Last week, we stumbled upon the blog of an IIM Ahmedabad professor and on investigating further, we discovered that professors at other institutes such as NMIMS, XLRI and ICFAI also engage in blogging regularly. We decided to get in touch with these professors and find out what blogging means for them and their students.
The term ‘blog’ is an abbreviation for weblog. Many bloggers use their blogs as a record for their daily activities and the blog principally serves as an online journal. However, this is not how most management professors who blog use the medium. For them the blog is primarily an extension of their identity as a teacher. As Prof TT Ram Mohan (blog -
http://ttrammohan.blogspot.com/) of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad puts it, “At times I build upon the ideas I have mentioned in the column I write for Economic Times. There is no space limitation as far as my blog goes. A blog obviously does serve as a mode of expression but it proves to be particularly useful for students who have questions about topics that I’ve covered in class. It helps to place issues in context.”
Blogs are frequently found being used as a tool to supplement classroom education. Sabu Mangalasserril, Assistant Professor at ICFAI, Cochin (blog -
http://adformula.blogspot.com/) is an avid blogger and has three blogs, each of which caters to a set of issues. He says, “I integrate my blog posts with classroom exercises. After discussing an issue in class I ask my students to read relevant posts and leave their comments on the blog or submit feedback on paper.”
“I have been been blogging for the past two years. All in all it’s been a terrific experience! Blogging has motivated me to study close to 400 brands. For me a blog is an information resource rather than an interaction tool. I do not try to integrate blog posts with classroom exercises. The information on my blog serves to add value. I use my blog mainly as a research journal through which students can get information and analyses about numerous brands”, comments Harish B Nair, marketing lecturer at ICFAI, Cochin (blog -
http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/) and has an exceedingly popular blog on marketing practices.
Mr Piyush Shah, an Operations Management lecturer at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai (blog -
http://superops.blogspot.com/) is relatively new to the blogosphere. He says, "I want to blog more often and have students logging on and exchanging views outside the classroom. Blogging allows interactions with students to become more informal and reach to a wider audience. Students can stay in contact with me after graduation too. I encourage students to access my blog and also send some of my blog posts in the form of e-mails to my students. My e-mails also have the link to my blog in case they wish to read about other issues."
Professor Madhukar Shukla of Xavier's Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur (blogs -
http://alternativeperspective.blogspot.com and
http://inspired-pragmatism.blogspot.com/) puts forth an interesting point when he says, "I am also part of numerous Yahoo! Groups where issues related to coursework are discussed. I have observed that since in a Yahoo! Group the audience is so much more visible, some students prefer leaving comments there rather than on a blog. In my opinion, the potential of blogging has not been explored fully. There are so few collaborative blogs!" he goes on to say.
Blogging truly holds a wealth of possibilities. A professor we contacted has been approached by a publisher to convert a blog of his into a novel. On the other hand, he has also been reprimanded by his college management for being responsible for students passionately discussing condom advertising as a response to a blog post. He says with tongue firmly in cheek, "If it sells, why shouldn’t it be discussed?"
More blogs by Indian business school professors
Jayanth R Varma, IIM Ahmedabad -
http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/~jrvarma/blog/
Pitabas Mohanty, XLRI Jamshedpur -
http://pitabasm.blogspot.com/
Rajeev Sharma, XLRI Jamshedpur -
http://rlog.rajeevsharma.net/
Know of more blogs by business school faculty? Tell us about them!
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