I’ve been trying lately to follow my own advice to my students in English 621 by working on a project in small bits and pieces as time allows instead of doing what far too many of us do far too often, which is to think “oh, I’ll get to that when I can really spend a solid couple of days on it,” which translates to “never.” And I’ve been making decent enough progress on revisiting my dissertation to see if I can’t re-see/re-shape it into something for now. The basic premise of the complexities of rhetorical situation in the digital age are still true, and if nothing else, I’ve been enjoying going back to poke at something that I wrote a long time ago.
Anyway, while that “touch it every day” project is going well, I’ve decided to kind of put it on hold and/or let it compete for time with a new blogging project about iPads (and similar mobile devices) and academic work. I’m calling it Academic iPad.
Why, you ask? Well, three reasons, basically. First, while I have always been a bid admirer of National Novel Writing Month and the “just do it and stop over-thinking it” attitude behind that project, I really don’t have a novel in me right now, and November is anything but a “slow month” in terms of work stuff. So I thought I’d try something a little more modest, and I figure I can write a blog entry a day for a month.
Second, to the extent that people find this blog through a particular search for something (as opposed to those who read this blog once in a while because they might know me in “real life” or through my work at EMU or in computers and writing or whatever), it tends to be about iPad stuff and usually academic iPad stuff. I figured that perhaps that justifies a whole new space.
And third, I thought I should do something tangible for my participation in EMU’s mobile computing/eFellows initiative. There is a longer/insider story behind this that I’m not going to go into now, but last winter, I got involved in an initiative here where faculty were supposed to be doing things to learn more about incorporating mobile devices into their work. But other than getting an iPad from EMU (as a loaner, at least in theory), I haven’t done much of anything with all this. So I thought if nothing else, I could create a blog/web space that could serve as a place for resources and reflections on the role of iPads (and other “mobile computing” technologies) for academics.
So we’ll see how it goes. I make no promises that this continues beyond this month, which might also be a good thing, a blog/web site that has a definitive ending point.
Hi Steven, Congrats on taking the NaNo plunge! This will be my 4th time doing NaNo. My 2009 project became a book to help others NaNo or do a writing marathon at any old time: Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It). DId you know it is also National Blog Posting Month? I will be writing about that in my blog tomorrow, but you can google it to find other bloggers who will join you!
Well, keep in mind that one of the reasons why I am doing what I’m doing is I am not taking the NaNo plunge in that writing a blog post a day on a new blog is significantly less intense than trying to write even a short novel. But that might be something worth Googling, just to see if there are others out there like me.
Oops! I misread your blog post. How goes the blogging every day? There are quite a few people doing it! It may not be as intense as writing a novel, but it is still a challenge to come up with a different blog idea every day for a month! Good luck.