Public Scholarship and Educational Technology

image credit: Duermyer, R. (2020). Background of famous social media icons [Visual graphic]. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/define-social-networks-1794438

"Now keep in mind that I'm an artist / And I'm sensitive about my shit" –Erykah Badu

Despite that I am still early in my academic career and relatively younger, I felt very rusty when using technology in the classroom. To be honest, I felt apprehensive about an open access environment to my knowledge and work through Twitter, the sharetracker, and this blog. In the words of Erykah Badu, “I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit.”

As a PhD student who researches academic socialization, I have learned, unfortunately, to be protective about my ideas. There is a competition for knowledge and to be the next scholar to introduce a big finding. Personally, I don’t believe that knowledge should be something private. I do want to share my content and I’m glad this week we were challenged to do so.

The MAET approach of “Explore, Create, and Share” resonates strongly with my own approach to education. The “explore” portion was the most striking in Unit 1 since we were tasked to orient ourselves to the course. From my impression, the encouragement to explore extends beyond familiarization with an environment, but also encourages risk-taking in the curriculum. Over the summer, I read an article on what online and flipped teaching can learn from museum exhibits. Many of the strategies used in building module 1 reminded me of this article. Oftentimes in academia, education can follow more of a “banking model” wherein knowledge is transferred from teacher to student. However, the approach used in Module 1 felt more self-guided and exploratory. Ultimately, it reminded me that I have agency to drive my education.

I am most excited to build my website and converse with my colleagues on Twitter in this course. Knowledge and art are meant to be shared. Although I have a long list of vulnerabilities and anxieties about public scholarship, I’ll take the chance.