I wish I had more time to spend in the blog of Clarence Fisher. I’ve got a backlog of posts of his that I keep meaning to respond to — and will one day, I’m sure. But a post he made over the weekend really resonated with me. He writes:
One morning last week, one of the girls in my class came to me and said
that she had spent her entire time looking through the blogs of others
and was frustrated by the lack of updates. She wondered if some of
these classes were using their blogs anymore or if they had simply quit
writing.
I know James has recently celebrated over 5 000 learner blogs,
but I wonder as this school year fades on how blogs are fairing as a
classroom tool. As the school year first began, blogs in classrooms
seemed to explode onto the national scene. Articles popped up here and
there and many teachers began to wonder about using blogs to help kids
learn. A lot of interest was generated and many blogs were constructed.
But now, like with any other new tool, I wonder if we’re going through
a period of consolidation? People have heard about blogs, they set up
accounts for their kids and began to write. But then their interest
faded, they couldn’t see progress the they expected, it required too
large of a change in classroom routine, etc., etc. For whatever reason,
a lot of the blogs that my kids are finding seem to be inactive.
Certainly anecdotal evidence, and I’m sure that people like David Warlick who runs Blogmeister,
or James Farmer who runs many versions of blog sites would have a lot
more stats on this, but it is interesting what these kids have found.
Will responded:
It does seem like there is a lull, doesn’t it? And I wonder if it’s not
that, as you allude to Clarence, teachers don’t fully recognize the
investment here. This is not just about using a tool, it’s about
building a community. It takes nurturing, tending, etc. The payoff, I
think it’s more and more evident, can be huge. But I wonder how many
teachers have the Ganley, Glogowski, Fisher, Hunt, Kuropatwa gene that
allows them to see and understand that potential… It is a great
question.
I began writing a comment and quickly realized that it was going to be a big one. Here goes: I think that most blogs die an early
death, as you’re saying. Well intentioned teachers and students
create their first, and sometimes second, posts with the idea that
blogging will be something that they can add on to the rest of their
busy lives, — but that’s not really how it works. It takes time — time that must be given from some other sacred cow at school. Time to nurture, as Will says. above. That’s time we might not be able to spare. Then again — it might be time that we’re wasting doing other stuff.
I met last night with a group of
teachers that are still curious about blogging and its place in their
teaching and learning. They’ve watched as I’ve had success with my blog and my students’ work, and
they’ve heard feedback from the community about their contributions
to the blogosphere — specifically, the podcasts that we did together
last summer at the CSUWP – and they’re
realizing the power of publishing and networking and community and
writing and thinking and learning that has very little to do with
instructional mandates and everything to do with personal investment
in getting better. (Isn’t that pretty much what school is: getting better?)
Once that is realized, and I think
it will be (but slowly, oh so slowly!), more and more teachers and students will return to write
a second, third and/or fourth post. Eventually, it becomes a habit, and a good one at that. The writing part of blogging alone will improve student abilities if that writing is monitored and discussed. Add in the reflective power of blogs to help students grasp what they’re learning and to document it for later and, well, I think we might be on to something. We’ll be really cooking if we can showcase the good stuff before all of the tools get locked away.
But it sure does take a long time,
doesn’t it? Of course, most good things do. I just hope there’s enough.
but a dozen or so people (solid turn out for the end of the day) showed up. We hit critical mass with participants and had a great conversation. Others came to get handouts and to ask blogging specific questions. The yarn and sticky notes worked well. Next time, though, I think we’ll ask folks to do their writing and commenting and connecting at the beginning of the presentation, instead of the end. 
