Should Teachers Blog?

Posted By: Kevin Schofield | Jul 31st, 2006 @ 6:18 PM

In Shanghai, according to this report, ten percent of the teachers blog as a way to increase and improve communication and interaction with their students. Unfortunately, the students aren't reciprocating -- the teachers are having a very difficult time getting their students to comment or otherwise participate.

What do people think: are blogs a useful tool for teachers? What should teachers expect in terms of student participation? Any best practices to share?

Tag: education

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AlfredTwo

I think that all teachers should blog. I think that there may be some initial reluctance by students to comment on teacher blogs but that a) time will help with that and b) students will at least read the blogs.

I found that when I was teaching that many students would us instant message and email to communicate with me as their teacher. It was a matter of building trust which takes some time but it well worth it in the long run.

Erik

I'm a college dropout so take my words with a grain of salt, but...

I think all (realistically, just more) teachers should blog. As for not getting their students to interact with them I can understand the hurdle. My guess is these days "kids" realize (since they've been "online" for a long time) that their comments are forever set in stone online whereas saying something silly in class or arguing with the teacher and being proven wrong can be easily forgotten.

The other issue is that if the teacher is just blogging informational things then I'm not sure why students would comment. Even if teachers ONLY blogged informational stuff it would still help. I see no reason why students today can't subscribe to an RSS feed.

Bringing up the fact again that I'm a college dropout, I think things like teachers blogging would've helped keep me interested. Some (read: a lot) students just have a tough time learning by listening to a teacher lecture. Interactions like blogs could be one more thing to help with teacher/student interactions.

Rob Miles

In reply to AlfredTwo

#Aug 1st, 2006 @ 12:07 PM

I've been thinking aobut this for a while. I've been trying to think of reasons why not to blog. And I can't think of any. Teachers should blog, just like they should talk, write, draw pictures etc. Anything which helps get the message accross.

Having said that though, although I blog, I don't blog about the courses that I teach as such. I tried it a couple of years ago, when I wanted to blog my C# course for the first year undergraduates. You can see how it went here. Not good. I found that a Wiki is a much more sensible form of narrative when working with directed courseware becuase it is not as linear. So I ended up with this instead. However, I don't expect much action on either from students.

A recent article in the Guardian in the UK pointed at statistics which said that if you take 100 people, out of that number 1 will be moved to blog regularly and around 10 will be inclined to comment on the blog. And the other 90 or so will just read it. Or not. We have around 140 or so in our first year cohort and I know that quite a few of them blog reguarly so in that respect we are bucking the trend. (we do get quite a lot on our forums though - which is encouraging)

I tell the students that as an exercise in improving the communication and writing skills, as well as giving them a wider audience for their work, a blog is a really good idea, and well worth exploring for that reason alone. It can also be fun.

Nowadays I use my blog to pull out particular themes that I think are important to students and also to "humanise" me a bit, so that people are more inclined to come and chat because they feel that they know me more on the basis of my blog. I also blog because I enjoy it.

konieczki

As a novice blogger, I’m not as sure if it is a simple question of wether a teacher should blog or not blog; it is more of a question of do teachers know what blogging is. It is my understanding that blogs have been around for the last nine years or so, prior to taking an educational technology class this semester I had never hard of blogs. Returning to my school district none of my peers had heard of blogs including our technology coordinator (something is wrong with that). My peers persist they are “too busy to play on the web”. Some still resist using e-mail to communicate. Until teachers are educated about the possibilities of what is out there and show they have some sense of literacy in their use of technology, I don’t think the blogging movement is going to catch-on very fast.