7 Questions – Open to all to answer
I have decided that the time is right to get a bit of feedback on the blog from the users, so I have composed 7 questions that I would like everyone to have a go at answering (students and staff). I did think about anonomising this survey, but given that we are all friends and the subject is not controversial, it seemed like a bit of a sledgehammer to crack a nut. However, if anyone feels that they want to keep their views private, I am more than happy to receive answers by e-mail. So to the questions:
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
Cheers for now.
Jim
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
Seeing what the other guys are getting up to & having regular interaction / feedback from PEW staff.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
Pictures of cock shaped chandeliers / difficult to list entries by person to review what was said (or maybe I’m not doing it right). Coursework handbook states that diary is to be attached to AERs (from previous courses) This is now defunct. Are our blogs marked instead? (We were told that they would not be marked – if they are then I need to stop writing about road kill or Mr Country and Western Man).
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
Diary is better for keeping track of smaller details that may build up into the experience reports. I keep a diary as well now.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
Anything where input from PEW or course members can add value (as opposed to the old method of submitting the diary with an AER to then wait for feedback – by which time it would be too late to do anything about it.
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
Pictures of cock shaped chandeliers….. Nothing from others as yet – but a significant amount from the comments by PEW staff. I also presume you feel less like we’re dropping off the radar?
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes- it makes me feel like help is at hand if required.
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
(Semi-related response) – To update the experience reports requires additional work. The old diary used to be capable of fulfilling multiple roles. Hence, some may look at this as if it were ‘additional work’, but I think it’s a good thing.
IN OTHER NEWS…. A neighbour of ours randomly told me she was on a witness relocation program and that people owe her money….I try and avoid her now.
No recent letters from the downstairs neighbour, Peggy, complaining that we ‘walk too loud’. I think the thick slipper campaign is working.
Jim,
My initial thoughts as follows:
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
Seeing what others are up to and learning about although I would caveat that with the fact that I am disappointed that not everyone is completing the blog as directed by yourself. Weekly was stipulated as was that it is to be on the secure site, yet it’s not happening. There might be other communication with PEW that the blog doesn’t see so we don’t necessarily get the full picture.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
I agree with Matt’s comment above. Those blogging are keeping it relevant and to actually know what’s going on in lives outside of work adds a bit of flavour to keep the reader engaged.
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
I don’t think that there are many advantages of a diary over this. Whilst initially sceptical I have grown to enjoy monitoring the blog and engaging with others on it. I haven’t found it a chore in any way and it only takes 20-30 minutes of a day to post something every week.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
I think everything is provided that it’s laid out in the right context. Site issues are best as they create interaction and comment. Short and punchy is good, hence why the weekly snap shot is effective. A long drawn out blog is not as effective.
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
Seeing that there are communication issues across most of JH. H&S issues and contractor approaches to it. I think that it’s too early at this stage for me without any site activity but I’d like to think in a couple of months we’ll be able to bounce ideas off of each other and share experiences when I hit the ground, particularly/potentially from Steve who has been there at the beginning of a job.
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
On the proviso that it’s tightened up and all blog with the same minimum frequency and in the same place then yes. Otherwise you may as well revert back to the diary and we get marked on it as those putting in the effort won’t see any greater reward for following the direction that was given.
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
I’m happy with it. Matt’s comment is fair but I personally prefer to write from fresh in an AER and introduce some new material as oppose to repetition of the blog/diary.
Following Matt’s lead, the only update I have is that much like the British Army I am having to go into work during my paternity leave for something really important. There is a presentation from the design lead of the traveller tomorrow and I have to attend or will miss a golden opportunity as he is based in Brisbane. Not to worry…a day in lieu is a useful bargaining tool later down the line!!!
Jim and the gang,
I like that I can see what other students are up to and share their experiences; good to have their feedback on mine; nice to help Ben with his understanding of sex nuts.
I don’t like double tapping it with the AER. PEW Coursework Instruction states that a diary should still be submitted with the AER anyway, so this means more effort than before, unless you are happy for us to paste the blog into it?
Being able to request quick feedback, the sharing of Parish Notices, looking at others’ impressive jobs and the schadenfreude at the thought of Dan living in a shed are all well suited to keeping a blog, although there has been no Eureka Moment for me just yet.
If we’re going to keep the blog going we should do it better – short and succinct blogging in the same place is the way forward and we are nearly there. I don’t want everyone’s life stories and you probably don’t want mine. I would like more feedback from lecturers and military staff though as currently I feel a bit like we’re being watched; presently I don’t know how often it’s being read and by whom.
Chris, I can see your point on the “being watched”. It would be useful to have a counter that tells you how many hits it’s had and by who. I asked previously on the AER marking guide still containing the “diary”. There is no requirement for it and no need to paste in the blog either. Hopefully that’s just given you back 5 minutes of your life every day!
Cheers Roy. I’d also like it if the coursework instruction was ammended to reflect the change 🙂
Chris
There is no requirement to keep a diary whilst the blog is running and if you wanted to cut and paste it into the report as an Annex you are welcome to do so, but all the entries are read by the staff at this end so there probably isn’t much point. With regard to knowing who has read the entries, I have access to a stats function that allows me to see how many hits and who has been on the blog. Do your access rights allow you to see this information, or is it just because I am an administrator?
It is good to get feedback on this sort of stuff, because I want to work on these wrinkles to get the blog into a properly managed place that gives the benefits you have quoted, but also addresses the concerns. I have given myself until the end of July to get it to a beta stage of development.
I can see the total amount of views, but not who had viewed, so for example, I don’t know how familiar the CI and COS (my Reporting Officers) are with what is going on at the moment, but have a good impression that you and John Moran are avid viewers!
I’ll have a word with IT tomorrow and see what I can do; you’re right, transparency is important in both directions. Cheers.
Jim
Chris
I had a word with IT today and at the moment there is no way of showing who has visited the site but not left a post or comment. Going forward, when we are hosting our own server, this should be possible.
Jim
Hi Chris,
I’m sorry to be a while after the event on this. I think its fair to say there’s a number of us that read through the blog but don’t pass comment on everything. The reasoning is that if every member of the teachng staff commented on every blog you’d not only feel like you were being watched you’d also feel as if it was very critical in the worst sense. If I see something that I think will fall into someone else’s area I usually just mention it to them at coffee and leave it to them to comment. I also think it’s important that most of the space is owned by the course. One of my frustration is that when I have commented I have frequently not had any response so no thread has started and matters appear to drop as life ans site move on. Must write my oewn thoughts on the blog now!
Regards,
Richard.
In a vein similar to the rest of the replies so far:
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
Ability to see what others are up to and so see what other experiences would be useful to seek out in order to best fulfill the Spec. Qual criteria. (good for continuous reflection)
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
As Chris has said, it is difficult to know what is being made of the information that is being posted – ie who has read it and what their initial though was. Also when we are struggling to set up internet connection it is clearly difficult to get any access, so a grace period for the first month may be good.
I am keeping a rough diary as well, just to be able to remind me what i have done through the week, as the blog does not really allow for this level of detail
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
Ad: As above you can include smaller detail without wasting everyone’s time (with expectation that people do read the blog!)
Dis: Unable to recieve timely feedback
Losing communication with the rest of the course / Chatham.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
Anything, as long as it is a punchy enough format. If responses / help is required this would be ideal for blog format.
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
Hearing what other are up to on their sites, in order to concentrate on finding the correct opportunities on my site.
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?\
N/A
Also in reference to Matt comment about his strange neighbours:
we have now met a few around us:
One does not open her fly screen and only shakes hands through a hole she has cut in it. She looks like a cartoon witch.
Another. Is always wearing one glove (not a Michael Jackson one either), and she just Wombles around putting peoples bins out in the street.
Another. Only wants to talk about the Korean war
Another. Arrived saying in a horror film ‘esk manner “do you know the history of this house, cos i do!” (turns out his dad is a fireman, and put this house out when it started burning down last year.
Lastly there are two teenagers who hang around in our street trying to look “gang cool” but mostly they look like Kevin and Perry and entirely harmless.
God Bless America, the land of the free.
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
The collegial atmosphere it breeds and the sense of not being detached from the Wing. I am enjoying the fact it is not marked, as this breeds individuality (a key requirement of CPR, if the drive to get away from JSP 101 in my AERs is anythign to go by) and allow flexibility to work around periods of busy commitments/holidays/courses etc.
The lack of formal structure gives greater opportunity to explore different ways of communicating and means greater freedom in what can be written. This will be destroyed if deadlines are enforced and marks awarded.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
I agree with Chris. Because of the way the blog is formatted (the rolling screen) I would prefer to have project specific info on the blog rather than personnel info.
People setting up their own blogs. It goes against the collegial ethos of the blog and personally is a step too far for me (Sorry Ros – I have not read your blog once and know I am missing out of some engineering gold!)
I find uploading multiple pictures to WordPress really hard work, normally involving some sort of error. This makes me less likely to add photos or when I do, writing time jumps from 30mins to 1hr30mins!
Companies not allowing people to put photos of the project on the blog is a real shame.
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
The only thing I can think of is that dairy will be more succinct.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
Problems – everyone loves a good problem. Blogs which talk about I did this and then I did that are less interesting and informative than the project had this issue(s) and this is how we are proposing to solve it (them).
I also found the blog incredibly useful when I first started, to get that feeling everyone was experiencing similar things!
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
See above
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes – but (and Roy you are not going to like this) as long as they remain unmarked and kept informal. If you start marking them then I would prefer to save my efforts for the AER/TMR and keep a formal diary. I think the point of the blog will underminded if they are marked -they should not be a mark grabbing/showing off exercise.
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
N/A
Steve, happy with your point 6 and I think you said what I wanted to say, just a bit better so long as it’s caveated with sticking to a weekly (ish) blog. I’m not fussed by a mark as the informal nature makes it a good forum where you can write what you’re thinking instead of jazzing it up with big words! We were told to do it every week so we should write on here every week, much like if you’re told to go left flanking with bags of smoke then that’s what you do.! Informal yes BUT timely was what I meant to get at.
Stephen
I wil speak to IT today about the issue with the photographs to see if they can come up with a work around. Chris has also raised an issue to do with visibility of who is visiting the site that I want to look into at the same time. Cheers.
Jim
Stephen
The only help that IT could offer with regard to the photo issue is that it is most likely to be your internet connection, although we can’t be absolutely certain about this. We had a go ourselves this end at uploading photos and it wasn’t an issue. The only other thing that we could think of was that very high resolution photos may cause a problem, but coming from the Facebook generation, we figured that you would already have thought of that. Have you tried pinging your connection to see what buad rate it is achieving?
Jim
In order:
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
It’s less sterile than waiting for an AER to appear on Moodle and trying to get a “feel” for what is actually happening – see later comments. I would like to see the blog replace the site diary as a method of capturing historical data. Site diaries should be your personal responsibility to help you track what is going on and what has been decided to help on practical execution of the projects you are involved in, not something marked periodically.
The structure of the blog is less formal and promotes information exchange regardless of how that is achieved. I don’t believe it matters how often someone looks at the site nor whether they post comments etc and personally I am not formulating a mark for the next AER as I read through posts, sites such as these will typically be self-policing
With respect to blogs being marked I agree with the general consensus that they should remain unmarked and the individual unjudged – I was concerned to see the phrase “reporting officer” in Chris’ comments previously. I would suggest that the site diary element of the AER is replaced with a reflective log based on the main themes of your blog entries for that AER period and a corresponding development plan aligned to UKSPEC and personal development, this in turn, would make AERs a more useful, reflective, document.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
The ability to check on who is viewing your posts and how many times they are doing it, sorry to upset the applecart but in line with not marking blogs I also don’t think that the activities of others should be of major concern, blogs are records of your activities that you allow others to see and invite them to comment on if they so wish
It’s sometimes difficult to navigate; more use of tags and less use of “uncategorized” posts may make it easier, I’m new to blogs as I presume most of us are so I’m not sure if that will help – hell I’m not even on Facebook!
BROMLAN and the EGS won’t allow us to watch videos posted and can filter out some content.
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
Nil, the blog is more relaxed and encourages knowledge transfer. Diaries are useful for sitework.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
Any and all. I believe that the blog should be allowed to mature, individuals will know when they are posting appropriate entries and we should all take some ownership of retaining a relaxed atmosphere – try not to waffle band not mix up posts with hindsight the issues some of you are having could have been split up and tagged “neighbours” as separate posts as an aside to the work related posts. Similarly if you need feedback don’t hide it in a post tag it with “help”
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
I have a much better appreciation of the size and scale of the challenges facing the E&Ms, including some of the external factors that affect them on a day to day basis (Chris’ cycle to work, Dan’s spider and Ben’s Neighbours!!) AERs tend to either over simplify or over complicate the jobs being undertaken but give us less of an appreciation on the factors that could be affecting your work, blogs strip away a lot of the fluff that finds its way into an AER.
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes, providing it does not become:
a. An extension to the AER submission other than the basis for reflection.
b. Anything to do with OJARs
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
N/A
Appreciating that you might what to use this feedback for your research project, and, let’s face it, because I love a good rant, I’ve gone into quite a bit of detail. For those who don’t want my life story the summary is:
THE SHORT VERSION
Blog is very good for getting quick help and advice and for having a feel for what everyone else is up to. Blog is not good for grading us against each other or marking us – I don’t think this is happening at present; if it were to be used that way, I think the tone/atmosphere/real utility of the blog would be ruined, and entries would become contrived.
Diary format, I feel, is better for detail without boring you all to death. Blog is better for not feeling isolated and for timely feedback.
Blog should continue, as a tool for exchange of advice and for seeking help, not for marking us against one another.
NOW MY LIFE STORY……………
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
Crowd sourcing advice on particular problem, like my aerial drainage issue, is the most useful thing about the blog for me so far; I got pointed me in the right direction pretty quickly. Also there is a little bit of cross pollination of good ideas and tips.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
Well, as lots of others have said, this all depends on whether or not the Blog is marked, how and against what criteria. My opinion is that marking it would destroy its utility as an informal forum for the exchange of ideas and the seeking of quick advice. I have to admit to not paying quite so much attention to the entries from the civil guys, as I’m less interested in the what they are doing (sorry guys, but concrete again?), other than the social updates obviously. A few times I’ve logged on and about 3 meters seem to have been added to the blog since the day before, so I probably only read the top two or three items. This is probably an artifact of us trying to use the Blog as a notepad for AERs. It’s pretty obvious which posts these are, I’ve made them myself, and the result is a pretty dry read – which I suspect most of us don’t really bother reading in much detail. I don’t think that this is the best use of the Blog, though, of course, this is probably the bit that is most useful to the RSME staff.
I’m not sure whether or not the COS, CI & SI are regular readers, but it seems inescapable that there is an MS aspect to the Blog. He who shouts loudest is most heard, and all that. Without wanting to over-egg it, in my view the best use of the Blog is as a tool for us to share our experiences informally, and as a convenient way to shout for help (from each other and the teaching staff), not as a means of marking or ranking us.
Less importantly, keeping up to date with the Blog, and keeping it up to date, takes quite a bit of time. I’m fortunate that my office don’t mind me dipping in and out of it but I’m sure that that is not the case for all of us – it would be easy for it to appear that we’re busy ‘facebooking’ rather than working.
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
I agree with Matt, that an individual diary would be more relevant to/structured toward recording my own experience. It would be pretty boring to anyone else, of course. The main disadvantage of not having a blog (or at least a forum) would be the isolation from advice and experience from each other, and staff at RSME.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
As for question 1. Whenever I’ve asked for a group steer, or when one of us can say, ‘I came across this problem, and solved it this way – maybe this could be useful to you guys’.
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
Not sure about that so far. The most useful bit has been feedback on my posts and utility as a troubleshooting forum.
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes, defiantly, or at least some sort of forum. I would caveat that by saying that it should not be used as a means by which we are measured/marked against one another (doing that would alter the dynamic entirely) and that the requirement to complete entries should not become onerous.
Completing the diary, I am guessing, took maybe an hour a week; with site work, night and weekend shifts, ordinary course work, and some fun squeezed in there, I’d rather not establish another regular commitment that takes much more time than that. As someone who thinks that facebook is for mums and kids, I hope that there is not mission creep in the expectation for us to update the thing. I’m happy doing a couple a week and adding my two pence worth to others posts but don’t think it would be useful for us to be expected to interact on it every day .
Hi all,
Steve – I’m sorry you think I am not taking part in the collegial atmosphere and going against our ethos. That is not my intent. I accidentally set up my own whilst in Chatham – my fault for leaving it to the last minute and quickly clicking things in a rush to catch my flight!.
However I do read the Holdfast blog and will keep commenting where I think I can add value.
You can always access my blog at http://www.roselliott.wordpress.com……it‘s only a click away!!!!! That’s not a step too far at all..
I’m unable to transfer to the Holdfast blog as I have given my other one out to quite a few people including uni mates and lecturers + various other interested parties. Because it isn’t secure they can access it too. I am careful not to be negative on the site – it’s pretty much a photo book which I got permission to post on from the stakeholder people.
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
Comments from lecturers.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
Too long entries -more photos please. Also hard to understand what’s going on sometims without AER sort of stuff.
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
Keeping work in context with DO’s perhaps.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
Peoples problems and how they solved them…though I can’t comment as we are not solving alot of problems here – just shooting the crocodile closest to the canoe and creating more.
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
It has been interesting but has not helped understanding as yet – I’m in the reinforcemnet area…far too dull for anyone else to be mentioning in theirs!
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Sure – ‘next time’ I would put my stuff on the main blog.
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
NA
Ros, I think you’re missing the point Steve made as I also don’t routinely go anywhere outside the secure blog either. Having just checked your site there is nothing really to do but look at pictures and it’s the comment that generates conversation/discussion. With most of this in your AERs (which we don’t see) there’s not a great deal to go off. I am also not comfortable commenting on a site that is viewable to all and sundry.
By the way, I’ve just moved into the reo world as of this morning and so reading about your issues on the main blog would be good from my perspective.
Hi Jim,
Apologies for the belated reply – timed nicely after my latest equally belated Blog you will note!
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
An effective means of consolidating experience and photos in an informal manner in preparation for AERs.
By virtue of its informality, it allows you to be open and reflective, test out theories, and hence generate TMR topics.
It is read by subject matter experts who can relate to both the student and situations, and offer sound advice or ‘food for thought’ in response.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
I personally have not mastered the art of effectively using the Blog to feed my AERs – I find myself writing both almost separately (one informally, one formally). However, what I get out of the blog, especially from feedback, is worth the extra time until I do master the art!
A lesson on how to use all Word Press features would be useful for future courses, for example uploading individual photos can be time consuming – time I could better spend figuring out how to do it better!!
If there were pressure to submit a Blog on a weekly basis, it could seem like an additional submission, as opposed to collating thoughts and blogging when you have something to blog about.
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
Theoretically a diary forces you to record activities on a daily basis. However, time is wasted trying to recall everything that you did that day/week rather then thinking about what actually happened, why and what is the lesson learnt.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
I personally have found anything that is a new concept or methodology, anything that goes wrong or anything that I find frustrating – it makes me ask why and think about the root cause, which is inevitably also always an education!
These situations, open ended statements or opinions generate most interest from PEW staff, and allow them to effectively contribute, offer advice, solutions and more informed opinions!
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
Opinions are always thought provoking, especially when they are the result of conflict or things not quite going to plan, namely because you can ask yourself what you would have done in that situation and use that knowledge in future situations.
Photos also paint a 1000 words! Even better with explanations.
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes – but as a tool to develop critical analysis not an additional submission. I therefore do not think the Blog should be marked, but perhaps feedback given after the first few blogs on the structure and content – are we being reflective, do we need more/less detail, are we asking the right questions, are we optimising our time spent blogging?
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
N/A
Rachel
Many thanks for your input; there is no such thing as late in the land of the blog. Interesting things don’t happen to order so it’s a bit like fishing, you have to be patient.
Jim
OK so now I’m feeling very bad! My excuse is trying to attend a course and hold down a day job which I realise has no mileage at all with the aidience concerned. perhaps the flakey internet access holds some water.
1. What do you find most useful about the blog?
It is an excellent means of experiencing the key points of several projects without having to go on site and wait for the interest to arrive. In CPD terms its worth a thousand carefully sanitised evening meetings. The informal nature elictis a more relaxed and comprehehensive description of goings on on site that covers aspects that are not the intended amin thrust of a blog but which are occasionally useful hooks for coments or the useful snippet which allows a line of enquiry to be opened. The more conversational and descriptive the blog entries are the easier thy are to read and the more they convey about the site, interactions, unfolding events and the decisions made. I don’t think that making it more compartmentalised would be a good thing.
2. What do you find least useful about the blog?
Difficulty tracking comments and responses (particularly if forget to tag ‘notify me of follow up comments’ box which, once submitted cannot be altered).
3. If the blog didn’t exist, what advantages and disadvantages would keeping a diary have over it?
Site diaries/engineers day books are good tools for record keeping and reflecting upon. Bloggs are a vehicle for sharing experience and receiving advice. If AERs don’t require at least a short piece on the significant events on site then there is no reflection and I’m not sure what they’d contain. I guess that the blog should feed into this, ideally informally.
4. What experiences and circumstances are most suited to blogging?
All – It is impossible for those blogging to know which aspect of their site and experience is going to spark comment from others. Social and work mixed as they are at present works exceptionally well in my book. ANything that tried to categorise would reduce the exposure.
5. What experiences blogged by others have led to the most significant improvements in your learning and understanding?
Clearly I have been turned on by Ros’ photos of mass reinforcement. I think the greatest learning for me has been the insight I have had into the working conditions and administrative challenges faced by course menbers in the early days of attachements (gained from the plethora of tales of woe – but don’t expect sympathy…).
6. Are you in favour of keeping the blog going?
Yes. I wonder if there needs to be a small allocation of marks under the AERs for participation becase without it the tiger has no teeth unless it is a disciplinary/MS matter. I concur with others that there should be no significant mark for content or quality lest it encourage playing to the camera.
7. If not, what are your reasons for not wanting to continue participating?
I’m all in favour.
I’d like a spell checker on my entries! An ability to post photos or documents in comments would assist in giving feedback. I wonder if a forum style would help brevity and usage?