Interview With Robert Probst: The Effects Of Blogging

In an interview with Robert Probst (2012), author of Response and Analysis, Probst discusses Rosenblatt’s work on the transactional nature of reading, and reminds us that Rosenblatt taught us that the only way you can see anything is through your own eyes. Then you can refine your vision by respecting what you see first, knowing it and understanding it, and then looking at what another viewer might offer (Probst, 2012).
Rosenblatt (1995) reminds us that readers transact with texts for different purposes, which fall along what she terms the efferent-aesthetic continuum. At one end of the continuum, is the efferent, the situation in which the reader will carry away information from the text. At the other end of the continuum is the aesthetic: “In aesthetic reading, the reader’s attention is centered directly on what he/she is living through during his/her relationship with that particular text” (Rosenblatt, 1995, p. 25).

Does blogging advance one’s concept of identity? How does blogging affect administrators who have begun the practice? Does it make them more effective? Can blogging help make administrators more empathetic? I have broken this section down into three subsections. Each subsection explores those questions.
Identity and Blogging Rory Ewins (2005), a Research Fellow in Information and Communications Technology Policy & Strategy at the Scottish Centre for Research into On-Line Learning and Assessment, suggests that blogs enabled academics to establish an identity as both author and audience (2005). In his article, “Who are you? Weblogs and Academic Identity” (2005), Ewins stated:
The single author weblog is an ideal format for creating a sense of individual presence on the Web. It allows its author to build up over time an archive of thoughts and writings; when regularly updated, it gives its readers a strong sense of the author’s presence. (p.