Pauline’s Blog

I found a very good article today written by Scott Huette(2006) titled Blogs in Education. In it he has lots of good ideas for getting started with blogs in the classroom, including how they could be used and what kinds of things a teacher might put on them.

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?    

Probably one of the hardest things at the moment for me is refining my questions into something both manageable and meaningful. I have reworked my questions again this morning and tried to add some Aims for my research - what is it that I am really trying to achieve with this research. Project title: Classroom Blogs: An evaluation of the effectiveness of using a classroom blog as a means of enhancing home/school partnerships. Research Question: In what ways can the use of classroom blogs be used to enhance home/school partnerships.? Sub Questions: 

1. What are the elements of a successful partnership?

2. What kinds of partnerships could schools be fostering with their parent community?

3. How do parents feel about partnerships with their child’s school?

4. What are the features and advantages of using Web 2.0 tools for communication?

5. What value is there in using classroom blogs in terms of communication, interaction and community building?

6. What barriers are there for parents in accessing and contributing to classroom blogs?

 Aims of the Research: 

1. To investigate features of successful home/school partnerships.

2. To investigate the value of using Web 2.0 tools as a means of communication with parents.

3. To uncover parent perceptions about partnership in relation to their child’s school and teacher and their perceived needs.

4. To find out whether using a classroom blog enhances partnerships between home and school. 

Yesterday I checked out the Government’s Priorities for Education at www.educationcounts.govt.nz/themes/government_priorities which had some useful references to priorities for education in terms of parents and family/whanau. I found it interesting that although it stated that the engagement of families, whanau and communities is a very powerful influence on childrens learning and success at school, there were no indicators to measure progress in this area! So how will we know if we are getting this bit right! I am hoping using a classroom blog will help in this area - I wonder what parents think?

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. 

I need to narrow down my research questions now so that I can get started on the Literature Review with a bit more focus. I am always keen for any feedback, comments, new ideas on this. 

Project topic:Classroom Blogs: An evaluation of the effectiveness of using a classroom blog as a means of enhancing home/school partnerships. 

Main research Question:In what ways can the use of classroom blogs be used to enhance home/school partnerships.? 

Sub Questions:What is the value of using classroom blogs in terms of communication, interaction and community building?

What are the barriers to using classroom blogs?

What kinds of partnerships should schools be fostering with their parent community?

What are the features and advantages of using Web 2.0 tools for communication? 

What are the elements of a successful partnership?

I see this study at the moment as a Case Study, possibly using mixed methods. A quantitative parent survey could lead to qualitative in depth interviews with selected parents. In terms of the parameters of the study, I think it will be much more manageable if I look at the set of parents from one classroom in depth, rather than casting the net too widely.

Maybe in the conclusion? I could say something like:

This is what I found out in this particular setting from this set of parents. This could be backed up with quotes, anecdotes etc. from other parent users of blogs in other places. Do the findings match? I would need to rely here on other people sending me information about parents in other places, so I’m not sure if this bit will work or not - I guess time will tell.

I think in this study that one of the things I want to do is to give a voice to the parent community. What, for example, is their perspective on partnership?

How do parents perceive home/school partnerships?

What do parents want from home/school partnerships?

Are parents marginalised when it comes to schooling? Do they want to do more but don’t know what or how - or are they happy with the status quo?

Does having access to a class blog allow parents to take a more active role in their children’s learning - and do they want to?

I’m pretty sure I need to keep thinking about these questions and refine them more. Maybe some of them are more objectives of the study, rather than research questions as such.

I have come across a really cool book by Will Richardson  entitled “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2006). It has some great background on the technology, but is also very practical in terms of how to set up these Web 2.0 tools and what can be done with them.

Thanks Jill for checking out my blog. I have figured out how to put the entries in properly now! I would love any research you can find on the value of Web 2.0 tools, blogs or how we can use them to enhance home/school partnerships. I enjoyed talking to you today.