I guess I should answer the questions I asked in a previous post:
Do you use blogging as a reflective practice? Do you blog about things that are directly related to your job duties? Has blogging increased your level of understanding about your role, your organization, or your field of practice?
I have used blogging as a reflective practice for at least 7 years. I used to be the one who would send in-depth emails full of links to other info to listservs, so I really have been doing this sort of writing for about 10 years.
Currently I write two work-based blogs. There is this blog, which is focused on the education side of things. I also have an internal “Storage Round Up” blog, where I digest all the week’s blog posts about the information industry.
This blog helps me solidify the ideas I get from my graduate studies. It helps me think about how the theories I am learning can be applied in a real-world situation. When I write a post I have to think about what I am studying, what we are doing at work, how relevant any idea I may have is. I research to see if anyone else has written about the ideas I have. I also love getting comments from experts in this field, they always add another dimension I hadn’t thought about.
My internal blog has helped me understand our industry better. I am very technical, in education terms I am definitely an SME. Our company covers such a vast array of disciplines that it’s very hard to keep up with new things. My internal blog has helped me with that – staying on top of new things in the industry. I have also learned lots about our competition (that isn’t the type of thing the education people are exposed to in an in-depth manner). But understanding how our competitors’ products work actually helps me understand our products better as well.
Blogging is definitely one of the ways I learn. I started blogging to share the information I had found so other folks wouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel to find the information.
I guess education is just in my blood somehow. 🙂