I am working on the introduction for my research proposal today. As I thought about why I had chosen this topic of using blogs, I am reminded of the huge potential out there for using Web 2.0 tools in education. At last year’s ICT conference in Rotorua I listened to David Warlick talking about preparing our children for an unknown future. I think we also need to be giving them what they need now - which is connectivity and curiosity. David talked about “Flat Classrooms” and how our students adapt to an increasingly connected planet. In many classrooms they are not given the opportunity to adapt as they are not exposed to any outside connections. Using a classroom blog is one very easy way of establishing outside connections with children. Initially it might just be with their immediate or extended family, but it doesn’t take much for it to grow from there. I think it would be one way of becoming more responsive to the needs of the 21st century learner, and very motivating for students.
I have been looking at a few NZ classroom blogs today to try and get a feel for how they are being used and who is commenting on them. What I realise is that sustainability seems to be a key issue. One school site I looked at had a class blog for each of the 17 classrooms. Of these, only 3 had been added to this year. Some had the middle of 2007 as their most recent post, which led me to think that it takes commitment to keep a blog going - and time. I set up a class blog last year, but with my Facilitator commitments, I had very little classroom time and didn’t use it with the children. I also did not have equipment such as a data projector on hand the whole time, to bring the blog up for the children. I wonder how many teachers start with great intentions and then get bogged down with time and equipment issues. I think it probably needs some kind of pattern or routine to ensure regular contributions. My feeling is that if a blog is not updated regularly, then parents will stop looking at it.
The other issue I found was ease of adding comments varied greatly on class blogs. On one blog, it appeared that I needed a google account before I could post a comment, on another I tried to say where I was from on the map and got hopelessly lost with it - I wonder how easy some parents would find the navigation, if they are unfamiliar with using blogs. I wonder what information, if any, parents are given about the blog when it is set up or whether it is word of mouth and the children showing their parents. I would also like to look into the purpose of the blog. Why do teachers set blogs up - what is it they hope to achieve through using one?
I read something this morning about the importance of writing regularly and writing your thoughts down to aid clarity. One of the things it suggested was to write something as a warm up before writing your essay or research. One suggestion was a letter to a friend, but I thought maybe writing a blog post to clarify my thoughts before writing might work as well.
I am about to embark seriously on my literature review and thought I would begin with looking at parent partnerships. I need to check out the Ministry of Education’s stance on partnerships and thought I might try looking at NZCER research, a TKI search, anything on Leadspace and also googling it. I read somewhere the other day that Google Scholar was a good search engine so I will give that one a go today. I haven’t used it before.
