Apologies for not writing individual blogs for each post contributed to Week 33, but I lacked time during the week and was keen to get this summary out on Sunday so we don’t fall behind during Week 34. Thanks very much to Louise Brown for her great Week 31 summary (and for helping me by listing the Week 30 posts), and to Dyfrig Williams for his innovative Week 32 summary on Pinterest. Thank you to all those who contributed posts; and to all of you who read, listened, liked and commented – it does help to encourage our bloggers.
We had thirteen posts for Week 33, with some topics in common between some posts, creating organically (in typical WeeklyBlogClub fashion) themes of networks and social interactions; and success in terms of rewards or succeeding by daring to fail.
Karl Green wrote a somewhat cryptic post about Letting Go this week. Sometimes letting go can be the best way to move forward. If you look back constantly, you might miss the opportunities coming towards you.
Mark Wood blogged about a day at work that he found very Rewarding recently when he went to an event to photograph an event – complete with a dramatic fire rescue exercise. It was held to show what children from difficult backgrounds had learned on a course put together by Andy Harris from Wolverhampton Homes and the West Midlands Fire Brigade.
Someone who has certainly moved ahead by moving forward is Samuel-James Wilson. In Silence, Nominations and Preparation this week, he gave us a further update on what he has been doing work-wise, his forthcoming move to Australia, and news on the Tradesman Of The Year 2013 award for which he was shortlisted in the Nectar Business Awards. He also revealed news about being a finalist in the Youth Build UK ‘Young Builder of the Year’ awards. Later in the week, the annual GCSE results day caused Samuel to reflect on his time at school in GCSE Results day, and how, moving forward from that, he went on to change his life through finding the kind of work that interested him.
It can be very difficult to see the value of what is taught at school. I found out decades later that if I had concentrated more (and been better taught) in mathematics at school that the geometry would have been very useful in art and DIY tasks at home, whilst if I had an understanding of algorithms, I might have been a software engineer (maybe, maybe not!). After the first heady excitement of leaving formal education – whether it be school at 15 or 16, college at 18 or 19, university at 21 – 24 years old – there comes a moment when we realise that most work involves continuing to learn, and possibly involves tests or exams along the way.
There is no shortcut to the vast amount of experience and knowledge required in some professions but Chris Isles wrote about using technology to deliver relevant information quickly and effectively for some Dumfries and Galloway’s early career doctors in Towards an electronic Doctors Handbook in the dghealth blog this week. It will be interesting to read more about this initiative as it progresses.
David Garbutt, Chair of the Scottish Ambulance Service, wrote about recent developments in The professionalism of the paramedic service on the Ayrshirehealth blog this week. Scotland has some of the most remote and difficult-to-access settlements in the UK so the role played by paramedics can be crucial in a medical emergency. David Garbutt explains how training as well as technology is important.
Human Bingo, Roman Voting, Magic Stars and 12 Brains Are Better Than 1 were part of the training Dyfrig Williams reported on in New methods, good practice and evaluation dice: Our May Participation Networks, the post he had written for Participation Cymru‘s blog just before he moved to his new job. The members of the networks were keen to learn new methods of participatory activity, and to find out what is working for others.
Dyfrig has been learning new things in his new job. He blogged in Safe to fail on the @GoodPracticeWAO blog about being inspired by Chris Bolton’s Trojan mice in Continuous Improvement – why it matters to Squeeze the Pips, Release Trojan Mice and Win Small (Week 30), a conversation he had at the Geek Speak event, and how that had led him to try doing the Week 32 Weekly Blog Club summary as a board on Pinterest. I enjoyed it, and I gather other people did too. It also put the summary where different people could find it. If anyone else has ideas about interesting ways to do the weekly summary and wants to try them, do offer to look after Weekly Blog Club for a week (we have a page of what’s involved) and try out the idea.
There was more innovation and networking this week with Lorna Prescott’s How to make curry with social media. I enjoyed the format of her recipe for networking for people interested in social care (and curry!). I would like to see other people’s variants on this recipe. Personally, I am not keen on curry so would probably turn this into a casserole or stew recipe, knowing that one of the other Weekly Blog Club hosts, Kate Bentham, would undoubtedly provide a cake recipe to follow.
There was more about innovation from Mark Braggins writing on the Hampshire Hub Prototype Local Information System blog this week: Hampshire Hub – a quick update. I have been interested in the opening up of public sector information for a long time (I have worked in and with public culture and archive aspects of local government for years), and watch such initiatives with great interest.
Another county council at the other end of England from Hampshire has been innovating by using social media to spread the message about what fun activities there are in the county for locals and visitors. Jenn Scullion is the new comms intern at Northumberland County Council and wrote an interesting post on Ross Wigham’s blog – Northumberland fun: a social summer – about the summer social media campaign – #NlandFUN – including her contribution to its success. (I’m a bit biased, being based down the road, but Northumberland is gorgeous and well worth visiting).
I was delighted to find out that Peter Olding is “still passionate” about #WeeklyBlogClub, and to read his contribution this week – catch up – in which he gave a quick update on the many things he has been doing over recent weeks (including air shows, photography, and historic churches). It was great to hear that he had been awarded a prize as “top photographer” of the show in the village where his wife grew up.
Finally, my own post this week, Solitude, circles and cliques, was inspired by someone else’s blog, together with a couple of conversations offline and online. They made me think about the way in which people have a natural urge to be in social groups, and reminded me of something I once read by CS Lewis (written in an age of far more rigid social structures than ours). I also thought about how these circles can be perceived from the inside looking out, from outside looking in, and how a clique differs from a circle. Often, being in a circle is about not focusing on the circle but simply on the people, and assuming that you will have some things in common, and that those are a starting point for getting to know each other.
Blogging can certainly be one way of starting to get to know other people. If you have not contributed a blog to Weekly Blog Club before, you can join in at any time. Our About page should tell you everything you need to know. If you need inspiration, explore previous contributions. They cover most topics. If you are still stuck, tweet us and someone will help you find your blogging mojo.
And the [entirely optional] theme/s this week? How about last week’s from Dyfrig again: doing things differently? Or, how about my hols/the summer bank holiday (picture or audio posts, telling us what you did this holiday, archive pictures of historical holidays)?
Happy blogging/reading!
Janet
Summary of Week 33 posts
Silence, Nominations and Preparation by Samuel-James Wilson.
How to make curry with social media by Lorna Prescott.
New methods, good practice and evaluation dice: Our May Participation Networks by Dyfrig Williams on the Participation Cymru blog.
The professionalism of the paramedic service by David Garbutt on the Ayrshire Health blog.
Solitude, circles and cliques by Janet E Davis.
catch up by Peter Olding.
Safe to fail by Dyfrig Williams on the @GoodPracticeWAO blog.
Hampshire Hub – a quick update by Mark Braggins on the Hampshire Hub Prototype Local Information System blog.
Northumberland fun: a social summer by Jennifer Scullion on Ross Wigham‘s adaywithoutoj blog.
GCSE Results day by Samuel-James Wilson.
Towards an electronic Doctors Handbook by Chris Isles on the Dumfries and Galloway Health blog.
Weekly Blog Club was set up in early January 2012 to encourage people to blog regularly, and especially to encourage those working in and with the public sector, charities and voluntary organisations in the UK to find their own 'voice' through writing.
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Really good point about Pinterest putting information where another audience can find it, I hadn’t considered that – thank you!
Lots for me to learn from this week’s posts as per usual!
– Dyfrig
This is also why, when I write the weekly summary, I post it on my LinkedIn update – because there might be 1 or 2 more people who might read it and pass it on to others.
Nice! Great way of making information work for you and of using different channels to share content. Thank you!
– Dyfrig