My NATS Creative Writing Club blog has started. May 8, 2008

I have started my NATS Creative Writing Club blog. It can be viewed at; http://natscwclub.wordpress.com/ There is not much on it yet but I have some minutes and a program until the end of the year. I have discussed the blog with my members who are mostly computer literate. The idea was greeted with cautious enthusiasm. I think the caution came in the question ‘What do we have to do?’ I tried to explain as simply as possible that all the members need do is to view the blog occasionally. If they wanted they could set up their own blogs and I would link them. A couple were very enthusiastic and are probablty setting up their blog as you read this. But others were cautious.

A great idea came from one that the blog could also be used as a writing resource with links to other internet sites of interest to writers. I have thought about this and I will try to produce a blog full of links associated with each of our sessions and related to that particular session. As you can see from the program on the blog I am taking the next session on writing resouces and help out there on Tuesday 20 May. I will put as many resources on the blog as is practical before then so that I can show them the blog as part of my session. The more I can put of interest on the club blog the more likely the members will visit it.

I am excited about this and I think it could be fun. I am looking forward to a time when members take an active interest in what is put on the club blog but I will retain administrator rights for now. I am also looking forward to the time when a large percentage of the members also have their own blog with their writing on it, and are commenting on each others work.

My multimedia problem and a plan May 8, 2008

My multimedia problem is that I have recently started my own Creative Writing Group at National Air Traffic Services (NATS). The aim of the group is to encourage, enthuse, motivate and improve the skills of those of us interested in creative writing.

I have been in other creative writing groups but some are stale and uninspiring, other better ones are a long distance to travel and others more local, take place during the working day so are impossible to take an active part in. I canvassed colleagues through the NATS intranet and got sufficient support to start a group. We meet every two or three weeks at 1700 on site for convenience and to reduce the costs.

We have been incredibly lucky to have a published writer in NATS who has book deals and 3 film deals, 2 in Hollywood. Also he has a current contract to write a book on how to write novels and film scripts. He agreed to give our group a series of free seminars based on his book. His name is David Baboulene and more information about him, his writing and his deals can be found at his website; www.baboulene.com

So the problem was how to best use multimedia to promote our writing club, keep everyone up to date and as we are all writers, or hope to be, how to most effectively display our writing.

I considered a website but felt that was impractical. We have almost 20 members and the problem with a website is how to make it effective for all our needs. We would quickly have a huge number of pages (if our members were contributing writing) and it could get expensive as we would have to pay for them and how would we manage the content? We would need someone full time to add content and manage it. We could have one website per member with links between them all but that was going backwards because there are new multimedia tools that better cater for these needs.

There is the wiki which is a collaborative workspace that everyone could contribute to and in some ways this would provide a lot of powerful extras that could be very interesting like the ability to edit each others work.

However I settled for the blog. I could start a central club blog with news on it and the program etc. Each member could have a personal blog linked to this central one. Thus a member would go on to read minutes of the last session or whatever, then they could go to another members blog, read their work and comment on it. Each member can personalise their own blog page. All members of the group would get an email informing them when new work was posted or a comment was added. A blog is usually free for a limited amount of memory, but as writers use text this is not a problem initially. Blogs are easy to use.

These are reasons enough, but there is one more compelling reason for a writing club to use a blog. Blogs are getting publishing deals. Writers are being discovered by their blogs. I am under no illusions but to be lucky one must create the opportunities for luck to occur so a blog it is.

The Second Life of UK Academics May 7, 2008

What a fascinating article at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue53/kirriemuir/ . OK confession time first. I am an ex teacher who regularly plays on World of Warcraft (WoW) which is a multimedia roll playing game (mmrpg) with monsters and sword fighting and treasure and quests and… So one might conclude I am slightly biased about an article about an mmrpg.

The article discusses the use of Second Life as a resource in higher and further education in the UK (that’s age 16 + students). Second Life is a virtual reality world that one can access at http://secondlife.com/ One creates an avatar (a 2 dimensional characer representation of yourself) and then one can interact with other characters in the world. For example you can buy a house, get married, get a job and buy a car as your online character. A lecturer could set up a classroom in Second Life and real students could log on and attend the class in their avatar form and get real learning.

If you have never played an mmrpg try it – the easiest way to describe it is like watching a film that you get to decide where the lead character (your avatar) goes and what he or she does.

The article discusses 9 types of Second Life use by academics including thinking together, researching, developing courses, supporting courses, advertising courses, holding exhibitions and some universities are even developing entire campuses in Second Life, as many real life businesses have done.

The article then discusses issues such as cost, time, simulate or create and getting support from their institution. It concludes by briefly discussing future trends including the possibility of institutions running entire courses through Second Life.

I know I am already a convert but I think this is a fascinating area and I would encourage any teacher or lecturer to look at this article and then go to Second Life and have a play. It almost makes me wish I was back in education, and that is saying something.  

Should all learning professionals be blogging? May 7, 2008

This is a very interesting article at http://www.downes.ca/post/38555 that discusses the pros and cons of learning professionals writing a blog.

Although the author, Stephen Downes doesn’t define what he means by ‘learning professional’ it is clear from the article that he is not restricting the use to those in the education profession; he means anybody in any profession that learns or passes on information to others. For this reason I recommend that any professional person who is curious about blogging reads this article.

Stephen presents a good case for blogging whilst at the same time saying that it is not the only multimedia tool that can be used to pass on knowledge. He lists; wikis, lists, voting, rss feeds, timelines, photosites, podcasts, vlogs, plogs, mashups etc. I confess I have not heard of some of these but I will look them up on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (is that incestuous?).

Stephen discusses how a busy professional might find the time to write a blog and he also describes a good case study of writing up the results of a meeting, that would apply to any organisation. He is clearly an advocate of blogging and his article makes a good case for it.

However, he misses out a couple of important points. Whilst describing how a blogger might find the time to write a blog he doesn’t describe how an equally busy professional might find the time to read a blog. A good argument here might be to suggest that one can choose a blogger that one wans to learn from and ignore others. Because blogging should reduce paper and email output, the reading of unecessary stuff is avoided giving time to read the relevant blogs. Also Stephen alludes to the fact that blogging reduces the need for face to face conversation and discussion which is not necessarily a good thing.

Even so this is an intersting article making one think about the practical uses of a relatively new multimedia tool.

Why teach with ICT & multimedia resources in the classroom? May 7, 2008

This question is posed on the UK government website; http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/WhyUseICTs/WhyteachwithICT.htm As an ex Physics teacher I was always fascinated and troubled by this question during my teaching career.

This brief report gives 5 reasons and so here I will comment on the reasons based on my own experience.

Reason 1 ‘Because the future is here.’ The justification states that by teaching pupils using ICT you’re not only helping them learn better but your preparing them for a world already dominated by the computer. This is nonsense. There is nothing to back up the statement that you are helping them to learn better. As for the world being dominated by computers, yes but most employees don’t use computers except as a tool. We don’t need to teach pupils how pencils or paper are made for them to be able to use them effectively. If anyone needs deeper ICT training their career choice should provide the appropriate route that provides the relevant training.

Reason 2 Because pupils love it. 5 years ago ICT & multimedia was a novelty in the classroom hence the pupils’ interest. I expect many teachers have recently heard ‘Oh no not another PowerPoint’. I have even heard ’please no more surfing on the internet, can’t you just teach us?’

Reason 3 Because it helps develop teaching professionals too. Interesting one this. Even today there are many teachers who have far fewer ICT skills than their pupils.

Reason 4 Because it saves time and energy. A good lesson needs preparation no matter what type of resource is used. I suspect this reason was true when the novelty factor meant all a teacher had to do was tell the class ‘use the internet to research for your project’. Sorry but this is not teaching; it is an abdication of a teachers’ responsibilities.

Reason 5 Because it’s fun. Teaching and learning is fun if the teacher is good. No amount of technology is going to turn a poor lesson into a fun one.    

I have played the devil’s advocate in this report because for many in education (often managers, ministers and civil servants but not those who actually teach) ICT has become a mantra to be followed without question. Teaching is a skill and an art, and ICT and multimedia are resources that a good teacher uses effectively when necessary and when appropriate. I used to tell my A level students ‘you are examined by sitting at a table with a pen in your hand, so to prepare you need to practice sitting at a table…’

“The Story is Dead” or is it? May 7, 2008

This interesting blog found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2008/05/the_story_is_dead.html is a review of a book called “Can we trust the Media” by Professor Adrian Monck of London’s City University. The blog is part of a blog by BBC editors on the BBC website. It is by Kevin Marsh, a respected editor at the BBC College of Journalism. He has worked as a journalist and news editor on various BBC and ITV radio and television news programmes including; The World at One, News at Ten, Today and PM. He has a number of exclusives to his credit including the world exclusive interview with Salman Rushdie following Ayatollah Khomeni’s fatwa on the author, and he brought James Naughtie to the BBC.

In the blog Kevin discusses trust and journalism which is the subject of the book reviewed. He criticises the author for stating that it doesn’t matter if journalists are trusted as long as they report the facts. Kevin then discusses the main idea of the book; that journalism is not the problem but it is journalism’s fetish with the story and that it is a good thing that the story is dead. Kevin explains that in the past the story was the only way that journalism could happen as it was the only way that complex information could be presented to the public in a way that they could understand. He states that the problem with using story is that sometimes this meant doing so without all the facts and thus things were made up to present a complete story.

Kevin agrees with Professor Monck that it is good that the story is dead because today with media outlets like the BBC news website the public can search ou the facts themselves. In the past the journalists selected the facts to present to the public but today the public can select their own facts.

I enjoyed this article because it gave me a deeper understanding of journalism and the differences before and post the internet. Effectively before the internet, journalists censored news because of the limited ways to present it to the public, but today there are facts and there is speculation and opinion and it is easy to see the facts from a story. The BBC are learning these lessons and although they get critcised (see the readers comments attached to the blog on the BBC website) the fact that they print the criticism openly next to the articles being criticised is a sign of how far journalism has come.

I will never be a journalist but if I was interested in pusuing it I would definitely read the book reviewed.      

Am I allowed to think… February 29, 2008

Am I allowed to think in my mind that I am a god? Are writers gods? We create worlds and characters and we destroy them, in the same way the ancient Greek civilization believed that everything they did was controlled by the gods. Sometimes my characters have a mind of their own and despite my plotting and planning they do something different to what I want them to do. I could easily rein them in but sometimes it is interesting to let them go their own way to see what develops. If I don’t like it I can either divert them back to where I want them to go, or I can delete an entire sequence of time and make my characters do what I want. Who can deny that this is the kind of power a god might have?

Review of a letters page in Nature about a debate on access to scientific literature online. February 26, 2008

Here is the article hopefully publishing_online.pdf  Why not read it first?

The first letter discusses some research the writer did concerning the availability of research articles online and the number of citations the articles received. The writer discovered (no surprise here) that the number of times articles are cited is directly proportional (straight line gradient graph for the mathematically challenged) to the number of articles online. In other words the more articles available free online, the more times articles are cited, and therefore by inference, read. The writer of this letter uses this as a laudable argument to promote the idea that all scientific literature should be available free online for the good of society.

The second letter tries to argue that as authors don’t want paying (really?) for their articles, they should encourage publishers to give free access to their articles at a fair price, via a fee charging publisher website… This argument confused me and was unconvincing becaue here was no evidence and it consisted of counter-intuitive statements. If an author really wants to give free access to their articles they can set up a blog on WordPress. (do I get something for the seamless promotion?)

The third letter discussed ‘impact factors’ without explaining what was meant but it appears to mean citation frequency. The letter reads to me as if the writer was a bit too obsessed or maybe sared with the possibility that online publishing of research articles could affect citation frequency (too late, read the first letter). The writer gives the impression that citation frequency is an end in itself for research but then I am only a student so what do I know?

Letter four (I’d better be careful because the writer lectures at my place of study Portsmouth University) is an excellent and well considered argument about controlling access and subscription charges, based on maintaining the status quo. Sorry, not going to happen – oops there goes my distinction.

Finally the fifth letter is from a writer in Pakistan who justifiably agrees with the first letter that all scientific research should be freely available online.

In conclusion the balance of the letters seem to suggest that academics (I know 3 out of 5 is not a very large sample) are worried by the changes the Internet will bring to the publishing of research articles. I would suggest to those on this side of the argument to forget evolution and consider revolution (note link to one of the letter headings). The Internet via wikis and blogs and other engines offer unlimited and uncontrollable ways for research to be made available to the academic and public world. Forget the past and brainstorm (yes I am anti pc) the future because evidence suggests that the two things you can’t do with the Internet is control it or predict where it’s going. Who would have predicted its take-up twenty years ago? Who would have believed Wikipedia would work (I know it’s not perfect but it’s ’impact factor’ – an in joke if you’ve read this article – is huge). Down with Journals and long live the Internet….    

My secret life at night… February 22, 2008

At night when the house is dark and cold what do you do? This is what I do.
I have written a novel about a girl and dragons and the sword Excalibur and Merlin as a boy. At the moment I am editing it so I can try to get it published – at last Harry Potter has left Hogwarts, long live Harry Potter.
The next phase of my edit is the beginning. A novel must have a good first page because it might be all the agent or editor reads before it goes in the bin, and when published, the first page might be all a prospective buyer in a bookshop reads before they put it back on the shelf.
I have done the obvious and ditched the first chapter – almost every unpublished book benefits from ditching the first chapter. Most unpublished authors think they need to explain lots of things about the characters and world they are creating. Don’t bore or patronise you reader, they won’t stay with you that long, you need a problem or conflict on the first page or even the first paragraph. If your story starts with someone waking up it won’t get published.
Pick up 10 newly published novels by first time writers (not bestselling authors who can get away with almost anything) and analyse the first page. What happens in the first 2 paragraphs. How many characters? How are they described (you might get a surprise)? What are they doing? How much is dialogue? What questions are asked but not resolved? And the most important question of all – why do you want to turn over the page?
So this is what I am looking at in my novel. Remember – ditch chapter 1 and I almost (but not totally in this litiguous society of ours) guarantee it will improve the beginning of your novel.
Keep writing

Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital: a comment by WriterChris February 20, 2008

First, apologies to Ken. I accessed this through his blog. Still it will be interesting to compare my attempt with his professional review.

Bob Putnamm doesn’t state his argument at the beginning and so I found it confusing to read at the start despite the title. However he does go on and present some good empirical evidence for his argument that American people are becoming disengaged from the civic process because of decreasing membership of organised associations.

He produces numbers to show the declining membership of political associations, religion, the unions, Parent Teachers’ Associations and voluntary organisations. So once the essay has started the reader can see where the essay is heading.

But then Bob Putnamm discusses the increase in the number of Americans going solo bowling, presumably trying to use it as a good social indicator. However he digresss and gets tied into a discussion about percentages using them in a confusing way to back up an argument - (10% of what? and 40% of what?).

He returns to his central argument and suggests that instead of engaging in the more organised civic associations Americans are joining what he labels tertiary organisations. Examples include the Americam Association of Retired Persons which he tells us is now the world’s second largest private organisation with 33 million members. The Catholic church is the largest. He tells us that these membeships mostly entail people paying their fees but rarely meeting and therefore little civic engagement takes place.

Finally Bob concludes that America needs to find a way of increasing civic engagement.

Yes, that’s it. Overall I found the essay weak. There was no real start to get a reader interested in continuing to read it. He presents some good evidence but doesn’t analyse or evaluate it. What does it mean that there is a lack of civic engagement in the USA? What effect is this having on society other than fewer pizzas are being bought at bowling alleys (read the essay)? What long term effect is this going to have on Amerian society? So why should America bother to improve civic engagement?

Bob offers no solutions or recommendations. He merely comments on a trend and he tries to use bowling as a social indicator which might work in a piece of writing with much more depth but in this piece it comes across as weak and shows little thought. I would have liked to see his evidence used in a more productive way with more analysis and evaluation and a bit more extrapolation of the consequences of the trend finished with some considered conclusions and recommendations.

It’s great being a critic!