Post-workshop reflections: Introduction to Blogging workshop for 10-year olds

Two sessions.

An hour and a half each.

Ten year-olds.

Thirty kids per session.

Total 60 kids.

Phew.



But it was fun. I found myself enthused and inspired at the end of the day.

Nice kids. Not too rowdy (I managed to reason with them most of the time, heh). All were enthusiastic about learning new things (it helped that they signed up for the course themselves, rather than being asked to attend).

The session, on how to create and manage blogs, was designed and conducted for the MOE Language Arts Festival 2008. I'm pleased to say that both sessions went well, even though I've not taught 10 year olds how to blog (last year's session was something else).

Well, I did learn that I SHOULD NOT force the boys to work with the girls, unless they want to. So this year, I left them to choose the people they preferred to work with, or to work on their own.


Session Outline
The session covered basics like creating a blog with Blogger.com, publishing a post, editing and deleting posts, creating hyperlinks, adding photos, changing the blog design and layout, how to delete a blog, how to set their blog as private, and how to manage comments.

During the session, I also wove in examples of how they should not assume that photos on the Internet were for the taking (a common assumption among these children), and to exercise cyber-safety and responsible forms of expression.

And I reminded them to tell their parents of the Google account they've created, and their blog URL.


Problems & Opportunities
I'd tossed and turned in bed last night, 'cos I was playing out all possible scenarios of what might go wrong during the sessions.

For instance, poor Internet connectivity (didn't happen), students not having email addresses and not being able to create blogger accounts (a handful of them), and disruptive participants (none).

My biggest worry was not being able to cope with 30 students. I had one very capable and helpful student helper but normally, for a hands-on workshop, I'd preferred a ratio of Five participants to One trainer.

Fortuitously, in the morning session, five students already had blogger accounts prior to the session and had made tentative posts in blogger.com!

Incidentally, I asked why they chose to attend this introductory workshop. I got mostly shrugs. Some said they wanted to see if there were more specific things to learn (I was successful to some degree, but expectations differed among these students).

Anyway, there I was, wondering how I'd cope with 30 students for a hands-on workshop.

Temporary Lab Assistants!
Then in a moment of inspiration, I asked if those five students could act as my Temporary Assistants for the workshop.

"Temporary" as in, to help out at specific segments in the workshop. The rest of the time they would be participants.

They were to go around helping other students sign up to blogger (or create email accounts before signing up with blogger).

At first, they didn't know how to react (maybe they've never been asked to be lab assistants).

Then they quietly went around helping.

I thought they were bored and was sorry that I had to make them help me. But they were quite happy to help, even if they weren't acting excited. Because at one point, I announced: "This student needs help. Can any of my Temporary Assistant come over here?"

To my surprise, all five of the Temp Assistants ran over (yes, ran in that crowded lab)!

I tell you, I could've hugged everyone of them. :)


Temporary Assistants in the Afternoon
For my afternoon, I sought out Temporary Assistants again. This time I approached it differently.

There were four kids who arrived at the lab about 30 minutes early. I asked if they had blogs with blogger. They didn't.

Then I asked if they could help me as Temporary Assistants. While we waited for the class to arrive, I would show them how to sign up and create a blog. Then when the class began, they would have to help others.

Three of them agreed (the fourth preferred to play an online game). I assigned them to look after individual sections of the class. One of them tended to be shy in helping other students, but she went about rendering help in her own quiet way.

I should've called them my Special Assistants instead.

Thanks, kids.


Mission accomplished
All 60 kids managed to create their own blogs using Blogger.com.

The few who already had blogs also learned new things, like creating hyperlinks and managing the blog.

All indicated, via feedback forms, that the session was useful and interesting. Three of them indicated that they'd expected more though. I spoke to one of them to find out what they expected in terms of "more". Apparently they wanted to learn things like how to add new blog skins, tag boards, music players etc.

I think their peers can teach that part better than I can, heh.

These two comments made my day:

"It's cool! Although I'm in a girls school I learnt how to share knowledge with others by blogging" (from a boy, obviously)

"This is the most fun I have ever had in a computer lab"


More Photos from the Language Arts Festival 2008












[Related: Post-workshop reflections - Excel Fest 2007]

Resource: Screenshots on "Creating blogs with Blogger.com" + "Selected Tips"

Published these posts over at BlogCourseDemo in preparation for two blog-related workshops that I've been asked to conduct this week:

• Creating blogs with Blogger.com (Screenshots, with links to downloadable images at Flickr.com)
• Selected tips on using Blogger.com

One course will be on the 28th, for Primary school students (as a follow-up from last year). This year, we've made sure they'll get to create blogs, and learn things like creating links, commenting, and the basics of managing their blogs.

There will be two classes of 30 students each. My challenge will be to ensure all of them get to create and post stuff in their blogs without a hitch. There's always an element of uncertainty when it comes to "live" workshops.

The other workshop is for teachers attending the NLB/ MOE School Library Symposium on 30 May. It's structured specifically for teachers interested in using blogs and social media tools in the context of libraries.

I'll blog about the outcome of the sessions later.
[Post-workshop reflections: Introduction to Blogging workshop for 10-year olds, 28 May 2008]


This work by Ivan Chew is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. For permissions beyond the scope of this license , please contact via RamblingLibrarian@gmail.com.

Speaking at USF (Part 1): Digital Literacy - Spring 2008, Davis Forum

So it's confirmed.

In about a week's time, I'll be speaking at the University of San Francisco (USF). As part of their Digital Literacy course, to be exact.

Actually the whole thing was confirmed about two months ago. I didn't want to blog about it until things were firmed up. Like seeking approval from my employer, confirming travel arrangements, finalising the content of my talk (all these on top of my regular work)...

So now it's a week before I fly.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time. Maybe I'll share more about that in another post...

With a week left, I'll air some thoughts on what I'll be speaking at USF. For now, you may want to refer to Prof. David Silver's course syllabus, which he posted at his blog.

Extract from the MS Word document:

Facebook and Fox News, tivo and TV, youtube and yahoo, books and blogs, ipods, iphones, itunes, ieverything – we are pretty much swimming in information. How do we navigate through it all? How do we find the good stuff? And which kinds of information should we use for which kinds of research and creative projects?

At the same time, information, it seems, is changing before our eyes. Today, in our Web 2.0 world, information is often something we both consume and produce. What does it mean, and what possibilities are opened up, when we can add to and annotate, comment on and contribute?

In Digital Literacy we will explain what literacy means – and can mean – in a digital age, our age. We will read, write, and reflect. We will design, create, and construct. We will participate, contribute, and collaborate.

Upon course completion, Davies Scholars will learn:
How to navigate, evaluate, cite, and contribute to existing knowledge;
How to construct and manage a creative, collaborative, and responsible digital identity; and
How to collaborate (preferably effectively and creatively) with others.

First time I saw it, I asked David if I could sign up for the course. :)

I'm scheduled to speak on Feb 14, a day after I arrive in SF.

Details of my talk was finalised after David posted his syllabus, so in the document it says "To be determined".

Which might be a good thing for me, because I'm still refining the contents of my talk. I don't know about other speakers but up till the final minute, as I learn more about my audience, I'm still modifying my talk, adding and deleting stuff.

My talk will centre along these main talking points:

• Senior Citizens
• Digital Media
• Singapore
• Role of Public Libraries
  

Oh yeah, from the list of guest speakers, it seems I'm the only one outside of the U.S.

I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

I said that already. :)

[part 2]
link: Davies Forum Speaker Series: Ivan Chew

Post-workshop Reflections: NEtwork Conference 2007

I conducted a New Media/ Blogging-related workshop this afternoon. Was invited by the folks from Nexus (National Education) about a month back. Basically, the workshop covered the usual hows, and whys of (mainly) blogging. Because it's a workshop attended by National Education (NE) practitioners, I tried to show more NE-related examples and also have group activities centered on ideas on applying New Media to National Education.

I had mixed feelings after the 2-hour session (1.30pm to 3.30pm). Total about 30 participants, mostly teachers.

I couldn't quite get that level of rapport I wanted with most of the participants. After-lunch syndrome?

The wireless connection was quite good. The problem was the layout of the classroom. The tables were arranged in rows (lecture-style) which wasn't that conducive for the group work.


The big problem I thought was the disparity in the participants' awareness, knowledge and experience of using new media.

I found out during (and confirmed with actual participants) after the session that there was a even mix of people who are already into using blogs (particularly the schools) and those who were not quite sure how to get started. Two ends of the spectrum.

A quick poll during the class showed that almost half of them were already blogging of some sort, especially those from schools. Some teachers were quite advanced too (they were already actively using blogs and wanted to know newer technologies).

For the discussion part, I suspected that mentally the participants weren't prepared for a group discussion, especially on ideas of uising new media for NE. At the initial part they were quite animated in discussing in their small groups, when I asked them to identify issues and challenges in using New Media for NE. Then I got them to walk to other groups to look at what was written.

But when it came to a discussion of ideas on how to use new media for NE, the discussion got very quiet. I suspect they haven't really thought about it. And there were those who still weren't sure what were the uses of blogs etc.

Don't blame them, 'cos I think one needs more time for that sort of things. Also, the conference blurb was rather vague on the outline of the workshop.

In the end, the talk benefited more of those who were at the beginner's level. Those "expert users" wanted more than the overview, I'm sure. Would have wanted to separate the two groups but never is quite possible to know before hand.

Overall, I wasn't quite satisfied with the outcomes, in that upon hindsight, there were much more I could share and targeted at different levels. But it's upon hindsight and I can't do anything for those 30 or so participants.

Perhaps the biggest problem -- and this is just my gut feel -- was that the topic of "National Education" was (1) not well understood and defined by some of the participants, and (2) it has a bad reputation (unwarranted, if you ask me). So add these together, and it's quite natural the discussion generally didn't flow when it came to ideas on using new media for NE.

If I had more time with smaller groups, I'm confident we could work something out. Well, maybe a next time, say discussions with teachers in a particular school.

For future talks aimed at teachers, I'd certainly look beyond "creating and why use blogs" and go into things like "ways to get the message out" and perhaps a review of what's considered good writing using actual examples with schools.

The good vibes I got was also that most participants actively did their part during the discussions. I could see that almost every group was chatting and sharing away. Maybe on that note, one part of the workshop was accomplished, i.e. to share tacit knowledge among the participants.

Well, if any of the participants manage to find their way to this blog post, do leave a comment on what you thought was good, useful, could-be-improved, not-helpful etc. from this afternoon's workshop.

Darn -- wished I'd time to collect the stuff they wrote, and post it here.

Post-course reflections: Session 2 - The "W" & "H" of Blogging

Conducted the second session of the talk at Civil Service College on Wednesday, 14 Mar. This time, I felt I didn't deliver as effectively as the first. I would just rate myself a 5.8 to 6. I felt the participants were less responsive than those from the first time.

Based on the feedback from the previous run, I included a "live" demo on publishing a blog post, inserting pictures from Flickr, and inserting hyperlinks. Unfortunately, the slow Internet connectivity created some awkward pauses. I tried to compensate for that by going to the talk and checking back on the uploading at intervals. Upon hindsight, I should have just skipped the "live" demo if it wasn't working.

One feedback from the previous session was to include more details on how search for blogs. Hence I also updated my slides and included a "live" demo on searching for blogs using Technorati.com. This was a gem of a find from the search; the participants had a good laugh from reading it. I thought it was a brilliant example of how the library could find out how customers used the library, what they thought about the collection, and what areas we could improve -- in this instance, perhaps publicity of where the library was located.

As always, for a talk of this nature, the participants came with varied experiences, knowledge, and expectations. As with the previous session, some expected the talk to go in depth on the "ABCs" of creating a blog. Either the course objectives and outline wasn't clear, or they didn't read it before signing up. Maybe the marketing brochure should specify clearly what the talk would not cover.

I hope to get the participants' feedback from Civil Service College (CSC). The CSC folks were kind enough to grant permission to share a summary of the participants' evaluation and feedback from the previous run (23 Feb):

COURSE FEEDBACK - VERBATIM COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS

Course Title: The “W” & “H” of Blogging – Understanding Blogging
Course Code: CSMU-06001
Course Date: 23 Feb 2007
Trainer(s): Ivan Chew
No. of Participants: 95
No. of Respondents: 67
Trainer Overall Mean (TOM)*: 4.26
Performance Overall Mean (POM)*: 4.03
* Out of a possible score of 5


How did you benefit from the course? How would apply it to a) your work b) your personal life?

• Better understanding
• Blogging – create may own blog for students’ feedback comment and reflection on lesson conducted
• Just wanted to find out about blogging and how one can search for blogs.
• Some knowledge of blogging gained.
• Create a blog; Connect to my student; leveling up to what my students have been doing.
• May want to try it out.
• Able to advise pupil who intend to blog.
• I know what is blogging all about now.
• A good intro for me.
• In the promotion of new media and new media arts in the school, it adds another perspective to what we see.
• Get to know blogging; Get to know its relevance to personal life.
• It is useful for me to know about blogging so as to share information.

• Learnt a bit more than what I already knew about blogging in particular latest blog sites.
• It gives me motivation to try it out myself.
• I found out more about RSS. Get a RSS online account@Blogline.
• Important for keeping up with communication in personal life.
• Good powerpoint presentation; new terms like RSS feed etc.
• Will set me thinking to start a blog.
• Informative.
• Interesting overview; Good to understand what blogging was all about.
• Great insight and good knowledge.
• Good introductory course.
• Simple intro to creating blog.
• More knowledgeable on the concept of blogging.
• Try blogging
• Better understanding about blogging. Changed some opinions about blogging. Will help me when I blog on my library’s blog.
• Its importance to us (me) to know the basic training and to know more about ‘news’ and interact to global.
• I need to know the basic hands-on session on blogging, how to view others’ blog. Don’t understand what is ‘feeds’, ‘RSS’.
• Thanks for basic understanding.
• Better understanding; blog as a tool, blogging as means of communication.
• More blog-savvy now.

Areas done well

• Speaker has made his presentation simple and easy to understand.
• Knowledgeable and enthusiastic trainer
• Good practical examples
• Practical examples and tips.
• Printouts of terms and terminologies to me can try out on our own.
• I like your presentation and the mode.
• The horse’s mouth.
• The trainer interacts well with audience and has a friendly way of delivering his content.
• Training Materials
• Presentation
• Clear presentation. Interesting examples.
• Humorous. Engaging. Presentation notes succinct, short, simple.
• List of sites/references provided.
• Good speaker.
• Speaker – Practitioner.
• Handouts – good reference list.
• Comprehensive on “why” and guidelines on blogging.
• Very impressive powerpoint slides.
• Slides instruction
• Good info, good examples, extra tips – books to read.
• The trainer giving the talk is very appropriate.

Areas not done well

• Noted insufficient contents.
• Practical hands-on session – to encourage the participants on blogging; print out powerpoint slides or notes of the slides.
• Should have taught us how to locate specific blogs.
• Live-link so that the instructor can create a blog.
• Internet connection. Training venue should have an online access.
• Hand-outs.
• Recording of George Yeo & video too soft.
• No hands-on.
• Soft from mic is little soft.
• The videos was not clearly heard.
• Not much was mentioned on how to get into a ‘blog’ for a complete stranger on blogging.
• Audio too soft.

Are there any sessions that should be improved? If so, why?

• Too general – does not really tell how one can search for particular blog spots.
• Creation of blog, a hands-on session would have benefited the participants.
• Improve the volume of the interview and video.
• More live-video.
• There should be hands-on so that we can learn how to really blog.
• Show what bloggers are doing in their blogspots.
• Include practical session on blog set up.
• It would have been good if there were live demonstrations.
• Have hands-on sessions.

Other Comments

• Ivan ! You Rock !
• Do you provide talks for schools on blogging ?
• IRAS has an internal blog for staff.. Since 15 jan 07, we have a set of simple guidelines known as ‘Blog Etiquettes’.
• The blogging session did not touch on topic of people using blogs to attack each other.

"Live blogging demo": Blog Talk at CSC

This is a "live" demo of how an entry can be posted to a blog. When asked what were the expectations of this course, a lady offered, "To learn how to blog". Another asked, "Excuse me, how do you get to this webpage."

This picture was posted "live":


Example of how to hyperlink to NLB.

Post-course reflections - Session 1: The "W" & "H" of Blogging

Training is not my full-time job. It's about 10% to 15% of my time in a given year, but I derive more than 50% of my job satisfaction from such opportunities.

Stayed up till 3am to finish my slides for the talk. With a 3.30pm slot and a predominantly lecture-style session, I anticipated that participants would have a tendency to fall asleep. Hence, I redid the slides with the famed "Lessig Method". Total slides came up to about 250. One participant told me later that it worked out very well (although I wonder if the effectiveness of this presentation style would be diminished if every trainer or speaker started adopting it).

The talk covered the usual things like "Definition of a blog", "Difference between a Blog, Website and Discussion Forum" and "How to create a blog" (this was done with screenshots of Blogger.com; the Internet connection was slow so I couldn't do a 'live' demo).

On the part on "Related Technologies", I showed how one could subscribe to RSS feeds. I also showed the "Add Notes" feature (using this example) in Flickr.com, which was well received as usual. From the positive-sounding murmurs, I think the teachers in the audience could appreciate how they could use something like Flickr.com in a classroom setting.

Bearing in mind the profiles of the audience for this talk, I emphasised less on "What's a Blog" and more on areas like "Why do people blog", "Why is blogging" and "How are the resultant conversations relevant".

For today's participants, I felt it was more relevant for them to have more insights to the mindsets and intents of bloggers. Then they might be better informed on why their students, children, and colleagues blog.

I specially quoted Minister George Yeo, from his interview on BlogTV.sg (Jan '07), where he shared that:

"The emotions connected with blogging are very different from that in giving a speech... For some reason there is an intimacy you associate with going into the Blogosphere, which you don't associate with a public meeting."

I didn't share my blog URL with the participants because the course was not about my blog or my blogging efforts. One participant did ask for my blog URL after the session. He said he was from the Singapore Police Force! Gee, did I say anything that I shouldn't have? LOL.

Nah, he was just sharing his thoughts that government employees should not feel they were discouraged from blogging, so long they were aware of organisational boundaries (e.g. not to blog publicly about things that they should not).

Which reminded me of an excellent discussion at one point during the talk, on "Blogging Guidelines" and "government employees blogging". A lady in the front row felt that more government agency employees should be allowed to share details about their work, e.g. how certain policies were formulated. She said something like "sometimes we feel like responding to some errors in public perception, but because we're not allowed to make public statements on policy, we can only sit back in frustration".

I ended the talk by highlighting comments generously contributed by David, Victor, Chun See, Melissa, and Walter. Thanks so much, all. Couldn't have used a better example to illustrate the point about the camaraderie, sharing and constructiveness in the Blogosphere.

Self-assessment of my overall performance today -- including content work --
on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being "poorest"): 6.5. Maybe a '7', but I don't want to be cocky. Wished I'd taken a video recording of the session, so that I can watch where I could have done better.

The good folks at CSC said they prepared 110 seats, and it seemed like a full-house where I was standing. I'm fully aware that the 100 plus participants might not rate it as high. The best reality-check is to compare my self-rating against their perceptions. I more than welcome comments on areas that could be improved (content & speaker's effectiveness), if they manage to find their way to this blog.

I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures of the session. I'll post some of the pictures when my colleague sends them to me. Oh, did I tell you that on the third day of my Beijing trip, my camera conked out? It's still in the repair shop : )

Upcoming blog course: "The "W" & "H" of Blogging - Understanding Blogging"

Is this another sign of "new media awakenings" in Singapore, particularly among the government service? I've been asked to give a talk (two talks, actually) at the Civil Service College, titled "The "W" & "H" of Blogging - Understanding Blogging". Course details here.

The course is jointly organised by the Civil Service College (CSC) and the NLB Academy. I don't gain any monetary benefit from this. The satisfaction comes from sharing what I feel passionate about -- not blogging per se, but how a tool like blogging can be utilised to engage your customers (even if you don't eventually apply it, at least know what it is or what it isn't).

The participants are likely to come from various sectors of the government -- statutory boards, civil service; of various backgrounds -- teachers, management, executives, PR & Comms etc.

Here's a question for anyone who cares to respond (as a comment): If you have one thing (or max. three) to tell the above audience about blogging, what would it be?

You could share from your work/ business/ personal perspectives. I'll collate your responses (subject to vetting) with due credits, and share them as part of my presentation with the audience. It'll be a neat way to demonstrate the use of a blog. Even if there are no comments, that's something to share as well, heh.

OK, shoot.

NLB (Staff) Learning Festival: Creating blogs with Blogger.com

As part of an internal "Learning Festival" for NLB staff, the NLB Academy organised a series of brief "Learning Hours"/ Sharing Sessions conducted by staff, for staff. I was asked to conduct a three-hour session on "Blogging", specifically on how to create a blog with Blogger.com. I was happy to see the class fully subscribed (20+ colleagues), some of them senior staff. It was a hands-on session, pretty much like the previous sessions I've conducted except that this focused more on using Blogger.com.

With only three hours, I decided to skip the "theoretical" stuff and tried to get the class jump right into Blogger.com. Of course, to set the context, I made them read the ST article of an interview with George Yeo, on his motivations for blogging (Oct 13, 2006. "George Yeo gets personal online: The Foreign Minister's foray into blogging has created a buzz among netizens. What is a Cabinet minister doing in the messy online world, Lynn Lee asks"). I chose this article as it's well-written, in a light-hearted manner, by the journalist (like a blogger). More important, it captured some essential points on blogging in the context of the session I was asked to share. These two points were pointed out when I asked the class to share what struck them most from reading the article:

Three rules guide him: 'Don't be controversial, don't touch on policy matters which involve organisations, and don't be nasty to people.'

He confesses he felt 'self-conscious, as if the world was watching', the first few times he posted. But he soon realised 'the whole world is not watching and not many people are interested'.

The session was also peppered with Questions and Answers, like "How do I know what my child is blogging?", "How do I locate/ search for blogs?", "Can blogs be set as private?", "Why do people blog?", "How much time does it take up?". The usual questions that are asked by those new to blogs and blogging.

From the feedback forms, it seems my colleagues enjoyed the session. About a quarter to a third even suggested a longer and more in-depth session. Someone requested that I email the slides I used, so that she can share with her colleagues back in her department. I've since emailed her. They were simply screen-shots of the process of registering with Blogger.com. I thought I might as well post them in my blog. The steps are correct as of 1st Nov 2006 (when Blogger.com will cut over to the new Blogger Beta, which might have a different interface).

*** UPDATE - See New Blogger Features (Dec 2006)

Click on the images for the larger-sized screenshots:

Step 1 - Blogger - Login/ Create Blog

This is where you you create a blog, or login to your Blogger account - Blogger.com (additional notes in Flickr.com - click here)

Blogger - Step 1 in Creating An Account

You are required to choose a User Name for your blogger account. Blogger uses Image Verification rather than Email Verification in accepting accounts. The email you enter is for things like "password reminder" rather than for creating an account with Blogger. If your preferred User Name has been taken, you'd be required to enter an alternative. Your User Name does not necessarily have to be your Blog Name or Display Name (i.e. you may wish to choose something totally unrelated to your blog name for additional security).

Blogger - Step 2: Name your blog

Here, you're required to enter a Title for your blog and the blog URL (these can be changed later; for the URL it will be subject to availability, so it's best to choose wisely at this stage). The Word Verification is a feature for blogger to ensure it's a human being that's creating an account, rather than an automatic program (spambot).

Blogger - Step 3: Choose a template

Click on any of the design. Tip -- you can always choose a new template, so simply choose anyone to proceed and complete your registration/ blog creation process. My observation is that most "Blogger newbies" spend way too much time at this stage, and adds unnecessary delay in registering the blog.

Blogger - After Step 3

You're almost there...

Blogger - Confirmation of new blog

Congratulations! You now have a blog. But you if you try to visit your blog URL, you'll get a 404 Page Not Found message. Don't worry -- you see your blog once you publish at least one post. Which is why blogger will bring you directly to...

Blogger - Create/ Publish Post

This is where you create a new post. It's almost like composing and sending an email. More explanatory notes are at the Flickr.com image - click here)

Technorati Tags: blogger, blog tutorial

Blogging in South Africa (SAOG Blog Course, Part 1)

I'll be spending a week in South Africa, as a co-trainer for an "Introduction to Blogging" course organised by the South African Online User Group. Flying off this Sunday (which is tomorrow and I've not packed!!!)

Naturally, my friends and colleagues were curious why I was going to South Africa. Here are my responses to Frequently Asked Questions I've received several over the last few days:

1. I'm taking my own personal leave to do this. Will not cost Singaporean taxpayers any money, heh heh : )
2. My participation in the training sessions is entirely in my personal capacity, though I have the moral support from my senior manager
3. While my name was included in the letter of invitation, I'm not getting paid for doing this
4. Why am I doing this doing it anyway? Especially when I have to pay for my own way even? Consider this -- some people pay their own way to help others in far, far nobler causes (like in war-torn areas or places struck by natural disasters). What I'm doing is hardly anything to shout about. In anycase, I see this as part of my personal development. The more I share, the more I learn. It's no different from paying to attend a course, except that in this course, I'm the active participant.

More important, I'm supporting my good friend and colleague, Rajen, who's conducting the course for SAOUG under the auspices of the National Library Board Academy (NLBA). Here's what the programme blurb says on the SAOUG website:

» Blogging 101 for Dummies workshop:
Workshop presented by Rajendra Munoo from the National Library Board, Singapore.
Monday, 13 February 2006: Medical Library, University of Pretoria.
Tuesday, 14 February 2006: Dynamix Training Centre, Witkoppen Road, Sunninghill.
Wednesday, 15 February 2006: Dynamix Training Centre, Witkoppen Road, Sunninghill.
Thursday, 16 February 2006: University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus.
Friday, 17 February 2006: University of Stellenbosch.

Participants will learn what a blog is, learn how to create blogs, name their blogs, how to post comments, change the template of the blog, and how to delete their blog (in fact everything you wish to know about blogs). It will be a practical hands-on workshop.

I see they've not included my name in the blurb. No matter. I'm not there in my official capacity anyway. The training schedule is very packed. Monday to Friday, with some days up to two sessions I think. Will be taking domestic flights to the different townships (did I use the term correctly?) I trust that I'd be up to it physically and mentally.

There will be little time for sightseeing but that's not the point for the trip. It'll be a homestay experience for me, with Rajen's family in South Africa.

Rajen (librarian, trainer, content developer for NLB Academy) hails from South Africa. He's of Indian descent, hence the Indian sounding name (he's got a very interesting personal story to tell and maybe he'll blog about it one day). Who knows, maybe he's got a secret blog somewhere...

He's an excellent trainer and the course participants will benefit from his expertise. He has this blog which he cites in training to show people that simply creating a blog doesn't mean you'll automatically get readers.

It's overseas trips like this that I appreciate the public libraries. I'd look up the Travel Guides section and browse different titles, specifically on "Things to bring" or "Travelling Essentials" for that particular country. Some interesting snippets as follows:

Fodor's travel series is pretty good. In this particular one, this passage caught my eye: "However cuddly they may seem, many wild animals will happily take your hand off. Don't attempt to pet or feed animals, or even get out of the car for a better photo without an experienced armed ranger".

It also advises that travellers make "photocopies of the page of passport with photo, passport number, and other identifying information, as well as any visas, travel insurance policies, plane tickets. Carry one set of copies in a safe place, apart from originals, and leave another set at home".

Here's Let's Go, on lost passports: "Fool, don't lose your passport! But if you choose not to take our advice, and you do lose your passport, immediately notify the police and nearest embassy or... To expediate this, you need to know info previously recorded and show ID and proof of citizenship".

First time I've read any guide book that calls the reader 'Fool'! : )

I expect to be blogging in South Africa, but given the tight training schedule and the fact that we've to start the day around 5.30am to beat the traffic, I might not blog as often. We shall see.

Apart from packing my bags, I have to fulfil my household obligations before I leave, i.e. clean and mop the floor, do my laundry, tidy up my pile of papers and stuff. Saturday morning, I'll clear as much office work as I can.

And then South Africa, here I come!


Tag: SAOUG