A Much Needed Censor Button.

Laura C. Berry, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona once blogged, "It's not just that we can't avoid the merger of personal and professional, it's that we should welcome it."  Blurring the line between personal and professional can be affective if used properly, but how will one know if he/she has gone too far?  The internet provides a sense of anonymity to its users which is comforting, but for an academic blog used in classroom settings, a self-induced censor button may be necessary.  Perhaps I have just lost a little faith in cordiality within the masses.  And perhaps I find it hard to decipher between a sincere statement online and a cordial response.  Either way, I can't win.

This semester at San Jose State University, I have started a blog for one of my English classes.  I must say, it makes me a bit nervous.  I have taken many online English courses at the community college I attended less than two years ago, and every now and then I reflect on responses given and received.  As with most online courses, the student must post a reaction to an assignment then respond to at least three other student's posts.  What I found were responses that were either superficial for the sake of responding to a post, extremely blunt reactions, and responses having nothing to do with the topic.  For me, it all depended on my mood.  If the assignment was not interesting enough, I would respond for the sake of responding.  If I was tired, my responses would tend to read too straight-forward and almost rude.  If I found something to relate to my personal life, I would share that connection, but it seems that another "tired" person would point out the irrelevence of my post.  After some time, I realized that a lot of people in a classroom setting are not very interested in anecdotes.  Or maybe, the classroom connection via online tends to create a fog.  It's not like I haven't heard life stories used in creating connections with course studies, but if the stories are posted online, well, that's a lot of reading!  Not that I mind.  ;)

In the article "The Bane of the President's Existence" by Dennis Jerz, he wrote, "When I ask - or, rather, require - my students to blog, I am forcing them to make public statements that they might otherwise have made only in private."  I can see this being affective when time runs out in class or if someone is too shy.  I totally get it.  I can understand if a professor is curious because the subject is their passion.  BUT... what if my car was towed, my boyfriend broke-up with me without a reason, and I was left stranded in an area with no cell phone reception for three hours?  The requirement to post a blog by 11:59pm that day will likely be filled with nothing but fiesty rage.  And for me, it would be something I'd want to delete almost immediately. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is I tend to be embarrassed of what I write.  Every year my aunt would buy me a diary for my birthday, and after two entries, I'd rip the pages out and burn them.  With the entries I would manage to keep, I'd read them at the end of the year, wonder what I was thinking, then burn the entire book.  Blogs are essentially journals everyone can see.  And while I may be able to burn MY computer, I'm pretty sure I can't burn everyone else's. 
:-p