Sep
29
Meet the blogger: Joe Nutt
Filed Under Technology | 2 Comments
Joe Nutt is one of the most experienced bloggers in the Bloggers Circle. He’s been blogging since October 2006 so I caught up with him to find out what keeps him blogging, what interests him and what I could learn from his blogging expertise.
Joe is an author and ex-teacher working on educational change and technology. He has written extensively he is currently writing a new book on Milton’s Paradise Lost and has books in print on Shakespeare and John Donne. In fact, his blog points students to help on The Good Morrow, after noticing how many people were accessing his blog looking for research on the work – a great example of how to use analytics tools to make your blog more useful.
I’ve been reading through some of Joe’s posts since he joined the Bloggers Circle to get a sense of what he writes. Some particular quotes stood out for me, which give you a flavour of what it’s like to spend some time reading his blog.
I also put all of his posts into wordle to see what key words and themes he focusses on:
I caught up with Joe to find out more about his blog.
1. Tell us about your blog in a soundbite
The Good-morrow looks at educational news and research in the hope that children might have a Good-morrow.2. How long have you been blogging?
I’ve been blogging for three years in October. I started because my then company, RM, were keen to be selling blogging technology to schools and I would never sell any technology to a teacher or child which I didn’t fully understand myself.3. What do you think is your best ever post and why?
My best ever post was called “Edupunk or just another Techno-zealot?”The reason was not only did it clarify for me an issue I had been trying hard to understand ever since I left the teaching profession to work in the educational technology business, but it caused a genuine stir and the “techno-zealot” phrase I coined was taken up and I have since heard it used elsewhere in the business. Once I’ve finally managed to finish my current book on Milton, I’m still seriously considering writing a new book called “Michelangelo’s Paintbrush Maker” which charts the damage done to UK education by techno-zealots.
4. How often do you blog?
I aim to blog at least once a week but sometimes manage two or more posts.5. Tell us how you find the time
Originally I successfully built it into my working day because it was connected with my day job. For two years I actually ran two blogs, a closed corporate one and The Good-morrow. Because I’m also a writer and have been writing a new book for my publisher on Paradise Lost for a several years now, I am used to squeezing time outside the working day to both study and write.6. What keeps you going?
As a writer and ex English teacher, the actual business of drafting text isn’t difficult. The challenge is always to find something your idealised reader will want to read. I also find it hard to keep my voice consistent. I think humour is one of the most powerful tools available to any blogger but it doesn’t come naturally to me. There is so much insanity and literal none-sense in the edu-blogging world that it’s tempting just to launch into invective instead!7. What’s a good day, in terms of traffic to your blog?
More than two hundred visitors a day would be a good day but I’m not interested in measuring success in terms of stats. I think that is one of the weaknesses of the way blogging was sold to internet users by organisations like Technorati. Quantity doesn’t equal quality and I’m much more concerned with the concept of user value, something the British Museum’s web team have been working on. It’s more important to me that I build up a regular readership who enjoy reading what I write, contribute their own thoughts and refine their ideas with me, than that hordes of other edu-bloggers link pointlessly to my site.8. What would you like to achieve with your blog?
At the moment I want to steadily increase the regular readership I have, especially of people like me who understand what high educational standards look like and are really interested in achieving them for others. But longer term I want to work out how to make it a better, genuinely innovative marketing tool for my books and my publisher.9. What’s the best piece of advice you can give?
Always respond to people who post comments. It’s a huge myth that the world is full of democratically informed people just bursting to submit their thoughts to text for the rest of the world to read. I learned from my corporate blog especially, that there are plenty of well educated, efficient colleagues who would never dream of writing their ideas down online for public consumption. So if someone does bother to post a comment: the least one should do is let them know you’ve read it.
If you’d like to volunteer to have your blog profiled, just drop me an email. Next week: Paul Bickerstaffe.
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That’ s a great use of a Wordle. Often they seem to be used just to look nice, but in this case really does work as a powerful way of graphically representing what a set of data means.
That’s very kind – thanks Mark!