Recently, a short article of mine was printed in the Asian Studies Newsletter (the quarterly publication of the Association for Asian Studies). The article is about New Mandala and much of what I write will not be news to regular readers. Nonetheless, I thought it was worth putting the article up online for anyone who is interested and particularly for those who do not have ready access to the printed form. After all it is an article about this very website.
The full article is available (as a pdf) right here. As always, I am very open to comments from readers about this article and its argument. This is certainly not the last word on academic blogging or the use of technology for the study of mainland Southeast Asia.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Grasshopper // Mar 21, 2008 at 5:59 pm
As you say, it allows almost instantaneous peer review and it is far better than, for instance, forums on WebCT, which have never seemed to be so alive. The biggest personal development that I have garnered from this blog is that I am increasingly aware of my language.
I think that academics should be open to a blogging future because the level of engagement and consequent learning can be so much greater for , in my case, students who would never have been disposed towards imagined nostalgias of dusty journal volumes which contain seemingly irrelevant debates because the histories or associations have never been explored or even been directed towards. Furthermore, that when one has an interest, yet no real association for the content to be significant, to see it as significant, especially amongst a diverse audience that is based in the region, is much more beneficial than to sit in a tutorial with a tutor who is more interested in getting back to whatever it was they were doing before ‘educating’(talking at) pesky undergraduates.
Academic blogging should not be viewed as a feared, new fangled, process in which someones reputation and dignity is on the line, rather more an avenue to directly connect to persons willing to learn. An ego should not come before the argument or content, and if it does, well as we have seen it is cut back to size.
Stephen Fry said in an interview that education should never be a timed process, because how can one really determine whether or not they have been sufficiently educated. Getting the piece of paper which says you can drive does not make you a good driver much the same as getting a degree parchment does not make you a good thinker. The internet allows for a constant educational experience and the sooner there are more academically themed blogs, people anywhere can begin filling an educational void that is fostered by other circumstance.
2 jonfernquest // Mar 21, 2008 at 11:35 pm
“…it allows almost **instantaneous peer review** and it is far better than, for instance, forums on WebCT, which have never seemed to be so alive. The biggest personal development that I have garnered from this blog is that I am increasingly aware of my language.”
Writing Wikipedia articles is good for this too.
A new book covers all the conventions:
http://missingmanuals.com/wikipedia_tips.csp
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