blogging to develop your career dr sarah-louise quinnell sarah@sarahlouq.co.uk

Blogging to Develop your career

Dr Sarah-Louise Quinnell

sarah@sarahlouq.co.uk

Introduction …The effective use of social and participative media is increasingly

becoming a key requirement in 21st Century academic practice and professional development

This statement raises more questions than it answers:

How can you integrate these technologies in to academic practice?

What do you need to consider in designing & maintaining a professional identity online

Why should I be involved?

Stages of Research Process

1• Exploring Research Questions & Problems

2• Collecting & Managing Information

3• Networking & Collaboration

4 • Dissemination

This session isn’t about

“Monetising your blog” “Getting millions

of subscribers”

It is about ...

Platforms Features Steps Best Practice

The importance of an online presence ...

aka why should I bother?

What if your CV is not enough By Dr. Inger Mewburn RMIT University Australia

Reasons why you should be online:

There are a million and 1 research professionals already online

People will Google you anyway

It can lead to all sorts of opportunities

& most importantly ...

Recruiters are increasingly looking to online reputations to choose between candidates

My Online ExperienceActive profile since 2005 as

part of my PhD data collection

Post PhD involved in a range of online projects which led to ...

Jobs, consultancy, training, book contract, featured blogging etc

MY ONLINE PORTFOLIO

Thinking about blogging

Blog writing:

Cultural Identity

biography, citizen activism, journalism

Individual activity – personal, subjective, expressive

Writing skills:

Regularly – become disciplined

Informality – opportunities to explore different writing forms

Generality – conveying complex information to non specialists i.e. Promoting research to wider audience

Contexts:

Risk (free)? Shape ideas and formulate thoughts and concepts

Work in progress – raw material for thesis, conferences or journal papers

Emphasis on personal experiences / perspectives / opinions

Thought: Should you mix professional and personal

Blogging & Peer Review

Blogosphere – community of bloggers who read, link to and comment on other material – comments and pingbacks = to feedback and review

Traditional Forms of Peer Review – Formal support and feedback structures from experts and peers – limited in scope and frequency

Do Blogs stand on the boundary between research & wider communities?

Does Blogging circumnavigate or cheat the peer-review process?

Blogging: Process & Reflection

Narrative:

Journal style entry provides narrative structure i.e. doctoral process (following blogs)

Reflective:

Demonstration and documentation of process

Navigation:

searchable tool either chronologically by time or conceptually by category

Micro Blogging: Using Twitter to Support your Blogging Activities

@sarahthesheepu Me

@networkedres My blog supporting researchers

#phdchat useful twitter hashtag

10 ways academics can use twitter by Salma Patel

Twitter is Great for Networking

Online social networking, as a head start for face-to-face networking

Links

I get countless links about things I am interested in from people who know more about them than I do or look from a different perspective

Ask Questions ...Sometimes Google isn’t enough ...

You can use twitter to ask questions & get advice & support from a range of sources

Use # tags like #phdchat to connect with likeminded people

Listening In ...

When 2 or more people you are following are having a conversation their tweets can provide all sorts of information and ideas ...

PromotionTwitter generates an enormous amount of traffic to blogs – if people re-tweet your links, the views increase exponentially. Tweets can add to the discussion too ...

How I went from blog to print via twitter ...

Original article

THE Online article

LSE Blog

You need to give a little too ...

If you only use twitter for self-promotion people will tend to ignore you. You will get much more out of it if you become part of a community, tweet links to other blogs re-tweet etc

Digital Professionalism

You are a professional, you are marketing yourself and your work so there are some things you should share and others you shouldn’t:

Should you share personal photos

Should you be ‘friends’ with students or let them follow you on twitter?

Things to consider when establishing your online identity / what not to share ...

Ethical ConsiderationsNo Clear cut way of doing internet enquiries

Lateral surveillance or peer monitoring i.e. The work of watching one another has implications for how research is seen as supposed to traditional forms of observation

Professional identities and usernames – questions of trust & disclosure

Public, private or third space – is it private info in public space?

Audiences

Data ownership

Ethical considerations when using social media in research ...

Managing Your Digital Identity

Sarah-Lou – daughter, friend, dancer, agony aunt,

Dr. Sarah-Louise Quinnell – Academic, consultant, expert – grown-up

@sarahthesheepu – blogger, social media persona a combination of the two

http://www.theconversationprism.com/

Trademarks, copyright & IPR considerations

Summary ...

Plugged into the wider profession

Helps to ensure you are a reflective practioner

You never know where it might lead

It’s FUN

Useful Resources

#phdchat group on twitter & wiki

Post-doc forum

The Thesis whisperer

The Research Whisperer

Networked Researcher

PhD2Published

Phd-viva.com

The Guardian Higher Education Network

Social science space

Any Questions …