Engaging Ethics Through Blogging

Engaging ethics through blogging has been interesting for me in these last nine weeks. I have enjoyed the project much more than I initially anticipated and have learned a great deal in the process. In an effort to pause and consider what I have learned, I create a top ten list of the things I learned while blogging about ethics over the last nine weeks:

10. I found the technology much easier to use than I anticipated.  I have to admit that I am not entirely new to blogging, but this go-round made an attempt to use more of the features available through ‘blogger’ and other links to technology. I have a love-hate relationship with technology in general and have found that sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult for me. I was overjoyed this wasn’t the case during this term and hope this confidence and experience can help me continue to learn and try more!

9. I found it fairly interesting to write about things that are interesting to me – but there is no way I’d want to be a professional blogger! I enjoyed this opportunity to blog about ethics because in some way the sky was the limit in regards to what I wrote about. As long as the topic related to ethics in public administration in some way, it was fair game. This freedom meant it was easy for me to find a topic that I could engage and enjoy writing about. With that said – I do not understand how professional bloggers do it! Unless you’re writing about personal experiences and you have an extraordinarily interesting family, I do not know how people have the time to have a life/job/hobby/whatever AND then also blog about it.

8. I enjoyed being able to add interest to my posts with photos. Since google has been “a thing,” I have found it fascinating that you can type anything or any name into the search bar and google (or any other search engine) will attempt to find a photo related to your search. Searching for photos related to this blog was fun and entertaining and lead to many sites on the internet and information I might not have found otherwise. I enjoyed finding everything from school projects to silly pictures and memes to serious political cartoons and info graphics.

7. Being able to link to articles and other sites is a huge benefit. Yes, the same information I covered in this blog could have been presented (in a more formal matter) in a research paper but one of the things that is so cool/helpful/obvious about the internet is how everything is connected. Because of the ease of using the technology, I could easily connect links on this blog to related content elsewhere on the internet. I think this adds interest and validity for readers.

6. Blogging made me want to read other blogs. It was nice to be able to read other blogs of students taking advantage of the same opportunity this term and compare writing styles, blog design, and content. So yes, I wanted to read more about ethics in public administration  - but I also found myself wanting to read other blogs about things I care about including foster care, adoption, non-profit work, social work in general, same-sex parenting, and other combinations of these! I found professional and non-professional blogs to be interesting and helpful in a variety of ways.

5. At the beginning of this term I realized I really needed to spend some time and energy deciding what kind of blog I wanted to write. As a result of the “skies the limit” freedom, I could have done a variety of things with this blog. I am glad I spent time on the front end thinking about formatting, style, and content so that I had a sort of road-map through the experience. I decided variety would be important to me in this experience and chose to write about a variety of topics from a variety of readings, movies, sites, and discussions.

4. Blogging helped me consider many aspects of public administration. I actually learned a lot about a variety of aspects of public administration and ethics as a result of this experience. I am sure that is the objective – but it happened!

3. Don’t be offended when no one reads the blog…So it was a strange feeling to write something that I was sure no one would actually read. There were some opportunities for me to share with friends, family, or colleagues that I was blogging about ethics, but for the most part I recognized no one was sitting at home anxiously waiting for my next post.

2…but assume they will. It was nice to have comments from students and others on several of my posts. It was an engaging conversation that helped me regain some energy about writing. I also learned a lesson about writing things and putting them on the internet that you’re not quite ready to be public information. Specifically, in one of my posts I mentioned my partner and I were planning to be married soon. That is something that people generally knew but no one knew we were planning a sort of elopement/destination wedding with just a few close friends and family. That ceremony took place not long after I wrote about it on the blog. Because of the connections between this blog and my gmail account, people who know my email account could easily see and read my blog. I hadn’t thought about that! I know that nothing is private – especially posted on the internet – and now know to never assume no one is reading it!

And the number one thing I learned through this experience of engaging ethics and public administration through blogging is…

1. I enjoyed blogging through this process much more than I would have enjoyed a research paper!