Google Summit 2014

It took being called a 'lurker'...

April 23 & 24

It's taken along time to sum up the courage to finally post something onto this blog.  I had set it up last year at the ULearn conference when I attended a great session on blogging. However, despite great intentions, fear kept me from publishing to the net. What if somebody read it? What if I have nothing good to say?

Then something happened at the Google Summit in Christchurch. It was something that was mentioned by Kimberly Hall in her session on Google + and again by Mark Wagner. They talked about not being a 'lurker'. I hadn't heard the term before, but was alarmed to hear it was a person who read posts on Twitter, Google + and other social media, bur who never posted. "Oh no!", I cried to myself, "That's me. I'm a lurker!" 

Definition of a lurker: In Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community who observes, but does not actively participate.

Now, as an English and Drama teacher in New Zealand, the irony of not participating and contributing is not lost.  Every day in the classroom, I encourage my students to develop this key competency, yet I do not role model it myself. 

Well, I can happily say that, a week after the summit, I have tweeted, re-tweeted, favourited, liked, posted and set up my own google + community. I am now walking the talk. Finally.