of the thoughts that have been milling around my head for the last week.
Mostly I’ve begun to really enjoy the process and practice of blogging. Last week was a real indicator of the advantages this medium offers over traditional forms of scholarship. For many of us the entire weekly writing assignment would not have been possible in the pre-blog era. For starters many of us were particularly intrigued by the writing of another graduate student, one who happens to study at the University of Chicago. Here two factors come into play. First, it is not often that material published by a graduate student is assigned for reading, but because of not only the ease of publishing but also the communication networks that have developed around blogs (in this case people interested in digital history) we were exposed to a fascinating and provocative piece of scholarship. Similarly, in posting our responses online, not only were we able to engage each other outside the classroom on this topic, but the author of the work in question also engaged us in a dialogue about his work.
While these observations aren’t anything groundbreaking, it was interesting (and encouraging) to watch the process at work over the past week. I’m looking forward to continuing these collaborations during the course of the semester.
Now back to finding that font….
Thanks to Prof P for providing a good launch vehicle. The Polyglot Manifesto was the perfect catalyst to get people excited. It is fun to get the interaction out of the classroom. So far font selection doesn’t seem to be as motivational!
We are fortunate enough to be able to cover the blogs coast-to-coast with our small group–I’d like to hear how course blogs go when there are 100 students.
Bill