Blogging is back, take 183

But is it safe?

Maren and Jim over at Reclaim are starting a blogging community, so it feels like the 2000s again. Get a Northern Voice conference going in Canada someone, before it becomes part of the USA! I don’t really need encouragement to blog, but if you do, Maren has some advie on getting your blogging mojo back. I’m trying not to do that thing of linking everything to “current events”, but I do feel that having your own platform, your own voice, community and identity when so much of that is controlled by people you wouldn’t trust with a glue pen, does add extra currency to blogging.

Brian Lamb (he releases blog posts with the frequency of The Stone Roses releasing albums) uses prompts from Tom Woodward (more of a Taylor Swift release cycle), so in the interest of saving cognitive effort, I’ll use them too.

Why did you start blogging in the first place?

Two of my OU colleagues, John Naughton and Tony Hirst were avid bloggers at the start of the 2000s, and enthused about the process of this form of writing. I was all about the internet and elearning back in the day, so I thought I’d give it a try. After a couple of false dawns I settled on edtechie initially over at Typepad and then on Reclaim.

What platform are you using to manage your blog and why do you use it?

WordPress, hosted on Reclaim. I’m not really a WP expert or advocate, but it does what I need, and I can easily find plug-ins and themes for my needs. There has been some dodgy dealing around WP recently but it doesn’t tie me into a particular provider.

Have you blogged on other platforms before?

I tried Blogger for one of those abortive early attempts, and then used Typepad before Jim Groom lured me over to the Reclaim side with promises of free biscuits.

How do you write your posts?

Badly (ba-dum tss). I vary but I often have an idea that might arise from a conversation, or something I’ve read that percolates around for a few days. Then I bash it out in one sitting, usually it only takes 20 mins or so, as I’ve done a lot of the thinking (if it’s required) by then. I also deliberately don’t want to make these into fully formed academic essays, they are thoughts I have along the way and I don’t want the pressure of making them perfectly formed to get in the way of writing.

When do you feel most inspired to write?

Going to conferences often used to provoke a post or two, when I’d be in a session and something big or small would trigger off a thought. Or sometimes it’s in reaction to something – usually stupid about ed tech. Maren and I have a lot of conversations, usually when walking the dogs, and these can lead to writing posts.

Do you normally publish immediately after writing, or do you let it simmer a bit?

Publish, read it and see how many typos I’ve made, edit it, publish again and then forget about it.

What’s your favorite post on your blog?

I’m often surprised by things I’ve written about and then forgotten. Rather immodestly I sometimes find an old post and think “that’s really rather good. Well done me.” I don’t have a favourite post, but readers will know I like an overstretched metaphor, so something like 10 Lessons from Apocalyptic Literature or Edtech & Symbols of Permanence I think get at the playful possibilities of blogging while also, hopefully, saying something thoughtful. That’s why I love blogging, you can’t do that stuff in an academic journal.

Any future plans for the blog?

Not really, now that I’ve left the OU and I’m not involved in educational technology as much, I wonder if the identity of the blog should change. But I’ve always had a personal element to the blog, it’s not like it’s an ed tech newsletter, so I think I will persist here. But I guess people may have to get used to fewer posts about open education and more about baking pies and walking Teilo on the beach.