Day 15 Challenge – Give A Comment Award

Never lost
the scent

I have to admit that I found this Challenge a very difficult one for a raft of different reasons.


But it was also very illuminating, for I realised that my compass of awareness of the blogosphere was small and I had to do something about that before I could hand over this splendid badge invented by Scott McCleod.

Deep into the Networks

I decided to look deeper into the networks that I’d already charted, what with Cocomment and the RSS feeder that kept me up to date with the latest posts. I discovered something which I thought was quite amazing. I found that deep within the network of bloggers and commenters there were all sorts of conversations happening that I’d no idea had been taking place, and lots were to do with the 31 Day Challenge. Complexity science came to mind with all its fractal-like intricacies, its redundancies and recursively elaborate networks. The blogosphere is a complexity system.

Familiar Trax

I discovered posts and comments of people that I never knew existed. Some eight or nine links deep (by following the link from one blog to the next via commenters) I came across a few that I’d met before. Invariably Sue Waters and Michele Martin were to the fore, frequently together, chipping in a useful suggestion here or a searching question there.

I was also aware that every now and then I crossed tracks that I'd met before - my old friend Dogtrax.

Meandering for Days

Yes, this meandering sniffer-dog seemed to be leaving trax everywhere, supporting someone here, making a quizzical investigation there, and pointing the way to his Day in a Sentence. I even got an email from him urging me to put in a contribution to Day in Six Words, which I did.

My Comment Award goes to Kevin alias Dogtrax. It so happens that he was also the first person to visit my shiny new blog with a comment. Like a good dog, he kept coming back to check on what I was doing.

But that is not the end of the tail (sic). While I was doing my late night research to find the trails, I learnt that I'd already been awarded the badge by Andrea Hernandez who asked that I display it on my blog. Thanks Andrea! I'm stoked!

So this is why there are two Awards shown on this post. One is mine and the other is for good ol' Dogtrax.

Ka kite ano

Global OLPC - comment challenge day 14

Tēnā koutou katoa
Welcome to you all

I’ve been reading a lot about the OLPC project.

As I understood it, the computer (which originally was to cost $100) was for kids in the developing world.

I have often raised the idea in forums that such a computer (let’s say it is here with all its bells and whistles – forget about the software!) would be great for every kid in every school globally. Supposing some benevolent billionaire supplied one to every child throughout the globe, what would your take on this be?

Nga mihi nui

Best wishes

Using Comments & Blog Comment Guidelines

I’ve been a Blogger in Middle-earth for just over a week now. Long enough to be touched by the friendliness and warm welcoming comments that came over the few posts I’ve had time to write. My very first commenter, Kevin blew my socks off, for no sooner had I saved my first post when he gave me this wonderful comment:

"Hi And welcome to the new blog (it looks so shiny!) I found you from a comment at another blog and so the circle continues. How do you envision using this blog? (Or have you gotten that far?)"

Well, of course I had to tell him that the main thing I saw ahead of me was a whole lot of new learning. So true, for the very next day I started writing my second post for this blog. And just the day after on the same humble post I got this from Andrea Hernandez:

"Hi Ken, where exactly is middle-earth? How wonderful that the comment challenge has inspired you to start blogging. I was reading the comment you left on my post about habits and change and thought, this is a blog post in itself! It is funny because when you commented the other day I tried to find your blog, but couldn't. Now I know why! I am a new blogger myself. I started my blog in January, and I believe that it has really propelled me forward as a learner/teacher/writer. Words are so powerful! I look forward to reading your thoughts on your shiny, brand-new blog. What is ka-kite?" from Florida USA

Ka kite is short for ka kite ano which is Māori for till we meet again.

Y’know, there’s something very exciting about comments coming out of the blue from cyberspace. It’s like going on a journey into the unknown and being greeted by fellow travellers who want to spend the time of day with you and share a bite to eat or tell a story. What a boost it was also to get real positive feedback in these first few days. This from Diane Hammond:

“Good conversation happening here. Ken, I like your style of responding to commenters. I've seen other bloggers state their preference is to stay out of the conversation and let the commenters have the floor. I tend to follow your approach; I think interaction with the poster keeps the conversation flowing.”

To watch a conversation happening between two commenters on my post was something else. Diane gave me some good tips in her comment and finished with a gem-piece of worthwhile advice about bloggin:

“I tell all my student bloggers that although language conventions still need to be followed, they should consider their posts and comments more as conversations than polished pieces of writing. Would you agree with that?”

On that same post my vulnerabilities were found wanting but were also confirmed as being common, if not normal, thank goodness in Michele Martin’s:

“Ken, you aren't alone in feeling vulnerable with commenting--that seems to be a pretty big theme that's emerging in the challenge, one that actually surprises me. Just about everyone involved is blogging, so they're accustomed to putting their thoughts online. I wonder why it feels different to post a comment vs. posting a blog post? Also makes you realize why kids are so reluctant to comment in class. . .”

These words of support were confirmed in Sue Waters’:

“Ken as Michele says majority of participants in the Challenge are reluctant commenters because of feeling vulnerable or feeling they have nothing to offer.”

And again from Kevin, who came back with words of encouragement:

“I hope you keep confident in your role as a commenter, and as a blogger. Your ideas are valuable for conversation and connection. Take care and thanks for being honest in your sharing.”

With these sort of flashes of bonne homme appearing on my shiny new blog, I decided yesterday to take up Michele’s Day 11 Challenge and put together my blog comment guidelines. After all, I had this wondeful friendly atmosphere on my blog and I realised I had to maintain it.

I started by reading Michele’s advice and perused all the useful sites she gave links to on her post. Then I drafted out my thoughts for guidelines – not without difficulty.

I wanted guidelines that were succinct, not too detailed, so that the gist was covered in a page or so. I also thought that it should reflect the issues for me as one who was ethically responsible for the material displayed on my blog. But I didn’t want to put a damper on the general atmosphere of what I want to be a friendly blog site - not after I'd had a taste of how wonderful it was to have all these friendly visitors to my posts!

I decided I needed a disclaimer, which released me from any dispute over who was ultimately the decision maker, namely me - Michele more or less said so in her brief. It also had to be couched in such a way that the reasons for the guidelines being there in the first place were transparent and understood.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. I'd love to learn what you think about My Blog Comment Guidelines.

( 3 ) ( 2 ) << - related posts

I have been weighed, I have been measured, and I have been found wanting

Kia Ora Tatou!
Michele Martin's challenge was to do a self-audit using her 6 criteria on why people aren’t commenting on your blog. Here's mine:

1 You sound like a press release

I scanned the sample press release that Michele cited. It read like a press release. I don’t think I could write that sort of stuff. With all due respect to those who can write good press releases – and we need those authors - I’d fail on that one simply because it’s not in me to be in a frame of mind to write like that. So I’m found wanting on that one.

2 You sound like an infomercial

Same with this as with criterion 1. I have as much sales acumen as a railway sleeper. I’m found wanting again I’m afraid.

3 You sound like a know-it-all

Now this is a hard one for any teacher to self-judge. It puts the spotlight on the traditional vision of what, or more importantly, who the teacher is or should be. Aren't teachers supposed to know it all?

Having been a researcher and a learner for many years, I think that it is unlikely that I’d come across like that, though I could be wrong. If I do would someone please put a comment on this post and tell me?

I recall the first time I taught a year 11 Biology class. I’d never taught Biology before and I’d been appointed as head of department at that school on the condition that I taught year 11 Biology. I chose to adopt the I’ll-come-clean attitude.

On first day of the school year, I had 35 shining girly faces sitting in front of me. I confessed to them that I’d never taught Biology. But I also showed them the wonderful new textbook they all had been given (and it was indeed a wonderful text). I also explained my plan. That was to let my students know the day before my lesson where in the textbook tomorrow’s lesson would be prepared from. Their homework was to read over the section so that they could keep me right when I gave the next day's lesson.

Right reason or not, that class of fifth-formers was one of the most enjoyable classes I ever had the privilege to teach. They were all repeat fifth-formers what's more, so some knew a thing or two about the subject before we started and they were able to keep me on my toes. But the camaraderie that I enjoyed, with us all being learners together, was something special that I’ve never forgotten. There were some things I learnt about being humble in ignorance and I now cherish those. I will try to bring these forward in my blog posts to keep me from sounding too much like a know-it-all.

4 You haven't showed them how

I don’t think I’ve really had the chance on the www blog scene yet for I’m a newbie to blogging. So I'm definitely found wanting on that criterion. But I have read the blogs of some excellent mentors very recently while taking part in this 31Day Challenge. Good teachers should be good communicators and they are both good teachers and good communicators. I do hope that when I get to know enough (about blogs, postings and commenting) so I feel a need to lead the way on these topics, that I’m able to help others in my posts without (again) coming across as a know-it-all.

5 You haven't created the right atmosphere

Hmm. As I write this, my last post has the sum total of 0 comments – obviously found fearsomely wanting there. Yet I have another post that reached 6, not counting my own reply comments (7!). Oh well, I must have been doing something a bit better. Maybe it was the topic. Who knows? Does that mean I always have to choose topics for posts that other people will get excited over? How do I know that people will get excited about the topic anyway? It would tend to cut out an awful lot of otherwise interesting topics if I only selected ‘exciting’ ones.

Then again I suppose it’s all about engendering excitement in the reader. And how do you do that? Doesn’t that sound like a good topic for a blog post? Come on, someone out there! Give me a link to an innovative blog post on how to create the right atmosphere!

6 You just don't seem that into it

I’m not sure how to self-judge that, frankly. Is this a matter of personal opinion? How To Be A Popular Blogger, as a title for a blog post, seems about as tawdry as the book title How To Win Friends And Influence People (all due respects to Dale Carnegie whose book by the same name is really worth a read).

But that might be what it’s all about. I surmise that if my posting comes across to someone as being passionate (and they also share that passion) then, yes, I’m may win a comment out of the reader. But how does one come across as being passionate about something? And how does one share that sort of thing in a blog post? I venture it must be a bit of both. First you must have the passion about the subject. Second, you must know how to write passionately about it. No?

Ah but, that’s where I come to criterion 7. But there’s only 6, you say. Well I’m going to put myself forward a bit here and propose that criterion 7 be:

7 You don’t have your reader's interest at heart

I’m a great fan of Bill Bryson. He has written books on a wide range of topics from Mother Tongue to A Short History Of Nearly Everything. The fascinating thing I’ve found about his books is that I can pick one of them up, open it at any page and the instant I start reading he has me interested in what he’s got to say. It's what he does in involving me as his reader. He makes me feel that he is interested in me, as if he were speaking directly with me (rather than at me) and with no one else.

So, do you have your reader's interest at heart?

Ka kite anō

Catch ya later

About Suffering

The Myanmar cyclone disaster is no doubt the worst natural catastrophe this century.



Yet when I looked up Google News (NZ) this morning, what featured on my screen was the impending trial for the corruption allegedly committed by an Australasian politician and the political economic shocks that are likely to affect Myanmar in the near future.

I then flicked to Google News (World) to find that future political economic shocks for Myanmar had taken first position and Hopes For Dream Ticket As Obama Praises Clinton was second. Myanmar Holds Poll Despite Post-cyclone Chaos was a close third on both bulletins.

In a desperate attempt to redress my initial personal issue with Internet news, I switched to Yahoo.com to find that Myanmar’s poll and Obama’s political issues were the top features.

As I write, the estimated death toll in Myanmar is over 100,000, and expert opinion is that the eventual death toll could reach many times that figure.

Here is a society that is committing self-genocide through restriction on aid by its military and the billboards of the world post local corruption issues and political rhetoric. Such as it is, it looks as if the disaster is almost being overlooked in favour of more attractive political issues.

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Musée des Beaux Arts - W.H. Auden