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Should Teachers Have Blogs?
Does blogging and teaching mix? In my opinion, it should, but first, let's look
at a few issues that may arise when teachers blog:
EdTech Avenue is a new Minneapolis based blog looking at the technology issues
facing schools. One of the first posts addressed putting teacher's photos on a
school's website and the resistance some at the school had to the idea:
EdTech
Avenue Blog » Teacher Photos on School Website?
Their reasoning was that if pictures are
made readily available on the internet, we subject ourselves to possible mis-use
of the photos on such sites as MySpace and other personal web spaces. While I am
not naive enough to think that our students would not think to do such a thing,
it saddens me that the majority of people visiting our site will lose out on the
personal touch the photos present. I also would have liked the idea that for
marketing and recruiting purposes, prospective families would be able to put a
face with all the paperwork and other information they receive about our
school. There certainly is a trade-off involved in becoming more
transparent. Schools will need to decide whether then benefits gained from
building more personal relationships with parents outweigh the occasional
mis-use that eventually will happen.
Would students really abuse online photos? Look no further than this story from
the Smoking Gun about a principal who's suing found ex-students over a
fake
MySpace profile they made of him:
A Pennsylvania high school principal is
suing four ex-students for allegedly posting fake MySpace profiles that
described him as a boozing, MILF-chasing swinger who thought sex with students
should be legal unless "you kill them in the process." Beyond
photos, what about blogging? Now teachers are actually sharing their thoughts
and potentially information about their private lives on the public web where
students could find it.
EdTech
Avenue's take:
This is a unique career we find ourselves in - my husband and his
friends don’t have to worry about who might see their blog or want to “use it
against them”. But teachers do not have this same luxury. I can only imagine the
damage a scorned student could do to a teacher’s career - we’ve seen it on some
news stories already. But how much of this is paranoia and how much is warranted
caution? Everyone who's gone to school thinks they're an expert
on the education system, and I'm no exception. Here is my unqualified opinion on
why I think teachers SHOULD be blogging:
1. It's a great way to communicate with
parents. Parents are busy but really want to be more involved in their
children's education. Reading their children's teacher's blogs would be a great
way to feel more involved, or lead to a parent becoming more involved based on
something inspirational they have read.
2. Having online credibility negates parody
sites. Imagine searching for the principal from Pennsylvania mentioned
above and finding the parody site as the first search result. That may have one
day been the case, but not the
top
search result's for Eric Trosch are news stories about him suing his
students. That seems career damaging to me. What SHOULD be the top result is a
personal site of Eric Trosch, where the REAL Eric Trosch communicates with the
world about who he is. His lack of an online personae allowed the parody site to
define him to the online world. It shouldn't come as a surprise to parents or
future employers of a principal that some students can be jerks. However, if
that's all you can find about a person online, one may wonder who the REAL Eric
Trosch is.
3. Teachers are people. There seems to be
a policy in most schools that teacher's private lives should be closely guarded
secrets. Imagine the horror of seeing a photo of a teacher enjoying a glass of
wine in Napa on a summer vacation. Or a teacher dancing at a wedding! Or in a
swimsuit! In my opinion, teachers should be able to live normal lives. Their
students are used to seeing their parents drink, dance, and wear swimsuits, so
it shouldn't be shocking to find out that other adults do similar things when
they're not in the classroom.
What's your take on this? I'd love to hear the opinions of teachers, parents,
and others throwing lobs from the stands like me.
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2. Posted by: Eric MacKnight on April 8, 2007 8:23 PM:
I guess I'm just too old, but I have trouble understanding why anybody puts personal information out on the web for all to see.
I am a teacher, and I have two blogs, but they are professional, not personal: EricMacKnight.com and The Good Habits Blog. No swimsuit photos, I'm afraid.
Whether these sites would protect me from malicious MySpace spoofs, I doubt. Treating students with respect, courtesy, and kindness is probably a better bet.
3. Posted by: Jill on April 8, 2007 9:55 PM:
My issue is not so much about the existence of teacher blogs, but rather the topics they might cover. I do agree that teachers should be blogging. As a technology coordinator, I want my teachers to be speaking the same language as our students - and today's students are digital natives... our digital immigrants do need to catch up.
I have come up with a solution for blogging that I think will work for me personally. I can post to a blog I share with my husband about movies we see, events in our lives, and other activities and musings. For more personal things, such as rants about a bad day at work or details about stuff when we start a family, for example, I have created a login-protected blog for myself that family and friends can subscribe to.
Blogging is a great way for families to get to know their teachers, but as in all things, moderation is the key.
4. Posted by: ajespinosa on April 9, 2007 5:00 AM:
no blog, no teach. a teacher's blog carries with it the person's reputation as well as knowledge about his/her subject matter.
5. Posted by: j.moudry on April 10, 2007 8:09 PM:
Okay, Ed, you got me to bite.
As a career teacher and someone who is also concerned about how advances in technology affect our humanity, this blog issue is interesting. I've never been able to sustain the attention to upload my internal thoughts to the web, let alone feel like I have enough time just to talk with my wife and play with my sons (which, by the way, are two things that most likely rank above blogging; this note is written using time waiting alone at the airport for a flight).
But, should I see blogging as a professional endeavor rather than a personal one? Perhaps. (Then it's okay to do at work--right?) The efficiency of a blog for disseminating information about a class project or to give public kudos to a group of students that all students, parents, and faculty could view, seems reasonable.
But perhaps that's not what your point was. It seems your take was more that we (teachers) should be writing personal blogs to (1) connect better with parents, (2) to offset the crazies out there, and (3) to reveal our humanity.
Theses seem to be three wacky reasons for writing a blog. One at a time:
(1) connect better with parents: The sum total of the time spent in a year blogging, thinking about blogging, and managing the blog is, IMHO, far better spent doing my job. Hosting one live and in person parent gathering is better. I just know too many teachers who are forced to manage more and more content requirements while at the same time have less contact time with students AND are asked to respond to voicemail and email. There are only continual asks of the time. Teachers have to defend their time with students. Adding to that list "respond to 35 blog entries from parents and students each night" seems like a complete set up. As soon as it is offered, the teacher must deliver or else they are seen as unresponsive. The teachers I know go home have dinner, get the kids in bed and then start preparing lessons and evaluating student work that is a complete impossibility to do in their day. Why? They are servants and during the day they are in primary service to their constituency (typically without pause).
Teachers are not part of the millennial generation, they are not digitally at ease (mostly), but they are brilliant in awakening minds, challenging geniuses, supporting all the various learning styles, and embracing each family that is behind each student in their class. Parents of the children do ask a lot, and they should, because the windows of learning in children are only open briefly, and if not supported, they will close on those children without ever feeling the spark of discovery or the joy of meeting a great challenge in their learning. So the parents...if you want information about your son's or daughter's education, come to the parent nights, go your child's conferences, walk into the school and say hello.
(2) Offset the crazies How common are these parody pages? Maybe they're quite common and I'm unaware (possible to be sure). I do think that for teachers with either the talent or the support staff to do so, having a website where students can link to helpful sites, download assignments, and maybe even check on their progress. But until the teachers are themselves millennials (and beyond) this requires added training and much support from the (often non-existent) IT department.
MacKnight had it dead on. To offset crazies, do your job well.
There is more to say on this later...
(3) Reveal Teachers' Humanity: Well it is true teachers are typically human (though occasionally treated inhumanely). Now this one is interesting. (Yes, my flight was delayed.) Teachers should not be automatons (in fact there is growing evidence that automatons cannot do the same job that a live human being can). Teachers should reveal that they are human and dynamic and interesting, real people. But the nature of the relationship with students (clients) is delicate. And...it's different at different ages. The teacher of first graders probably is not so worried about those parody sites as a high school teacher might be. And they should "be" different with their students. Those students need different things from their human teacher. And any sensitive and supportive teacher knows more than what her students need, she knows what each student needs, because, after all, they're each individual humans too.
I may change my mind about all this in a few years, but I am starting to feel already more challenge in adopting new technologies. Younger teachers have more facility with newer technologies (it has always been so) and they can lead the way how they like.
However, I may continue to caution that we don't sacrifice authentic, real communication for virtual, second-life interfaces that masquerade as human interaction under the flag of "it's easier
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1. Posted by: MiniMage on April 8, 2007 1:23 PM:
Teachers absolutely SHOULD have blogs! As someone who has had a few teachers who couldn't even use their native language properly, let alone the terminology of their chosen field, I see it as a way of developing them as professionals and possibly even helping to identify and correct deficiencies. Of course, the reasons given in this post are also good reasons.