I decided to do some research in regards to teachers and blogging. Do teachers like to blog? Does it make communication between students, parents, and peers easier?
For the most part I have found positive articles and reviews about blogging. One teacher Jeff Utecht, who is a big believer in blogging in the classroom explained in his article Teachers as blogging models that teachers "must model good blogging for your students. You must read blogs, reflect on what you are learning, and link to other sources. That as a blogger your actions speak louder than words." Jeff saw great results in the classrooms he guided through the blogging process. Children were beginning to create amusing and informative webpages, that they were able to add to as they learned throughout the year.
On the other hand, I found an article that was not as positive with its blogging results as others were. Teachers speak out of turn was an article by Greg Toppo from USA Today. He investigated some of the more negative results that have happened as a direct result of blogging, including loss of jobs and teachers and students being ridiculed because of some of their blog posts. Greg says that while most teacher blogs are being used to talk about different classroom successions and failures and discussion follows. Other teachers are taking their blogs as an opportunity to rant and rave about the "unflattering details" that go on in to public schools, like lack of funding, vandalisim, and accounts of chaos about children. This has resulted in a lot of new and up in coming teachers losing thier first time jobs, because of the free speech they used in their web blogs.
While I think web blogging is good and becoming a more technological advancement for teacher communication I cannot help but wonder how much blogging will end up doing more bad than good for teachers. I just hope that with some of the negative results that has happened to teachers blogging in the past, future teachers will become smarter and more sensitive in what they say on the internet. It is very important to remember that everyone can read what you think and write and you should think before you post.
Time and the heat death of the universe
5 years ago
Interesting post! Thanks for sharing what you found. I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteA critical concern...and you answered the issue in your last sentence. While blogs CAN be used for anything, the writer has to realize that once he/she posts something, it can and will be read by anyone. Responsible bloggers realize that a blog is not the place to rant...a good blog is one that is reasoned and reasonable. And we need to teach our students the difference.
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