My Research Findings
I have finished my research and sent it off for marking. I found that using a classroom blog can be very beneficial for parents if they actively use it. However many parents have a construction of their role that is less hands on. I would love to see if I set up a blog and used it for homework activities, whether parents would engage with it. I really want to try this out to explore the possibilities. I think it needs ongoing parent education to make it work well but I also think the quality of the site and its usefulness for parents is really important. If there are not regular updates then people won’t take the time to look and if the information doesn’t seem relevant to parents they won’t look. I would need to survey the class first I think and see what sorts of numbers have internet access at home too. I do think this is worth pursuing. It might be time consuming initially but I think once routines are established, the children can do a lot of it. They do need training first though. I think this will be a project to work up to with skills teaching and scaffolding needed first before we get things on line. I am going to have a play round with ideas and build my own skill with this site first. I am also aware of a lack of equipment where I am going - no classroom camera, only one computer, no school laptops, one data projector for the school. I may need to address these issues too if I want this to work successfully.
