New Year Resolution

For the past couple of years, I have been considering writing a blog.  I've even started it a couple of times.  But as daily commitments mounted, I could muster neither the discipline nor the courage to keep it going for more than a handful of posts.  As we start the new year, I am again hopeful that this will be the year where the idea of regularly contributions to a blog takes deeper root and begins to grow and flower.

My reasons for blogging have matured a bit since my previous attempts.  At first, I wanted to write a blog because I viewed it as a forward-thinking use of technology.  While there is certainly still some part of me that wants to "test" the geek factor for blogging, I now look upon the idea as a more mainstream methodology for organizing my thoughts, fleshing out processes, and sharing ideas with anyone who may be interested.  For me, the concept of blogging has become less of a personal sandbox and more of a social responsibility to participate on the town square.  To relate my thoughts on blogging to the ideas of Mahatma Ghandi, I feel I need to become the change I want to see in the world.  If I want faculty and students to impact learning through using tools like a blog (and I do), then it is only proper that I also do it myself.

Blogging has matured and its power become better understood over recent years.  During its early days, blogging had a somewhat rebellious cache.  Those who wrote blogs were frequently (although somewhat silently) chided as self-centered mavericks, but the form is now recognized as a legitimate, even enlightened way of engaging in social discourse.  Leaders within many industries now regularly share their thoughts, sometime even half-baked thoughts, as a way of testing markets, gathering feedback, or sharing insight.  Use of blogs has grown from individual, consumer space roots into social, enterprise space branches.  When an institutional mission drives an organization more than profit, then motivation and inspiration result from shared values of the organization's stakeholders.  And shared values come from widespread, open communication... the kind of communication that blogs can facilitate.

In early 2011, Google will be adding blog services to the ATSU Google Apps suite providing all faculty, staff and students with the ability to create their own "ATSU sponsored" blog.  My hope is that a handful of ATSU blogs will help generate community discussions around two of the major themes identified as part of ATSU's new strategic plan: Innovation and Learning Centered education.  With this blog I will try to do my part at generating interesting topics and ideas related to technology, health and education.   I encourage you to leave your comments and thoughts so that we can all begin to use technology for "Byte Size Learning".