Dear Readers, I have been following Julie’s journey in Pathways for many months, as she writes her daily blogs .
Thanks for reading my early blogs which focussed on my experiences as a novice Pathways Guides. Taking the Hero’s Journey approach and placing my experiences in a fictional fantasy world enabled me to explore my favourite writing genre and weave in some magical images of my journey. This image on the right sparked a series of posts for a fictional Toastmaster called George. Julie, do you remember, when you and I were discussing how important it was to look ahead and find out which Paths contained longer final project? Revisit Pathways with George, post 1, post 2 and post 3
I was eager to get through the first two levels on each of my paths – Effective Coaching (completed), Strategic Relationships and Visionary Communication – to reach the electives in level 3. I was impatient to expand my ability to speak on the topic of blogging and to change the way I structured many of my other early Pathways speeches. Since then I have chosen to write and tell stories – these had a much greater appeal at Toastmaster meetings both online and land based. Note: happily exploring those in the Witty Storytellers Online club.
Dear Julie, this leap into new writing and speaking adventures has given me a framework for a new community project on Oral History.
This month I am embarking on a Digital Storytelling adventure in a local adult learning community by teaching a group of volunteer historians how to prepare oral history videos using simple software, photos, videos and recording the voices of elders in their community. I will once again be training others in the art of Digital Storytelling – something I used to do over a decade ago. I am really excited about this project and looking forward to getting back into the classroom again. It is ages since I attended the first Digital Storytelling Conference, at the BBC Wales, in Cardiff where I was born.
- Her blog has been a compelling read for her thousands of followers as she unravels her journey with stories of challenges, frustrations and success. I have asked Julie to share some of her thoughts on Pathways from a different perspective this month. These are the questions I have posed for her consideration:
- What are the favourite aspects of the Paths you have worked on?
- Why did you choose the Paths and how many have you completed?
- What advice would you give to a new user of Base Camp?
- What are the benefits from your work in your Paths so far?
- What is your wishlist for new projects in Pathways?
See her answers in her blog post the same day, Friday 12 October:
Part of the Pathways Exchange Blogging project!
- As you know, I was keen to explore ‘Write a Compelling Blog‘ and ‘Storytelling‘, and this has been the source of many of our conversations by email. The blog elective, with your mentoring, improved my understanding of what a compelling blog looks like.
- Building my blog followers by fine tuning my writing style and promoting in social media.
- The process, starting in January this year, sparked the idea for this Pathways Exchange Blogging project. Thanks for participating.

The elective on ‘Storytelling‘ has become my all time favourite elective.

- I am excited to tell you that this one will provide the content for the next elective on ‘Podcasting‘.
- I had been ignoring that elective for some time, knowing that the spark for its content was still to emerge. Now I can plan a series of podcasts
- As a natural extension of these activities, I can focus on combining blogging, podcasting and storytelling, as the basis for my DTM project in Pathways. This is my goal set for next year. Finally I have a project theme that will be beneficial to me in my world of Family History Storytelling and to my community learners. Note: thanks to M for suggesting this.

- I have introduced the steering group to Zoom for meaningful project discussions and I hope to explore more of that style of collaborative and social learning online with other learners.
- I will finish this Pathways Conversation now and focus on more answers to that first set of questions I asked of you. Hope you are enjoying this Pathways Exchange of stories. I am really looking forward to the questions you have of me.
- PS I start a new module in the Diploma of Family History with the University of Tasmania this month – it is called Oral History. Everything is falling into place!
3 replies on “Pathways conversations with Julie!”
The oral history project sounds fascinating.
My studies of the Oral History Unit at UTAS began this week – I am loving it. Can now incorporate that learning in my DTM project.
I am excited about this project Jane, and exploring where it will take me for my DTM in Pathways.