The EdublogsClub prompt this week is photos. This is an interesting subject because I love taking photos on social media, but they are low quality and I always feel like my blog should have better content. However, I do have access to a digital camera and I rarely use it. I was given a mid-range camera twelve years ago and I used it until it gave up the ghost a couple of years back. I was very attached to it and, at the time, it was the most expensive thing anyone ever gave me. That might have been the reason I was so attached to it – I was afraid of losing it because it would’ve taken my parents years to afford anything like that (not that it was a hugely expensive camera, it’s just that may parents didn’t earn much). So when my ex-partner gave it to me I was hugely protective of it and I never felt connected to any other camera since.

I loved taking photos. My only regret is that I did not save them all or upload them somewhere. I did manage to upload a few dozen on my flickr a few years back. Most of them are not taken on my favourite camera, but this set was:

Especially now, as my life feels like it’s changing so fast. It has been a month since Xmas and I cannot believe all I have achieved in that time. I had a tutorial today and I went from feeling like I was misunderstanding the criteria, ranting and irrelevant to actually feeling like I have something valid to say. From mess, to calm.

I prefer blog posts to have an image, or other media in them if only as a visual break from the writing. But also because the image can draw people in. Particularly if you are sharing the blog post on social media! If you post a link to a specific entry on Twitter or Facebook you can see a preview, so having an image just makes the preview look a bit more interesting. Also, many blog themes (if you’re interested in customising) utilise the images in blog posts – so if you make sure you have an image in each entry you can make your blog look like a portfolio.

Image descriptions are hugely important and I am ashamed to admit I rarely describe images myself. This is unacceptable as someone who is regularly promoting accessibility. My lack of image descriptions is just laziness (plus not really thinking through my use of images). However, in my professional blogs I make sure there is no information in an image that cannot be found in the text or on linked websites. This blog isn’t really something I expect many people to read, so I have never really considered readership until this month.

BTW – if you want to see an example of good image descriptions (in my opinion) I recommend marandaelizabeth.com. Some blogs (including Edublogs) have boxes where you can write image descriptions in after you upload your image, so there really is no excuse for me not to do captions or image descriptions.

I meant to take a photo of me working on my research poster in St Peter’s House library today but I went over time when I was trying to print. I thought that would be a great representation of where I’m at. But instead, I am going to post a photo of a Sweet Dreams Kit I bought in a charity shop today for 99p. Normally I get a bit grossed out by secondhand toiletries unless they are clearly unopened. I don’t mean to sound so uppity but I visualise dead skin around lids/tops… However, I just liked the scratched and smudged plastic in contrast to the clear colourful liquid, the smooth font and silver parts.

Sweet Dreams Kit oils

The EdublogsClub prompt this week is Leadership. Writing this is a welcome relief because my mind is buzzing from my week at the Tate Exchange (an intensive Participatory Practice and Creative Exchange course).

Leadership is something I think about a lot, because for a long time it was the only work role I could aim for. I left school with very weak qualifications and went to work after a brief period of unemployment. The jobs I did were entry level office admin, call centre and retail. My one-to-ones with my managers always involved them saying they thought I should learn more with the goal to become a deputy team leader. In fairness, I was a deputy manager a few times and an acting team leader in an insurance company’s salvage team. I hated it. I never lasted more than four years in any company, I was always teased with promotions but they never came to anything – occasionally my job title would change and I’d feel special for a while then I’d be absorbed into another team and the person who replaced me would have an even better job title and a larger salary.

But I liked the staff development part of team leading. I liked talking to my team about their hopes and plans. I sometimes wondered if I was as bad as my managers, encouraging my team to increase their productivity under the guise of learning new skills and acting like I’m doing them a favour. As a few learning professionals read my blog, I would like to clarify that I am not dismissing the learning of new skills. I thoroughly enjoy learning new skills and I actively promote learning in every environment. In these roles I don’t believe I was giving people opportunities to learn new skills – they were learning new elements of our database, but the underlying methods were the same. I was just preparing them for their eventual redeployment.

It was in these jobs that I decided I wanted to work in education, or in local government (anywhere with a recognised trade union, really!). It took me years to get my first job in education. In the meantime, I worked in lots of different temporary administration roles. When I got my first college job in 2011 I was so excited. I didn’t have anything to do with my manager as she was on leave, but the senior administrator in the hair and beauty department oversaw me. I remember him fondly.

And the thing that I think made him a great leader was that he gave me a chance. He read my CV, saw I had no relevant experience but that I wanted to work in a college. And he thought he’d invite me in so I could get some experience. He knew my role would be temporary but he wanted me to be able to apply for another college job and say I have experience in this sector.

We all have different ideas about what traits make people great leaders. It changes with each individual. But someone who believes in me, when I have no belief in myself, lifts me up. They inspire me. Some would argue that being a soft touch doesn’t make someone a great leader – I could have very easily been a terrible employee – after all, I did not have any way to prove I’d work well in an educational setting. But my colleague took a risk. That risk is the reason why I am here in university now. I am capable – I just needed someone to give me a chance.

A few years later I got my job in the alumni office. The same thing happened again. My department director saw my enthusiasm in my CV. I was invited in as a casual member of staff to help out with the office administration. I am still in that office. I am very lucky in my role as I believe my department director is the epitome of great leadership; firstly she believes in people but she also shares her knowledge with the team and cares about what she does. I am doing the most junior role in the office but I can go to her with anything. My suggestions and ideas are always listened to, and even though I have no experience in many areas I do get asked for my opinions.

The University of Brighton Students’ Union leadership election is happening this term. I’ve written my manifesto (but I don’t think it will be viewable for a couple of months so come back in March). I stood in the last by-election and you can read my previous manifesto here if you’d like a laugh 🙂

I wonder if I’m cut out for leadership. But what makes a good leader? Look at some of the leaders we have in the world and I’m certain I’m not like them (there’ll be no p***y grabbing from me). If I am to become a leader I’d like to think I’ll be like my department director or my colleague from my first college job. I want to make people love where they are studying, I want them to see that there are opportunities for them (without hidden agendas) and I want people to say “Step aside Nina, I want to be the next leader”. Because if I cannot pave the way for others, I’m not the type of leader I want to be.

The EdublogsClub theme for this week is workspace / study space. This saddens me slightly because I’d love a desk space and I don’t have room for one at home. Also, my jobs are casual hours so I’m never anywhere long enough to settle in. My course workshops run in museums (Brighton Museum and the Tate) with a handful of other rooms on my campus for tutorials and seminars.

I took a photo of my desk in the alumni office. I ended my previous fixed-term contract back in September so I’m in employment limbo at the moment. As a result, my desk is pretty bare (but not tidy!). In times of permanent/long-term employment my desk gets covered with postcards and random trinkets. My desk drawers are crammed full of things I haven’t hung back up from my previous desk move. I use my desk in the alumni office two-eight days a month. I don’t feel like I use it frequently enough to decorate. My filing tray is just a dumping ground. I’m proud of my Hello Kitty Pop Phone (out of shot) – I got it for £1 from Poundworld last summer. I also have some home comforts in my desk drawers, I have two spare pairs of socks, fluffy slippers, a shawl and a hot water bottle – our office gets really cold so every member of my team has things like this in our drawers.

I also work for the Student Union on an adhoc basis. I like this role because I see a lot more people and I feel quite good at signposting. I share the desk with two members of staff and two members of student staff (never at the same time, obviously). I rarely login because it takes too long to sign in and out. And because our technical support personteam has a backlog the students need to use the staff computer until the student computer is set up.

The Student Union office has a small social area which I sometimes use with my Chromebook. I like working from this space when my workload is light. I prefer to do most of my work on a PC (with a desk!) so I also like to spend time in St Peter’s House library.

I do much of my work remotely. I find it hard to keep up with everything. I frequently have diary clashes or forget to add appointments to my calendars. I attempt to stay organised thanks to my Lumia – I don’t know the model but I know it’s two years old and was free when I got it. I don’t use many independent apps on it because most aren’t available for Windows devices. However, I can use most of my university’s digital toolkit easily on it. I spend an hour each term putting my course timetable, union meetings, work days and counselling appointments into my phone’s calendar. It’s annoying but I feel a sense of relief when it’s all done.

I access my student and staff Sharepoint files through Office for Lumia or Onedrive / Onenote apps (depending where I am). I also can’t remember which app is which but I get to where I want to go so I’m just happy about that. Some screenshots:

Another thing I recommend as a student is finding out if your virtual learning environment has an app. At university I use BBStudent and it isn’t great, it seems stuck in 2014 for me. However, I also do online courses elsewhere (eg. UNISON, TUC…) and many use Moodle. I am such a Moodle fan and the Moodle app works great for me.

You can even do a free Moodle course at learn.moodle.net.

I think I started blogging in 2000/2001 when I got a livejournal (my account is now deleted). I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I joined because a frenemy was on the site. I can’t remember my first posts, that’s probably a good thing because at the time I was an angry teenager on the cusp of my first romantic break-up in a small town with not much going on. All my friends were going to university, moving away, starting their jobs or starting a family. I felt like I was going nowhere so I’m certain I was whining about that. Regardless, I started blogging and I enjoyed it. I gradually started customising the layout, then adding links/pictures to the posts. I joined communities and made friends. I started finding out about cybergoth events happening in the nearest big town, so I started going to them. From there I met a bunch of people that went on to became my reallife friends. I kept in contact with them through our blogs. I eventually deleted my livejournal account after a few years because it lost favour to Myspace.

Since then, I’ve had about a dozen blogs which I have used infrequently and deleted. I enjoy customising layouts and I like interacting with others through blogging (probably because my anxiety makes reallife interactions difficult). I like blogs within closed communities, because sometimes that makes me feel safer when I am writing about personal things. I tend to start a blog when I’m experiencing a big change in my life (or if I’ve been triggered and I’m having a big ol’ existential crisis). This blog was starting when I came to university – I wanted to write about the culture shock, but I haven’t been able to write as frequently (or as openly!) as I hoped.

My favourite University of Brighton blogs belong to my favourite colleagues; Alumni, Careers, Elearning and Radical Brighton. Outside of university, I occasionally read Tukru, Sean, Obesity Timebomb, Arched Eyebrow, Kelvin and Vegan in Brighton. I added the RSS feeds to my favourite blogs to my Outlook so I can read them at lunch in work (I know subscribing to RSS feeds is an outdated thing to do now but I love them!)

My goal in doing EdublogsClub is to be more open. I often want to blog about political thoughts or experiences of being a survivor but it just feels like something I’m not quite confident to do yet. I’ve started blogging about my mental health over the past couple of years – that was a big step for me – and it has really helped me deal with things as they happen. I have also found it interesting to look back at my blog entries when I’m having a tough time so I can remind myself that these feelings pass.