The View From Kalamazoo

There is much more Congress to cover, but first things first (proposals are due Monday, after all!): I can’t thank the participants in Weblogs and the Academy: Internet Presence and Professional Discourse among Medievalists (A Roundtable), enough for the great session:

Shana Worthen (Univ. of Toronto), Medievalists Weblogs, our intrepid presider; Michael Drout (Wheaton), Wormtalk and Slugspeak; Richard Scott Nokes (Troy Univ.), Unlocked Wordhoard; Lisa Spangenberg (UCLA), Digital Medievalist: Scéla; Alison Tara Walker (UCLA) Moderator of the Live Journal Medieval Studies Community; Michael Tinkler (Hobart & William Smith Colleges), Cranky Professor; and lil’ ol’ me.

(there have been posts galore by [most] and sundry, see Shana’s here.)

I think we were a great success (even with competition like Terry Jones’ book signing!)  – a total of close to 30 in the audience once the late arrivals (with *cough* signed books) and mid-session escapes are taken into account – so I think this topic could stand more ‘air time’ next year. We did merrily go over time by nearly a half-hour discussing tech and teaching with wild abandon.

Since this was the first session on this topic here we were really focusing on the basics and feeling out the possibilities from there. After intros we discussed the relation of our blogs to our profesisonal life and work as medievalists, the importance of the community of bloggers to an academic (specifically medievalists), blogs and teaching (special thanks to Michael Tinkler for bringing up his students’ blog and showing us around!), fabulous forays into lots of tech and security from Lisa Spangenberg; and, of course, discussed the question of To Be Anon or Not Anon. (No, I didn’t mention my own saga on this point – the topic had veered and on we went. That was fine. I don’t need to bring the room down or make the session About Me. There is plenty of time, and perhaps better venues, for discussing pseudotribble)

So, thinking forward to next year, I’d like to ask for feedback on what you’d like to see in future sessions on the medium.

I am considering more on pedagogy – my thought is that either a standard session, or panel with short presentations, on teaching medieval studies with or in connection with weblogs would be of great use to bloggers and would-be bloggers alike. I think the discussion of teaching and this technology lends itself to more formal presentations with active discussion after.

I’d like to ask for two sessions, I think – the one, above, and another roundtable for discussion. It’s the roundtable topic that has me thinking in a bunch of directions at once, and whereupon I’m really hoping for feedback. 

I’ve also thought out loud about the idea of a session-connected blog as a space for anony/bloggers to weigh in before, during, and after the conference (for a set period of time covering the same roundtable questions), but that may be geekery for a future occasion as pros and cons are weighed over time. (and Shana gave me the look, so I know my enthusiasm was moving much faster than anyone else may be interested in moving. Ever the nerdblossom, yes I am.)