Rick Brannan and Chris Brady both shared their papers from this year's Blogger and Online Publication session at SBL. Bart Ehrman shared his thoughts about the session, in which he was a panelist. And Tony Burke shared his perspective, having been in the audience. It should not be allowed to go unnoticed that blogging led these scholars to be involved in a session about blogging at the biggest conference in their field, which they have now in turn blogged about.
The most controversial element in the session was the fact that all three panelists advised grad students and pre-tenure faculty not to blog. But someone who is in one of those categories shared from the audience what happened when he deleted his blog on the advice of a faculty member at the institution where he is a student: now most mentions of his name online are from mythicists who have created shrines of hate towards him on their blogs! I would give the opposite advice, first and foremost because everyone growing up today has an internet footprint, and so you are better off adding something that may rank highly and give a good impression, than to allow the top hits to be your instagram photos from your teens. Of course, to achieve this one must create a blog that is characterized by maturity rather than rancor. I also get a sense that the attitude towards this is different at liberal arts and theaching-focused universities vs. research-focused ones. At the former, we have emb raced a paradigm shift which focuses on students not just obtaining knowledge from authoritative sources, but becoming knowledge-producers themselves. In addition to blogs as part of coursework, we often have students assemble an online portfolio to highlight their work for future employers. It may take a few years, but I suspect that soon we will be able to learn from employers' hiring data whether students with a professional-looking online presence, or those who have cautiously avoided being visible online, have the greater advantage in the job market.
See also Chris Brady's thoughts on this topic.
Source: Blogging the #AARSBL15 Blogger Session
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