Dear Everyone,
Well. It is my last week as Guest Writer on this site ALREADY!!! The time has really gone quickly!
Purely selfishly, I would like first to consider what I have learned from this month about blogging! I was a complete beginner to start with (not like our next Guest Writer Gavin Dudeney who is a real expert!).
What is blogging?
When I started I thought that blogs were personal, online, diary type postings by a person, famous or not, who didn't really mind whether anybody else read the blog or not. Some bloggers got a following and this could fade away or grow stronger depending on the content and worth of the blog and the amount of interesting response and discussion
generated.
Now I realise that blogs can include video files (like my interview), large amounts of text and photos (like
my mugshot)! I think it can include music files too. (Wish I had thought of that! )
Now I know it can be about work and professional interests and not just personal things. So I hope people reading have noticed the journal that I edit for teacher trainers, teacher educators and mentors! Please see www.tttjournal.co.uk for more details if that part has passed you by!
I have also learned that a good web site manger (Thank you Rob Lewis) and good facility to preview before you publish can help to maintain a polished and well edited series of postings.
Advantages?
The good things about this month have been...I have met and "talked to" loads of people I would never have met otherwise, given the fact that travelling to each other's countries is really expensive. I have also met old friends who just happened to come across my postings. Both these types of meeting were a real pleasure!
I have learned things from others about e.g how some teachers feel about open discussions in training sessions, how to address those older than myself in India etc etc. And I have had the chance to elaborate on things that I had not made clear the first time!
Disadvantages
At first I thought that the only thing that mattered was how many comments were left. Then I discovered the buttons that let you know how many people are reading the postings, how recently, etc and I realised that loads of people do what I like doing! Unkindly called "lurking", more kindly meant,...reading but not wishing or having the time to join
in on the discussion just yet! So this turned out NOT to be a disadvantage in fact.
But I must say I do miss the face to faceness of communication. I wonder sometimes, did the person that I wrote to find my message funny, appropriate, useful, discouraging, matronising? I will never know! And that is a bit frustrating.
What do you feel about it?
That's how it is from my side.
What about from your side. What is it like to "meet" a guest writer in this way? Do you feel you know the person better as a result? Do you read all the artcles? Do you read other people's postings? Do you go back and read your own or pick up the responses? Do you wish there was some other additional feature that we could suggest to the web site managers?? Do you learn anything?
Uses of blogs by a teacher trainer?
I think I can see a way that I could use blogging before a course to help participants and trainers to get to know each other better. I can use it mid course to place readings (in cyber space) and encourage discussion at home to extend course contact time. After people come off the course I can see this as a way of keeping up
the contact and the learning.
What uses can you see?
Well! I will drop in for a chat on Thursday and Friday but after that I will be off to my next venture...so hope to hear from you before I disappear back into the ether!
All the best
Tessa
Tessa's blog is now closed for comments - check the Guest Writer's page to see who our current blogger is.
Comments
787391
Dear Tessa,
I was one of your students in 1987 or 88 at Pilgrims in Canterbury and since then I have never forgotten you and your wonderful teachings. I was so pleased to see your picture in "guests". You have transmitted to me the pleasure of teaching, helping me to find new ideas and approaches to make my lessons less boring and more interesting.
A big hug, Teresa Ferrero
Tessa Woodward
Dear Teresa,
Hello! Wow 1987 or 88 !! A rave from the grave! A blast from the past! (As people in the 1980's used to say..)
Seriously, it is really nice of you to get in touch! Thanks so much too for all your nice comments. I was especially happy to hear that you are still enjoying teaching!
Me too!
All the best
Tessa
Oxford Di
Dear Tessa,
I would like to get back to you on the problem of "missing the face to faceness" (Did you invent this noun?!)and frustration.
Well, for any kind of blog there are going to be posters and lurkers. You are fortunate in that having been given the prominent position of a Guest Writer you are likely to attract plenty of each, quite apart from the fact that you may be well-known in your own right (sorry , I'm sure you are, I'm just ignorant). But for anyone else on this site it is difficult when you do not know whether your entry is being read at all. I have a blog here and have entered something about five times to date and there have only been seven postings altogether. There is no way I know of to see how many "lurkers" there have been, so all in all I get the feeling that my efforts disappear into thin air. This can be frustrating if you expect to get feedback (as teachers usually do!)
This is really the problem with the Internet as a whole. There is just SOO much going on, how can anybody get to know or find out about even a tiny proportion of what is interesting or even vital?
I took part in the Cardiff Conference as an OM, and there we got some good discussions going on the various forums, and incidentally I learnt how to be careful about what I said, for my own mixture of British irony and German (as I live here now!) bluntness got some people's backs up - for the simple reason that they could not see my face and I could not see their expression either. This is really something we must take more heed of.
In fact the format of Cardiff Online worked well - but even them only a fraction of those potentially interested took part.
I suppose the only way to see it is that even if oonly one person reads your text, you have not written it in vain. And even if NOBODY reads it, it has clarified your thoughts to couch them in words, don't you agree?
Tessa Woodward
Hello DIM!
Thanks for writing in! Yes, I did make up the noun 'faceness'! My ideolect got a bit rampant in the last week!
First of all, I am really glad that you enjoyed the Cardiff IATEFL online experience. We all had masses of British Council support on that too.
Yes, it must be weird not being able to find out how many people are reading things you have written. Let's ask the site manager if there is anything that can be done about that. I know that if I go to the bottom of the home page, I can find out how many people are reading my postings. I wonder if it would be possible to have that facility for everyone? Probably a bit ambitious but let's invite the site manager to comment on that.
And yes...there is SO MUCH going on!!!
But as you say, writing is a beautiful way of clarifying one's own thoughts. And even if just one person reads or reads and responds , as you have, I personally feel all 'companionated' ( yes...I made that one up too!)
All good wishes and let's hope to meet at Harrogate?
(I am off to work with some Dutch teachers this week so this will be my last posting for a while!)
Cheers!
Tessa
Rob Lewis
TE Team
Hi both
Yes, there is a place you can find out how many people read your entries! If you go here http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/popularity/lastmonth you can see how many times all blog entries and other content has been read over the last 30 days.
You can also click through to this info from the block at the bottom left of the homepage.
Rob