Week 1

My experience setting up my own blog


This was something entirely new for me. It seems a mini rite of passage. I was fairly comfortable with the passive use of the internet but adding content was something left to specialists, not somebody like me. It’s not that I now think of myself as an expert. But I no longer feel that only experts can be contributors. I do feel that I’ve entered a new world.
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It was nice to be reminded of how powerful active student participation in learning can be. I could have memorized the list of differences between WEB 1.0 and WEB 2.0 from the class notes. (Sadly, I’m afraid too much of what is called patient education still consists of giving someone a handout and expecting them to memorize unfamiliar terms) The hands-on involvement, and in this case bit of an emotional component, made it something I’ve internalized more than memorized.

Thoughts on Fischer’s comparison of blogged and written reflections of medical students


Based on my limited on experience with blogging - these few paragraphs and keeping up with my son-in-law’s travel plans - I’m not surprised that Fischer found so little difference in the content or level of reflection. Blogging seems to have the feel of writing in a journal or diary.

One difference I thought about would be the expectation of privacy. It’s impossible for me not to draw a line between a private written journal and a public blog. Does anyone still keep a diary? I see them in the stores. I wonder if someone of these generations who share so much publicly still throw shoes at little brothers caught reading a handwritten diary.