Sure it is nice when a blogger posts on the topics they normally write on but it is also enjoyable when they occasionally share what is happening in their life. Why? Because you can now connect with them as a real person; not just someone who always seems to be talking business. For me, these glimpses of their lives make their blogs stand out in the blogs I read. Let me give you some examples from edubloggers! I have been…
Confession! Been a bit quiet lately because I have taken some time to smell the roses — read books, watch meaningless TV. Really relaxing but has made me struggle with blogging. [Image by Auntie P] So today I decided that if blogging is not happening it is better to step away and do a podcast – especially since my poor podcast site has been neglected as a result of blogging. So made time to edit audio I recorded at Perth’s…
Michele Martin (The Bamboo Project) has written some excellent posts on Getting Started with Blogging: Advice for New Bloggers from her readers and Maintaining your Blog: More Advice for New Bloggers from her readers. [image by Auntie P] Unfortunately I was busy back when Michele asked Readers for their Advice for New Bloggers so was unable to provide my advice; but since I have now caught up I thought I would add my tips to bloggers in this post. I…
Annelieske and I was fortunate enough to have dinner with James Farmer (Edublogs founder) and Cait when we visited Melbourne. Since our dinner I have been reflecting on what James said about online communities like Ning. He said that a Ning community may initially start off well but in the long term will always struggle because for one simple reason — “ownership.” Firstly I should explain why am I worried about about online communities floundering. Well I do spend considerable…
Many thoughts have run through my head–which have not been nice. But honestly! 4.00 am in the morning is not the time for people in a nearby room, when staying in a hotel, to be having in depth conversations. Yes, they woke me up and the conversation lasted 2 hours…@*#! Good new! Read all my latest post feeds, answered a few emails, twittered and it is still early so apologies but this post has been on my mind for days…
Yesterday’s post Ninging? Blogging? How Do We Best Support Needs Of Educators When Doing Professional Development? added more thoughts and voices to blogging vs ning. Thanks everyone for your comments — I suggest you check out their feedback. And once again I would like to thank both Graham and Clay for inspiring this conversation! And I have decided to follow up this post with reflecting on reasons why we are getting, got it or are over Ning as a result…
What can I say? Whatever plans I had for last night were distracted by Graham’s BYO networks post. Why? Because he reflected on Ning communities vs blogging and highlighted that while Ning is a good starting point for new educators he worries that people may limit their online learning by staying within these Ning communities and failing to realise that building your own network from blogs, wikis etc provides greater potential for learning. [image by circulating] Why the distraction? Now…
What I like about this week’s challenge at Better Blog community set by Simon Thomas (Oak Innovations Blog) on Mobilize your archives is I have already done it for my Day 4 task of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. The task involves going back through your old posts and looking for opportunities to link to new posts mainly in the hope of driving readers deeper into your blog. As Darren says “One of the challenges that faces…
This week I am writing a series on posts on the use of Web 2.0 with students for e-learning and I had promised to write about use with students today (looks like this series is going to continue into next week). But Kate reminded me that not everyone knows what Web 2.0 is! Which is really funny because I am very careful using terms like blogs, wikis and Web 2.0 since to a beginner you make them feel like you…
If you want people to read your blog, not only do you have to write well but they also need to be able to easily and quickly locate the information they want! During the 31 Day Blog Project I realised that I couldn’t even locate information I wanted on my own blog! ‘Twas time for serious heavy duty blog cleaning! Change Template Initial task was to change the blog template (again)! No way would a new reader to my blog…