Doing some research for work, I came across the National Association of Colleges and Employers website which referred me to a blog that is published by Bellevue University in Washington.  Bellevue U. actually has three employees who post to the blog with each addressing different areas of career and employment advising. They manage the blog with weekly updates, and marking posts in the archives for re-publication at specific times in the academic year.  I hadn't thought of re-posting as a management tool, but after reading about it, it made sense to me.  There's another tool to put in your blogging treasure chest/toobox.

As we approach the end of this class, I can recall how little I knew about creating a blog at the outset of this course.  It's easy to do; I knew virtually nothing.  When I look at my "creation" I am pleased, and annoyed at the same time.  There is so much that I could add to this blog, so many ways to make it better. In time,  I will do so.  Because it is a site designed to disseminate information, what I have learned is that if you take the time, do the research and do a little work, it is not so difficult to put together a very informative site.  At the same time, I also know that it isn't something you can do once, and say you are finished.  In fact the opposite holds true.  Maintaining and sustaining a blog is an ongoing project.  Finding fresh information, and timing your "retransmissions" appropriately are both important aspects of blogging for educational purposes.  It still boils down to content being at the heart of a quality product.  What excites me about the process is that each door you open in this arena seems to lead to several more.  This makes the exploration informative and educational for the sender as well as the recipient.

Reviewing our assignment sheet, today I am pondering blog management plans.  I'm not entirely sure exactly what that means, so will end up checking my text tonight to see if it is addressed in there. 

From what I see of other blogs, and adding a quick dash of common sense, it seems to me that blog management would entail site maintnenance to insure that your links are still functioning. periodic reviews of content to see if the information is current, posting new information as you find it, and checking in with other bloggers and blogs to see what is new in their part of the world.

 Those steps in management apply to virtually everything you do, and as simple as they may seem, it is so easy to let time pass and fall behind in maintenance and updating.  Perhaps the text will have something to amplify this management plan, and if it does, I'll post here. 

While working on this blog, a coworker stopped by and asked the million dollar question "but how do you get people to read and look at your blog"?  A lengthy discussion ensued. Some of the key points we talked about in marketing your blog were:

*Know your audience.  If you are producing a blog with a special purpose (such as this one) you need to do your best to fulfill the needs of the niche your are working within.

*Get your blog publicized, be it via links from other blog sites, a website that addresses the same type of information you are working with, or a Facebook page with link information.

*Working in a Career Center provides an opportunity to post information in the "old-fashioned way"  - - by putting up flyers with the URL listed.

*Word of mouth is also a marketing method.  While talking to students inquiring about employment, it is easy to give them the information about the blog.

*Marketing is pointless if you don't provide current and relevant information on your blog. 

It seems like the more I search online, the more I find resources and helpful sites. A good website with multiple resources and links is the Worksource Oregon website which I just added to my  suggested reading list.   This site provides information on everything from navbigating disability to unemployment information.  It provides lists of jobs and a very interesting site is the Career Pathway is a series of connected education and training programs and student support services that enable individuals to secure a job or advance in a demand industry or occupation. Career Pathways site, which has a "focus on easing and facilitating student transition from high school to community college; from pre-college courses to credit postsecondary programs; and from community college to university or employment."  That is what we are all about here in the Career Work Center at Chemeketa.  Check out this site for links to valuable information and helpful hints. Worksource Oregon Information

Back in the dark ages of the 80's, when PC's were first becoming more commonplace, I recall an IT manager saying that  the only way to ever get proficient with them was to spend time at the keyboard.  That is just what I've been doing over this damp, drenching weekend. With the amazing amount of information available on the web, it is challenging to sort through and find pertinent, quality sources of information.  One site I found that has a strong marketing focus for community colleges is Career Focus. This site connects you to their e-zine, blog, and a host of other information. It can be found at this url:   http://careerfocusconsortium.org/eZine. I checked out the blog at http://careerfocusconsortium.org/blog.  I am still reading through their information, but so far am finding some really intriguing ideas presented here. Check it out!

Blogging in society

One of the articles I read concerning blogging addressed the fact that the original bloggers felt that blogging had become to "mainstream" to fulfill its purpose (as they viewed it) for opposition to the establishment.  I found this interesting, particularly in light of the recent use of another technology tweeting, to organize protesters.  The use of a mass communication methods to deliver protesters messages is as old as writing.  However, the difference now is that communication is instant and endless.  Another use of blogs is to provide support for people with illness or other conditions, where a community of people can meet in anonymity to share their stories and help each other. The online support groups provide a lot of help to people who need to find comfort from others.

Blogging for pleasure, blogging for fun An inventory

Bloggers use the blog to share thoughts and inspiration, some use the blog to reflect on life, while others use it for a business.  One blog that I find particularly inspirational is the N.B.Coop outlawpoetry site.  The beauty of the language used in this blog makes it a joy to read.  Another site, the Sewer Raccoon News, is published by a gentleman who specializes in day to day trivia, integrating pictures and poetry, along with articles on virtually any subject imaginable.  Because of the sheer enormity of available blogs, a search with a keyword will take you to the subject area of your choice.  An example is Theultimatefishing blog.   What most blogs have in common is that the blogger is interested in what he/she has to say.  It is up to the reader to search and find out if the blog is interesting.  It is almost an information overload, and the filtering and sorting is left up to the reader.  It can be a very time consuming process.  To enhance your searching, links to similar blogs are posted on the site, so you can bounce around as long as your schedule will allow....

Blogging in education and society Personal assessment

I begin this posting with an extract from an article which explains some of the practical uses for blogging in education. The article,

Academic blogging: academic practice and academic identity by
Gill Kirkup*Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

discusses some of the areas in which blogging can contribute to the educational process.

The abstract is below. Note the key statement that blogging could create a new 21st century academic identity as a "public intellectual".
Abstract
 This paper describes a small-scale study which investigates the role of blogging in professional
academic practice in higher education. It draws on interviews with a sample of academics
(scholars, researchers and teachers) who have blogs and on the author’s own reflections on
blogging to investigate the function of blogging in academic practice and its contribution to
academic identity. It argues that blogging offers the potential of a new genre of accessible
academic production which could contribute to the creation of a new twenty-first century
academic identity with more involvement as a public intellectual.
Keywords: blogging; writing; academic practice; scholarly texts; identity; academic literacies
 Conclusion:
Recent educational literature has given a long list of educational reasons why blogging is
useful for students (see Farmer 2006; Kerawalla et al. 2008, 2009; these last two articles
describe work that the author of this article was also involved with) these include: as a reflective
journal, as a notebook to record events and developing ideas, as an aggregator of resources, and
as a tool for creating community and conversation with fellow students. Blogging might provide
students with alternative sites for academic identity creation that are less problematic than
traditional ones, but blogging has been less enthusiastically embraced as offering alternatives for scholars and researchers.

I chose to use these excerpts because I believe they state clearly some academic uses of blogging in education. (highlighted) I am particularly interested in the use of blogging to consolidate information in a single easily accessed location, and the use of blogs in society to create communities. Drawing together people of like minds and interests is so much easier through the use of blogs.  A search of the internet shows that blogs range the spectrum of interests, from the tawdry to the fantastic.  The exchange of thoughts and ideas is continuous, and while it has many benefits, it has dangers as well.  It is easy to get carried away with a blog and if proper caution isn't exercised bloggers can mislead gullible readers.  To paraphrase a well known adage, let the reader beware.  The very universal and public nature of a blog is also a danger, because predators can use the blog to lure innocents to their web.  

Blogs can range from utter drivel, to rocket science (literally) and I found research articles referring to the use of blogs teaching nursing, “Blogging” As an Educational Enhancement Tool for Improved Student Performance: A Pilot Study in Undergraduate Nursing Education.Detail Only Available By: Roland, E. Joyce; Johnson, Charlene; Swain, Deborah. New Review of Information Networking, Nov2011, Vol. 16 Issue 2, p151-166, 16p; DOI: 10.1080/13614576.2011.619923, music Instructional Blogging in the General Music Room.Full Text Available By: Kerstetter, Kathleen. General Music Today, Oct2010, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p15-18, 4p; DOI: 10.1177/1048371310362516, and linear algebra  BLOGGING AND THE LEARNING OF LINEAR ALGEBRA CONCEPTS THROUGH CONTEXTUAL MATHEMATICS.Full Text Available By: Nehme, Zeina. Mathematics Teaching, Nov2011, Issue 225, p43-48, 6p...Looks like properly applied, a blog can be used for many learning applications.  My personal favorites are those that allow poets and writers to share their work, and assist each other in their writing via online literary critique and comments.

An Introduction

Kate O’Neil here.  I am starting this blog primarily as an educational reference for students at Chemeketa Community College who are looking for jobs. My goal is to provide a ready reference to help people by providing tips on resume writing, interviewing, and ways to search for jobs.  Through posts and comments on this blog I hope to encourage discussions on some of the best practices that can lead to snaring that elusive job.

I am currently an intern working in the Chemeketa Career Work Center.  I am there to gain experience in career and vocational counseling, in order to complete my master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling through Western Oregon University.  I work with a variety of different programs at Chemeketa, which I will elaborate upon in additional postings.

My background in education is rather unconventional, as most of my ‘teaching” has been done within the framework of my duties as a military officer.  While in the Army I was assigned to Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) twice.  While serving in the capacity of an ROTC Assistant Professor of Military Science, I taught classes to all grade levels on subjects varying from effective communication skills, to military law.  I taught at Oregon State University, Western Oregon University and the University of Washington in this capacity.

Yesterday was my first day on the job at Chemeketa, and one of the most important things I learned was that there are HUGE amounts of information available on jobs, and if that information isn’t organized and presented in an understandable manner, job seekers end up trying to order from a menu written in a foreign language. Consequently, they may end up ordering something they don’t want to eat.  I hope to do some translating here, to prevent someone from ordering a plate of boiled radishes when they really wanted to have fresh