Writing a blog

The activity of documenting my learning by writing down ideas and insights, questions and recording the ‘aha’ moments in this blog seemed daunting at first, but I am really glad I did it.It is a testimony of my personal learning journey; going back to my written ideas and understandings at various times is very helpful. There is a Latin saying- 'vorba volent, scribum manent'- which translates as 'the spoken word flies, but the written one remains'- what best way to summarize how I feel about this blog! It is in a way a reflective professional journaling that I should get in the habit of keeping. Although the information on this blog was public only for the participants in the Advanced Qualitative class, I often wondered at what point I would feel ‘safe’ enough to open up and become vulnerable to the criticism, feedback and input from a wider audience. As it stands today, I received feedback and entered a cyber-dialogue only with two people that I trust professionally and personally: one is my professor from whom I did expect input, and one is a classmate (Sandra) with whom I am developing a strong friendship and camaraderie in scholarship. In a way this could be a taste of what it means to be published (in a journal, in an edited book, an article); if I am to be political within my scholarship and continuous learning, I need to build the courage of standing behind what I say and opening myself up for a public dialogue and criticism. More than often critical discussions are conducive to more learning and positive growth. I wonder how other people feel about publicly blogging on their learning journey...

I like the format of this blog because it keeps a nice timeline of my entries and reflections (somehow it resembles the format of an online class with everybody’s input nicely and timely recorded).