If you’ve been following along on what I’ve been up to lately, you know that I’ve been facilitating, along with Michelle and some colleagues from the , some teacher research projects in my school district. It’s good and important work, and I’m trying, as we facilitate, to be engaged in my own teacher research along with the group. It’s one thing to say that a practice is important. It’s a better thing to model its importance by doing it.
Earlier in the year, I wrote about my proposed research topic, and about how I thought I might proceed. Tomorrow, I’m digging into the work in earnest.
I’m curious about how we, in our school district, are actually using our blogging engine, a WordPress installation that’s coming up on three years old. I read what gets posted there, but I’ve never taken a real hard and descriptive look to see what’s there. So tomorrow, I’m going to sit down and take a close look at a three week window of the blogging engine from this year, and I’m going to try to read, annotate, and classify every posting that appears there. Then, based on what I see, I’d like to follow up with some of the authors, both teachers and students, and see if I can learn more about what they’re blogging about and why they’re blogging at all.
Why am I looking ? Well, in large part because I want to see what’s happening in the space, and to go after promising practices that are present. And, to be brutally honest, I’m looking because I expect that what I’ll see is a great deal of using blogs, rather than blogging, and that’s worth knowing and quantifying.
So I’m digging in. I suspect it’ll be an interesting look. And, as with most teacher research, I suspect my questions will change a bit as I get into the data and see what there is to see.
Wish me luck.
good luck!
and thx for the motivation to actually get my blog up and running…..I registered but need to now DO IT. I tried to get started during a symposium I attended (re Technology, so it was ok that I was trying to start a blog DURING the presentation…we were SUPPOSED to be doing something!), however, I didn’t like the picture/layout choices that I seemed to have to choose from, so I put it off so I can figure out how to make it different….
Two questions:
Are you going to look at the blogs of non-teacher staff as well? Why or why not?
I am interested in your distinction between using a blog vs. blogging. I am one of those non-teachers using our WordPress space. Am I blogging?
I’ll be looking at everything posted on the timeframe. I’m interested in all posts, instructional or otherwise. As to your second question – I don’t yet know. That distinction was one that emerged in my teaching. I’m not sure if it’s the right descriptive frame for this analysis, but it’s the one I’m going to start with.
I’m curious too, and I wish you good ju-ju in your research. I found your comment on ‘use of blog’ vs. blogging intriguing. I often find myself wanting to avoid true reflections on the school district blog, for fear that I may somehow upset others OR expose too much of myself. Is it better to play it safe or be sorry when reflecting on one’s practice?