stuartmeldrum.co.uk
8:34 pm on the 2nd of November, 2006Today I’ve been made to ponder my online life, as it were. In my graphics class I’ve got a couple of kids who are having trouble installing ‘legit’ copies of software, thay’ve also been talking about various websites and asked if I had one. I said yes but I didn’t tell them the address despite really wanting to. The trouble being that this site is a mish-mash of lots of things - a vaguely personal site, a bit of an empty space, not terribly interesting to a 3rd year, alongside some stuff that perhaps with a little focus could be useful for them. The main reason I didn’t give them the address though is that there are 4 years (!) of archives dating back to when I had just left school myself. Now, I’m fairly sure there is nothing that I would object to them seeing, I leave them online after all, but there are probably things in there that I wouldn’t want to be quizzed on by pupils, and there’s a chance there are things in there that are possibly not appropriate for them.
It made me wonder how to take my blogging forward when I start teaching for real next August, at the moment I’m tending towards either a relaunch of foolfillment with a fresh start, or a fresh start at a new domain. Either way I’m not sure what the future is for this site in it’s current form. I’m tempted by stuartmeldrum.co.uk .
November 2nd, 2006 at 9:41 pm on the 2nd of November, 2006
You’re right - it’s a tricky one. After all, google Stuart Meldrum and what comes up?
The trouble with starting as stuartmeldrum is that you will always be conscious of what you’re typing. And with it, you’d have to start holding back on what will pretty quickly be the most time-consuming and thought-provoking part of your like - your work.
If I were you, I’d go down the anonymous route. But then I go by Lord Of All, so I would say that…
November 2nd, 2006 at 10:33 pm on the 2nd of November, 2006
Hi Stuart, I was faced with the same problem. In the end I went with olliebray.com because I though it would be a domain name that could stick with me through the rest of my professional career. It doesn?t really suggest anything other than it?s a web site about me. Over time and if blogging becomes a thing of the past the web site will change as I change and as technology changes. You could go down the anoynomous route but then does that mean you wouldn?t give out your URL to anyone? Cheers for now, Ollie.
November 3rd, 2006 at 6:03 pm on the 3rd of November, 2006
In a way, I’m glad I started blogging after I left the classroom instead of before. Certainly, it’s less of a problem for me to use my own name, or even for Ollie who is an established teacher with many years experience, than it is for someone in your position.
I’m sure I read a blog recently from a young teacher/student about a pupil finding their MySpace account… I’ll see if I can fall across it again and let you know who it was.
Also, there was some good advice recently on John Connell’s blog.
November 4th, 2006 at 8:32 am on the 4th of November, 2006
This is an interesting question but I think I would urge you to stick with it. For too long teachers have appeared one dimensional figures to children and only through such things as extra-curricular activities have they become fully formed in the pupils’ minds. Kids will inevitably try to put “stuff” up on your blog - but you can block that - so what’s wrong with then knowing more about you?
Your blog shows who you really are , what you think and where you come from - both physically and historically. The bottom-line is - it’s up to you.
November 4th, 2006 at 9:12 pm on the 4th of November, 2006
Some thought provoking comments, thanks. I think that using a name like foolfillment gets in the way of this being my site, it’s just a silly word I made up that faintly suited me at the time, it doesn’t really mean anything but I think it could give the impression that I have something to hide.
I take the point that the blog should show what I am like, the fully formed Me but I’m not sure that keeping all the old posts is the best way of doing this.
Over the four years I’ve been blogging my reasons for doing so have changed, now I want this to be as representative of me as possible, whereas in the past it was more of a place for me to play with bits of code, grumble when they don’t work, and rant about other silly things that had annoyed me. In my real, off-line life I like to think I’m as open and honest as possible, and approachable. In the past I perhaps wasn’t that person - I’ve done a lot of growing up in the last four years, they’ve been some of the most formative years of my life - and that change is relfected in some of the archived posts so if this site is to reflect me accurately then I think I have to get rid of a lot of the old bits. (I’ve been trying to write that sentence for a long time but I can’t stop it sounding like I have a horrible past that I’m trying to cover up!)
The future for foolfillment? I think it’s bleak. There’s no question of stopping blogging yet though.
November 5th, 2006 at 12:46 pm on the 5th of November, 2006
Another intersting point as we continue to develop blogs. Let’s say I keep my blog going for ten years. There will be no doubt that some of the things I write now I will be embarrassed with in 10 years time. Does that mean that I must refresh my web presence every few years to “sanitise” my blog?
November 5th, 2006 at 6:12 pm on the 5th of November, 2006
Its an awkward one. As a non-blogger (who tried for 10 minutes, and found I didn’t have the time), its not something I have to consider personally, but I have thought abut it in the past - do the handful of MP’s who very proudly blog, realise that a few seconds idle speculating online about, say Iraq, or education, could be thrown back in their face 5 years later? I’m sure Nick Robinson, the BBC correspondent who does one through the BBC site realises?
I think you’d be as OK as could be with your history anyway. You’ve tended to be quite circumspect, and it would be a very determind or lucky child who stumbled on anything really useful in the cheeky comeback stakes. You’re other half, for instance - you harldly mention her.
At the end of the day, if you’re a good teacher, who relates in anyway to kids, you’ll say and do things in the classroom that give them that. When I think back, all the best teachers had a bit of give and take there. One drank in the same pub as the senior pupils, another was in the local rugby club, another had had a chequered life before teaching and used to relate stories form this life as part of our social ed. And each and every one of these were among the best teachers at the school. Iguess what I’m trying to say is that of you censor your blog, what else would you have to censor?
November 7th, 2006 at 5:23 pm on the 7th of November, 2006
Don, I don’t think it is a need to sanitise, more an opportunity to do so. As I say my blogging has been gaining a lot of focus recently and it is now no longer appropriate, or at least no longer relevant, to have posts where all I do is complain that Berti Vogtrs hasn’t been sacked. Having said that I’ve now made the switch to a new domain and I still have all the old posts, my brother rightly pointed out that really I’ve nothing to be worried about, I think I was being a little paranoid.
I’ll still spend a little time going through old posts getting rid of things that no longer need to be here, mostly posts with dead links but the occasional one where all I’ve done is rant.
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