Anonymous Posting As I begin to get more and more familiar with the academic and philosophical parts of the blogosphere, I'm beginning to notice that anonymity seems to be the general rule. Sure, some prominent folks blog with their real names, but the anonymous group is very real.

Me, I even post my picture and pictures of my kids.

One argument for anonymity runs like this. Academics are given a respected position because of their expertise. Any academics expertise is necessarily limited, so the respect granted their opinions should be limited in proportion to their expertise. But, one might assume, academics can generally wrapped themselves in the assumed authority of their degrees and their institutions for added credibility that is not properly deserved. Hence, one should strive not to speak as an authority when asserting conclusions outside of one's specialization. Posting anonymously allows a writer to present arguments in areas related to one's position without assuming undue authority. I don't have any particular concerns about my opinion being taken as authoritative in any sense. Presumably, this is because I am refreshingly free of any illusions about how seriously take the authority of positions of philosophers in general or myself in particular. On the otherhand, I do have a large piece of paper that says I have all "the right and privileges" associated with being a doctor of philosophy. And it may even have been signed by John Silber, though I don't care enough to check that at this moment.

Another argument is that the bloggers are writing as an extension of their academic work, but that they're looking for a freedom of expression that normal academic writing and expression doesn't give. As teachers, academis should respect and nurture the opinions and beliefs of their students. Thus, to preserve the dispassionate position of professing truth, as well as preserving the nature of the teacher-student relationship, anonymous posting can be considered desirable. This is partiuclarly understandable in cases such as The Angry Professor who will occasionally take a moment to mock a student. I find the Angry Prof's discussion quite entertaining and I'm glad that she wrote what she did, her personal voice is engaging and informative, though it may cross some lines when it comes to respecting students. However, her sites is not completely free of identifying information and some students are pretty savvy. There's really no guarantee that this can't find its way into the general discussions of her students. I'm not so sure how much is gained in posting anonymously in this case, but it does provide some level of discretion.

Both of these arguments have the unexpected consequence that "academic freedom" is actually a restriction of the range of expressions one might freely engage in.

Finally, there's the question of academic accountability and evaluation. If you're positing anonymously, then you don't have to worry about the content of your blog being part of the evaluation processes at reappointment or tenure time. Of course, I started this project, in part, as a pedagogical experiment, as a way of expanding and reinforcing class content. As such, anonymous posting would be difficult, since I want my students to be able to find this material and I am going to draw attention to to it during various steps in the evaluation process.

I've certainly made some mistakes during my bloging learning process. My postings from around the time of the election illustrate this. Respect often means holding one's tongue. One thing I learned is that once you start posting, it becomes very easy to slide into material that is not really relevant to one's academic goals. To prevent this from becoming a problem, I started a second blog which I don't house on the university server, it is essentially a personal blog as opposed to this, my academic blog. Of course, I don't post there anonymously either.

To conclude, I see the value of each of the three arguments for anonymous blogging, but I think that they are each out weighed by oppposing arguments or, at least, I have chosen not to blog anonymously, regardless of how foolish that may be. The moral is that once I decided that I was going to use this blog as a pedagogical tool, anonymity became pointless, but so did writing in a typical blog fashion.  ¶ #

0 comments Post a Comment