"Blogging in the Academy" by Shane Nackerud and Kurtis Scaletta

Nackerud, Shane and Kurtis Scaletta. "Blogging in the Academy." New Directions for Student Services 124 (2008): 71-87. 16 May 2009. (link)

In the article “Blogging in the Academy,” Shane Nackerud and Kurtis Scaletta discuss that up to this point, the academy has been uncertain of whether or not the benefits of blogs supersede the possible negatives.  Using as an example the overwhelming success the University of Minnesota had with their UThink blogging system, Nackerud and Scaletta assert that blogs can become “forms of academic production or a vehicle for scholars to become public intellectuals” (71).  The UThink project, which began in the summer of 2007, is a perfect example of a university that explored the possibilities of connecting blogs to the “traditional academic enterprise” (79).  The University Libraries implemented a program in which they would host blogs that would be made available for student use with a University of Minnesota Internet ID and password.  It was the University’s hope that the blogging system would “promote intellectual freedom, investigate the use of blogging to enhance class-based learning, and help retain the cultural memory of the institution” (79).

In 2008, the UThink server became the most accessed server on campus, averaging 54,000 page views per day(83).  The University boasts the system as being not only beneficial for the school, as it maintains a record of student culture and academic value, but it also has produced unexpected benefits for students.  Google PageRank gives UThink blogs very high page ratings and usually places the blog at the top of the page when searching the student’s name, which the school believes is in part due to the academic credibility associated with the University – a fact that the University feels can help their students create a positive virtual image (83).  As one of the largest academic blogging sites in the United States, UThink has become an excellent example of successfully integrating technology and academia.  

Both Shane Nackerud and Kurtis Scaletta are employed at the University of Minnesota – Nackerud as the Web Services Coordinator and Scaletta as the Senior Education Technology Consultant.  Through their research, they found that although initially the majority of UThink blogs were of a personal nature, over the past few years, those numbers have changed; now the predominate use of blogs is for school related activities.  Nackerud and Scaletta believe that although student’s blogs may initially be of a tediously personal or superficial nature, it allows for a writing space where reflective writing becomes more likely over time: their surveys indicate that the real benefits of blogging are not shown until several years into the blogging process.  I feel this long-term effect might be encouraging to high school or middle school teachers who wish to implement blogging into their curriculum.