This document summarizes the trials and triumphs of three faculty members from the University of South Alabama who used blogging to reflect on and share their experiences from professional trips to China and Ireland. It describes how they overcame obstacles like internet access in China and large file sizes to share reflections, photos, and insights from their travels in near real-time with students and colleagues. The blogs allowed participants to engage learners internationally and foster cultural awareness through their interdisciplinary content.

1. Trials and Triumphs of
Blogging Internationally:

2. Paige Vitulli, Ph.D.
pvitulli@southalabama.edu
Peggy Delmas, Ph.D.
pdelmas@southalabama.edu
Susan Santoli, Ph.D.
ssantoli@southalabama.edu
Leadership and Teacher Education
College of Education
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL USA

3. This presentation examines the trials
and triumphs of using social
networking to collaboratively reflect
and publically engage learners in
international travel experiences,
cultural awareness, and
interdisciplinary content.

4. The authors are faculty in a college of
education who used blogging as a
reflective tool and form of
communication before, during, and
after professional international travel
to China and Ireland.

5. These trips occurred between and during academic
semesters, respectively, affording the educators
with different levels of participation among
graduate and undergraduate students. The three
bloggers were all female and all faculty
members in the same college of education of a
state university in the southeastern U.S. Both
blogs were created in Blogger, a free weblog
publishing tool from Google.

6. The opportunity to join the China trip was rather
unexpected, allowing little time for extensive
planning. The spontaneity and playfulness of the title
Paige and Peggy’s Excellent Chinese Adventure
reflected the nature of the blog. It was not planned in
advance, and in fact, one of the authors had never
blogged before. However, the chance to share with
students and colleagues observations, reflections,
experiences, and pictures from China, a country
neither author had previously visited, was too rich to
be missed.

8. • The authors took copious notes during their time in
China and transferred these to the blog using an iPad as
time allowed. There was a division of labor as one
author was primarily responsible for writing about the
trip, while the other documented it through photographs.
The authors traded the iPad back and forth, inputting
their entries on the tour bus, in airports, at the breakfast
table, and in hotel rooms late at night or early in the
morning depending on the author and extent of her jet
lag.

9. Paige and Peggy's Excellent Chinese Adventure
http://paigeandpeggy.blogspot.com/

10. Unlike the trip to China, which occurred between
academic semesters, the trip to Ireland occurred during
an academic semester. The authors were selected to
present at the Ireland International Conference on
Education in Dublin. Because the blog authors knew of
the trip before their classes began, assignments were
developed for their own classes, as well as for students
taking an undergraduate education media course. The
blog was planned, created, and initial author posts were
made well before the arrival in Ireland. Because one
author was a co-author of the China blog, experiences in
creating and using the China blog were called on in the
preparation of the Ireland blog.

11. Vitulli & Santoli: Eyes on Ireland
http://usaeyesonireland.blogspot.com/

12. • “After struggling with the Internet until 3:30 in
the morning and figuring out how to post on
Blogger, where it may still be blocked, I awoke
to a magnificent breakfast buffet in the very
nice Marriott in Shanghai. Omelet and waffle
bar, breads, pastries, cheeses, Chinese
noodles, and fried rice were just some of the
many choices.”
http://paigeandpeggy.blogspot.com/2012/05/monday-in-
china.html

13. “We are posting from smart phones, netbooks,
and iPhones, so please bear with us through
any kinks. Additionally we are at the mercy of
Wi-Fi and power outages (I'm not making this
up). Also, some of us (ahem) are learning the
art of blogging on the fly -- literally. So, if
some of the links are not live, just copy and
paste to your browser.”
http://paigeandpeggy.blogspot.com/2012/05/disclaim
er.html

14. “Prior to traveling to China, Peggy and I set up this blog and began
posting our pre-travel China-related activities and plans - we even
posted from the first leg of the journey in Atlanta. Neither of us
anticipated being unable to access Blogger once we arrived in China
(and Facebook for me). We were extremely disappointed for the short
period of time we thought our communication with family, friends,
colleagues, and students through daily blog posts was blocked. As we
continued to develop and save posts, I decided to try publishing again
and quickly realized that although I could not view the blog, from my
iPhone or iPad app, I could post. (I contacted my daughter back home
to confirm the posts were being published.) Thankfully we were back
in the business of sharing the photos and descriptions of the
fascinating country.”
http://paigeandpeggy.blogspot.com/2012_09_01_archive.h
tml

15. • TRIAL: Posting a PowerPoint full of images
to the blog…the file size was too large to
upload to SlideShare.
• TRIUMPH: Discovering we could save the
slideshow as a smaller file size.
• http://usaeyesonireland.blogspot.com/2012
/10/iice-conference-workshop-
developing.html

16. • Sunday, Oct. 28:
St. Patrick’s Day,
At Least For Us
• Reflecting on our
professional quests… Dr. Fionnuala Waldron, Dr. Susan Santoli,
Dr. Daire Keogh, Dr. Paige Vitulli
o http://usaeyesonirelan
d.blogspot.com/2012/1
0/st-patricks-day-at-
least-for-us-st.html

17. The Meeting on the
Turret Stairs
• Feedback from
students
o http://usaeyesonireland.
blogspot.com/2012/10/t
he-meeting-on-turret-
stairs.html