Day 94: Opening Our Soul Onto a Computer Can Be Scary

I recently read a piece of research where a social work practice educator introduced using a blog with four students to write their reflective journal.

At the end of the study, one student reported that blogging her reflective journal felt more intimate than writing it in her notebook because ‘books can be shut but opening your soul onto a computer can be scary’.

Reflective journalling is a key part of social work education to encourage ethical decision making when in practice. Yet writing about ourselves is hard and being asked to do it as part of a university course is even harder.

I decided to use my own experiences of writing this blog to share the magic with others. I sent the research to a student that I am working with and suggested we trial using a Google Blogger account. She was immediately on board. I told her very briefly about my own positive experiences of blogging as a reflective tool.

So this is week 6 of our blogging pilot. At first she struggled with content and whether is should be academic or placement based.

I told her to write what the hell she liked-to just go with whatever came into her head. My intension for this is to get her to connect with her intuitive knowing rather than her conditioned 'academic' learner self.

Obviously, I first had to overcome my own conditioned learner self (which was screaming ”you can’t do that!”).

And it has worked. She has written to a reflective depth that she had never written before. She titles each blog and often uses images to highlight her feelings.

She has explored her feelings of loss and grief at the impact of Covid-19, the disruption to her eduction, the impact on her career, her anxiety that she won't connect with the young people, her feelings of overwhelm with an entirely online placement.

Yet she also writes with great humour and hope. Her recent blog on why she chose to become a social worker was so beautifully poignant, it made me cry. In short, she is feeling all of her fucking feelings.

I comment on each blog which provides an additional level of support and feedback. And I find that both of our responses are more authentic, more connecting, more creative, more real. I guess more brave as fuck. #sharingthelearning #innovating #braveasfuck.