First Post as Assigned: Pros and cons of blogging in health science education

After launching the maiden bloggage, I recall that there was an actual assignment. Pros and cons of blogging in health science education.

Pros: you might catch more of the misunderstandings and muddiness that people have about things they are learning about.

You might get early comments about educational materials that are going well or not going well.

It could create a safe place for learners to expose their areas of ignorance, which is the best way to heal them -- under the light of day. It is always sad when you are 4 weeks into a learning program and discover that a bright student has failed to "get" some really fundamental point, that has hampered learning all the way through the rest of the experience.

Some people think better when they are writing -- it is a good way to learn, but few of us either have the patience to let the grubby flow go by without cleaning it up, and have no venue that is safe enough for us to think it out while writing.

Cons: As learners might expose their ignorance, so teachers might expose their arrogance. Learners would be careful about this exposure for fear it could harm their evaluations or recommendations. First impressions can be hard to eradicate, and some educators are not as sensitive to the issue of personal bias as they might be. However, on a big blog, teacher arrogance might get called down...would that be effective? If it established an expectation that that behavior is not encouraged...if it lead to reflection.

One of the residents suggested that we develop a tips and tricks document on the web for a clinical rotation. As I thought about that, it was exciting to me to think about people posting questions, seeing other's questions, and raising all this to a higher more thoughtful level. That experience of "yeah, I wondered about that too" is valuable.

But then, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed the value was in the questioning, communicated with others, and putting together the answers. Once the tips and tricks were assembled, it would be just another dusty passive learning document. Multiple pages of information that no one would bother to read. The greatest value by far would be to those who put it together. As the document grew from group of learners to the next group, and became more and more daunting to read through, the value would decrease.

So should you make each group put together its own tip and tricks? Seems redundant, doesn't it? And I don't think much of reinventing the wheel...but what if you modified the T&T page. Saved all the answers and waited for the questions to be posted. Or squirreled around with the information and put in misinformation and put it in to be cleaned up -- what is wrong with this picture? It can be daunting to be presented with a blank slate -- having a document to edit can get those thinking juices flowing...

I think the biggest con may be vulnerability, particularly to those who evaluate you. If we could establish an expectation that we expose our ignorance in order to learn...modelling life-long learning behavior....as an educator, pick a topic you want to learn more about and bring your learners along with you for the ride...seems like these would be of value.