A journey into learning

Learning and teaching English – learning and teaching to learn

A journey into learning
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…. back yet again

10,000 words is one of my favourite blogs. The other day they had a great piece on 7 reasons why people hate your blog. Number 4 is what I am most guilty of. I’m afraid I just don’t update often enough.

Everyone has a reason for not doing things. Finding ways of doing them is much more difficult. If there is a busy person, than  it’s Karenne and still, look at all then wonderful stuff she creates. No one tells her to do it and only rarely does she get asked why, just recently Carl Dowse asked her, here’s the video.

What are the main reasons for my not writing more regularly seems to be a good enough question to ponder for a resuscitation maneuver. Let’s see if I  can get a list of six, in honour of Lindsay‘s fantastic blog.

1. I get too angry

Like the other day, for example, when one of the newspapers decided to attack the education programme we’ve been working on. The problem of course is not with addressing potential issues, but that  this kind of reporting lacked any journalistic value, was biased and destructive. That’s what I expect from the media.

Not to mention – where was the media when the world should have been warned of the Dubai Doom replacing the Dubai Boom?

2. I get carried away

I sometimes want to grasp big issues, then start researching them only to realise that it’s far too much, and the whole thing goes to the bin. Well, the drafts folder, where I have more than 20 drafts awaiting terminal deletion. I don’t actually mind these. They are part of the process of becoming more aware, more focused and better informed. It will be a great day when I feel confident enough to publish one of these.

3. I get distracted

I blame Google Reader. The amount of amazing information landing in my aggregator is fascinating, overwhelming, humbling. RSS feeds are the best things in the world but they can distract you for two three hours. Imagine reading The Times from cover to cover…

Then other great time sucker: YouTube. You go there to watch that one video someone sent you a link to and three hours later when you have watched videos of your childhood favourites, you just have to get up.

Interesting idea… this is definitely a new reading skill that we do not really teach to our students.

4. I feel guilty

I should be doing some reading and proper research for my MA paper but somehow that always gets postponed. I blame academia. I spent 2 years working and exchanging ideas with circa 20 great individuals. None of them is on Twitter I think. I don’t know if they have blogs or engage with the community in any way. Sorry state of affairs that I am getting an online MA in TESOL without having had a module on online learning, online moderation, new technologies, communities, etc. It was a great course but has it really prepared me for the shift? There’s a wee bit more to online than a Blackboard VLE, I reckon. I see this as a great missed opportunity. My PLN helps me make up for it.

5. I microblog

I love Twitter. The immediacy, the community, the diversity… The fantastic bunch of people sharing everything from birth of children to latest applications they’ve found, a quote a joke, a meal, a banter, a pat on the shoulder, a confession… I’ve never felt so alive and happy.

6. I have a new baby

After 10 months of excitement, preparation and dreaming, on Friday, November 13th Sophie became a constant fixture of my life. Now I have to jump up every couple of minutes to look at her and feel what only parents feel on seeing their first child. I’m sure I’ll get used to this feeling but for now it’s magic.

Here she is.

Sophie_small

I think I am just on an amazing learning curve. I’m perhaps somewhere near the firehose stage of the technology using educator life cycle, and I love every minute of it.

Perhaps the most important piece of advice I received about parenting was: “Enjoy every stage of it. Don’t start wishing she stopped doing this or that because it will soon be gone and you’ll have missed it wishing it away.” I think this is true for this new learning enterprise too. It’s a continuum, and although it has an end it is not the ultimate goal. The process is what matters.

My absolute favourite blog-star, Shelly Terrell, has a feature on her blog, where she challenges her readers. I like it, I’ll try it.

So my challenge for this post: What’s your advice for bloggers who have problems with regular updates?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 17:33 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “…. back yet again”

  1. December 5th, 2009 at 23:06   

    sylvia martinez says:

    Wow, you have a lot going on – there is nothing to feel guilty about, especially with a new baby! That’s a real life-changer.

  2. December 5th, 2009 at 23:45   

    Eva Büyüksimkeşyan says:

    Hi,

    I really enjoyed reading this post. I’d like to say I also like twitter very much and I get amazed how great educators and via them their students can meet. It’s amzing.
    As you mentioned before, may be Sophie will keep you awake for quite a long time (as a mother of 8-year-old twins, I’m pretty sure about it) and you will be able to update your blog more often without getting angry to the trivial(?) matters.

    Eva

  3. December 6th, 2009 at 01:05   

    Karenne Sylvester says:

    if I had a new baby, Tamas, I wouldn’t be blogging so much – don’t stress about it, write when you can and what you want to write about, there’s no obligations to being a member of the blogosphere and we’re proud to have you here.

    (That was my answering your call for advice rather than being a know-it-all :-)

    CONGRATULATIONS ON SOPHIE, she’s absolutely gorgeous!

    K

  4. December 6th, 2009 at 03:03   

    Shelly Terrell says:

    Tamas,

    What matters is that when you do post it is always thought-provoking and full of your passion for whatever the topic is! Thank you for sharing Sophie with us and making us think. My advice is to take turns blogging with Sophie ;-)

    Seriously, I think spending time with Sophie and posting when you can is working for you! I think when we read these how to articles we take them as guides. However, in the back of our minds we must keep in mind that many of these guides get paid to blog full time and this is not the reality for most. Take the points that help you improve but don’t make the tips make you feel like what you share isn’t enough. Just the fact that you have blogged, shared on Twitter & Google Reader, and take time to spend with your friends on SL is amazing in itself. This keeps the community going and inspires others to keep with what they are doing.

  5. December 6th, 2009 at 17:44   

    tamaslorincz says:

    Thanks Shelly,
    I think this comment of yours, and the conversation I had today with my colleagues about passion and work and whether it’s a luxury or a necessity to be passionate about your work, deserves a post in the near future.
    So, you inspired me again. ;-)
    Thanks

  6. December 6th, 2009 at 17:52   

    tamaslorincz says:

    Thanks Eva
    Twins? Wow. I have even more respect for parents raising twins now that we are trying to keep one baby happy.
    Thanks for the lovely comment, you’re right, everything that would or used to upset me is somehow less annoying now. I thin that’s good. Perhaps one can stay passionate without getting too worked up… Will have to work on that.

  7. December 6th, 2009 at 17:54   

    tamaslorincz says:

    Thanks Karenne,

    True. Baby Sophie is enough entertainment. Just standing by the cot looking at her sleeping is better than the best movie I have ever seen.
    At the same time, I love being back. I really enjoy the community I have become a part of.

  8. December 6th, 2009 at 17:58   

    tamaslorincz says:

    Sylvia, that was one great post on the Generation Yes blog. It got re-tweeted several times although it wasn’t a very new one.
    I like to see things as a continuum, and your entry was a resounding success with educators at different stages of their familiarity with technology in their professional lives.
    I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts and thanks for dropping by.

  9. December 19th, 2009 at 16:18   

    Lindsay Clandfield says:

    Finally I have had a chance to catch up on my blog reading and really enjoyed this post. Not least because of the list of six things, but also because I have sometimes felt the stress of updating or not and seeing the stats slowly drop as the days go by. I think I would go with what Shelly says above about doing what you can when you can.

    You could also try short posts? Karenne did a couple on why she hates coursebooks one of which was only a picture and a sentence or two. I am going to start doing another blog in the new year where I want to do little posts. The six thing can get restrictive.

    Lovely baby photo too, and hey you GOTTA keep the priorities straight. Nothing to feel bad about there. I found that I could write with a baby balanced on my knees actually but please don’t tell my wife!

    Thanks for the link too, very useful reading.

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