Looking back on 2014, I was curious about this blog’s most popular posts.
WordPress generated helpful stats, which shed some light on what readers look for in this bloghouse.
So what were you most curious about in 2014, my blogospheric audience?
- Technology. The story of my wheeling around a conference in a doppelbot was the most popular post of 2014.
- The queen sacrifice. One post about this sign of campus financial crisis was widely clicked on.
- Adjuncts. My screed against an especially awful opinion piece was the third most popular post.
- Economics of inequality in education. Notes on Thomas Piketty’s implications for higher education received significant clickery.
- Libraries. Reflections on a new survey about academic libraries rounded out the top five.
If I can draw conclusions from these results, one might be that a majority of them (adjuncts, inequality, queen sacrifice) concern the bad economic situation of higher education. This wasn’t something that loomed large in my mind in 2012 or 2013, but it seems to have grown in an emergent way. That’s partly because, in order to think about the future of education, I need to grapple with the present. Much of the discussion around technology in education avoids economics, or only touches on it lightly. Most of the general conversation around higher ed makes related mistakes: reporting on a handful of schools, or downplaying stories of institutional crisis. So I’ll keep on with this.
You readers still look for technology posts, and I’ve not been a good provider on this score. So I’ll ramp up the digital. Ditto libraries.
Beyond the stats… 2014 felt like a productive year in this bloghouse.
I managed a decent rhythm, only knocked into silence by epic travel or killer deadlines.
I like the emergent topics. And I especially appreciate you commentators and linkers, who make this kneaded dough rise.
On to 2015!
(cartoon by Robert Sanzalone)
Thanks for the round up, Bryan! I have been a frequent forwarder of your blog posts to my college deans and adninistrators, esp on the topic of queen sacrifices as we are currently in extremis. Thanks for your consistency and good hard thinking!
I appreciate your forwarding, Sandy, and the good thoughts.
Ha! I was at my inlaws’ during the holiday last a few days ago and I mentioned your doppelbot post, not having done so in months! Some kind of collective unconscious thing? 🙂
Maybe so. It says something intriguing and good about your wife’s family, for sure.
Good summing up ~ and a map for revisiting topics I think most of my readers. I meant to re-blog this one sooner but got sandbagged. Considering the next one (a doozer that really needs to be read… and with great thought), I want to read all linked material and write of an opening than usual. I’m hoping for some good G+ discussion with Laura and George to draw on.
PS I’m enjoying Infocult hugely ~ a much needed change of pace for me too. Extreme earnestness (not really my basic nature) on behalf of adjuncts gets me down
Thank you for the kind words, Vanessa. I appreciate your rebloggery and commenting.
PS: Infocult is always glad to expand its baleful sphere of influence.
Appreciate the appreciation especially since this was my lucky week to trip over an amateur content troll ~ fortunately neither competent nor pro. Rebloggery is still a gray area and for some remains a bone of contention, especially among less web literate academics. At some point, the topic may call for blogging. Call it remediation.
I tagged and filed Infocult to peculiarosities folder on reader with an eye to using on other blogs
“peculiarosities”: I like it.
Reblogged this on As the Adjunctiverse Turns and commented:
What posts did readers, many of them adjuncts, read on this blog in 2014? Technology, academic labor, adjuncts, economics, financial crises leading to layoff, programs and sometimes colleges closiing led the list. If you missed these posts, it’s not too late to catch up with links before we are much further into 2015.
And thank you Bryan for the gracious hat tip to all us commentators, linkers and sharers for writing, “And I especially appreciate you commentators and linkers, who make this kneaded dough rise.” Our pleasure to read and recommend.
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