Monday, March 30, 2009

Argh!!! This Stuff Drives Me Crazy....

Hi there people

As the title indicates. This stuff (blogging and the like) really does drive me nutty. I get the concept, I even find it quite exciting but I simply have no natural apptitude for things electronic. I just don't know what button to click in a crisis and my crises are fast and furious.

Having set up a blog and mastered my fear, stress, anxiety ( I even had an epiphany - realising that the fear I felt matched my students fear when faced with something unknown). I was feeling a bit swanky and set aside some time today in my immensley busy schedule to catch up on my Flexible Learning Homework, I thought I may even be able to get ahead of myself.

Unfortunately all the swank has gone out of me. I've just spent the last hour plus, trying to access my blogsite consistently and I'm feeling frustrated and dis-heartened. I can't help wondering, what is the point!

Having had a little outburst and stomping off to the kitchen for a tea break, I'm trying again to put myself in my student's shoes. At the beginning of a course student's will often get anxious and say things like "I don't know how to do it, I don't understand". I respond by trying to reassure them with comments like " Try not to stress yourself, you may not understand it now, but trust me, it will all make sense by the end of the year". I know that my attempts at reassurring them do very little - anxiety and fear are powerful emotions but I also know that by the end of the year it is making sense, they have relaxed and they are acknowledging that I was right.

So, I'm trying to take my own advice, trying to let myself off the hook a bit and trying to accept that with practice this will all become second nature. One thing I've learn't through my frustrating journey today is to accept that sites will keep updating themselves and I may just have to update my account or whatever on a fairly regular basis and then wait for a bit before I can access it again. This may seem pretty darn obvious to those who are practised and in the know but for a social media ignoramus like me it's a challenge that can leave me feeling somewhat stupid. Ah well!

I found the following video very useful in understanding why one would blog and I highly recommend it for anyone new to social media.

YouTube - Blogs in Plain English







Cheers 4 now
Jenny

7 comments:

  1. Hi Jenny, practice is the key.. 15 minutes every day for 3 months aught to do it. Tonight we have a workshop on wikis! But it might just as well be a review seeing as very few in the group appear to be practicing through the week. The workshop starts t 6pm as usual, but I will be about 30-40 minutes late as my flight gets in just before 6. Looking forward to seeing everyone, and hearing how last week went.

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  2. Your early blogging reminds me of someone named Sarah Stewart. Check out her blog, leave her some comments, network a little, she might be a great source of help and inspiration for you I think.

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  3. Hello Jenny & Leigh

    I read this post yesterday but never got to comment - got distracted into something else - I had to say, this made me laugh. Considering your so-called problems, you've done a fantastic job!!

    As Leigh says, it's practice - and don't be afraid to network and get support from people. The more you network, the more support & help you get!

    good luck, Sarah

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  4. Hi Jenny,
    I have enjoyed just playing and building my confidence and finally I am starting to think about how I could use this media for teaching and learning. I would be happy to have some silly conversations with you online as we explore the processes and add ons etc. Maybe we can help each other with this. Keen? Jill (NOT Leigh)

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  5. Thanks for your comments about the work we're doing in SL. There's lots of work being done in SL in mental health - its being used a lot for counseling etc.

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  6. Hi Jenny,
    Have a Happy Easter.
    Jill

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Welcome to my blog. Please feel free to add thoughtful, funny and/or constructive comments.
Cheers
Jenny