Supporting Atheist Students & The Atheist 2.0 Project

For the past 15 weeks or so, I’ve been part of a doctoral course (EDH 5931: College Student Populations) that has been trying to understand the nature and experiences of college students who are atheist.  A number of products will be / are coming out of this exploration, but there are two specifically that I’d like to highlight.  If you look at the updated menu banner above, you’ll now see links to the Supporting Atheist College Students website, as well as a new initiative undertaken by this site, the The Atheist 2.0 Project project.  Keep reading past the jump for more information about each.

“The new media is the new neighborhood”

Hey – I can see my house from here!

This week has been all about navigating new media, planning for a new class, and getting to know a considerable number of new classmates.  As we all scramble feverishly to “unpack” the things are supposed to be doing, I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like like I’ve just moved into a new (but nearby the old) neighborhood.  The title quote comes from the (so far excellent) 2012 book, “Networked” by Rainie and Wellman, and seemed to be the most appropriate metaphor for both this post and the last few days. As I myself have been unpacking and finding my way around this new neighborhood, I’ve been given some pointers by my new “neighbors”.  Since most of my classmates are still unpacking and decorating their own new digital spaces, I’ve been hanging out with some of the people who have been here for a while.  Here’s some of what they had to say that resonated with me:

What is Your Process?

Easy for you to say.

Writing isn’t easy, even if it’s something no one else will ever see.  As a doctoral student, most of my submitted written work goes through many drafts of various length before it ever graces another person’s eyes.  If I’m lucky, my professors won’t make me give it to someone else in the class to peer review.  In some ways, that’s even more frightening than just having the instructor review it themselves.  I work really hard to maintain the persona (at least among my peers) of someone who knows what they are talking about most of the time.  The last thing I want is that illusion falling apart because I gave them something of mine to read, and they can tell that it makes no sense whatsoever.  Many of us have spent some time thinking and reflecting on our writing process over the last few years, and how to refine it, and make it more effective in our future lives as scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers.  Web 2.0 writing, seems somewhat different to me.

Putting it all out there…right at the beginning

If only it were that easy

“First time caller…long time listener…”

These are the words that came to mind when thinking about starting my own blog.  I remember being in high school listening to DJs and talk shows on the radio (yes, that was a thing back then) and people would often use that phrase to introduce themselves when they weren’t sure they were following the unwritten rules of the call-in show, but had been observing the interactions long enough to think they knew how to contribute.  Years later, I find myself in a very similar place, albeit a very different medium.  Since this is all about self-expression, I thought I’d use my very first post to talk about some of the reasons (read: fears) that I haven’t blogged before.  Hopefully by putting it all out there right at the beginning, it’ll help me get over some of my hangups, and maybe they’ll resonate with some of you as well.