Billboard

Imagine a picture of yourself on a billboard for everyone to see!

That’s how I felt about putting an “About Me’ page on my blog. I felt as if  I had ‘revealed’ myself to the world.

The Week 3 Edublogs Teacher Challenge of adding pages to a blog was the hardest one for me yet – for 2 reasons.

The first, was that I did not have an ‘About Me’ page, nor had I previously needed or wanted one. I must confess that I had NEVER looked at anyone else’s ‘About me’ page before, and was very surprised to hear that blog statistics show that the ‘About Me’ page ranks high in the most visited posts of a blog.

The second, was that I’m a pretty private person and until now I’ve managed to remain fairly anonymous on the web to all but people in my PLN. The task really challenged me to take the biggest step yet in my web journey.

My blog and I had to do some deep soul searching this week to decide whether we had come far enough to be able to add pictures and personal information.

Our questions and thoughts went like this . . .

Why should I share details about myself?

When you visit a blog you get a certain sense of what the person is like by the subject matter and the way they express their thoughts. A few personal details help complete the picture, and assist the reader to understand and identify with this person’s message. The person becomes real, not just words on a page and you are more likely to return to the blog if you know and trust the credentials of the author.

What information should I share?

The information that you share about yourself is what you feel comfortable and safe with. Each person is different and will focus on different things. Whilst some people share a detailed page of photos and information about themselves, family, holidays and celebrations, there are others who focus more on their work and the people and blogs they follow. We are out there already leaving a digital footprint, so we should be thoughtful about what we do.

What message would I like to convey to readers?

My blog describes my journey as I interact with the web and learn new things. It is a reflection of the steps I take and the experiments I try. It reflects my educational learning journey. Whatever knowledge and ideas I gain I share directly with my students and colleagues. Through my blog posts I share my knowledge and ideas with the world. But there is a person behind the blog, and it may be time to introduce myself.

I eventually decided to take the plunge.  diver1

Here goes . . . You can find out more ‘About Me’ here.

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