Blogging Teachers = Added Classroom Value?

 As job search season for teachers comes along, I was thinking about the value vs. distraction debate that has been a small rage through the blogosphere for the last several weeks and its relationship and importance for those looking for new sources of employment.

For example, I (obviously) believe that new technologies bring an enormous amount of value to first of all my own  professional development, my reflective practice, and my ability to create an effective learning environment in my classroom. My school and district superiors are aware of this blog, but I would be very surprised if any of them have ever paid more then a cursory look at it. They have little idea of its importance to me or my classroom.

The same is (unfortunately) true of my edu-blog that I keep for my classroom. My principal and my district are aware of the work I do, and I occasionally bring things to their attention that I want to highlight as a success, but I have many more requests for information and help from educators from far - flung locations around the globe then from within my own division. I respond to about a dozen emails a week from teachers, principals, reporters, etc. looking for information on blogging in classrooms, using wikis and podcasts as learning tools, etc. I may get one or two a month from someone in my own division. I spend much more time talking about these technologies with people in Shanghai, Singapore, Minnesota, etc., etc. then I do with people I see every day in my own building.

As teachers are looking for new jobs, are blogs, wikis, and podcasts something they mention? Do employers understand what these tools are and how they change learning? Or are they looked upon as a distraction from the "real" work that is supposed to happen in classrooms? Wired magazine, in its edition on games this month, has an article mentions that in the not too distant future, people will include lines mentioning their gaming credentials on their CVs and tech - savvy employers will understand the importance. Will we get there in education?

technorati tags: wiki, podcast, blog, classroom,

Comments

[Stephen Lazar]

As I went through the interview process for my new teaching job in the Bronx (I was insanely lucky to find the perfect match at the first school I interviewed with), I talked about both my blog and blogging with my students frequently. Having my blog available enabled me to point to it as evidence, both in general and in specific cases, as to the type of teacher I am and the way I interact with my students. When the co-director told me the most important quality she was looking for in a teacher was her capability to reflect and grow, I immediately asked her to read my blog as I thought that was evidence of this characteristic in my teaching process. In this sense, my blog served a portfolio of my work. I also talked about my blogging experiment with students as something I would like to do more of as a way to enhance student engagement and meta-cognitive capabilities. I'd like to think it played some part in me getting the job.

With that said, the school I'll be teaching at is very progressive and open to trying new things. It is 180 degrees away from my last teaching position in Virginia. There, I only shared my blog with the (very) few teachers I trusted. I kept my students' blogging as quiet as possible because I knew there would be reactionary responses (and since I knew I was leaving the district, I really didn't have to worry about professional repercussions). Had I been interviewing at a similar school, I probably would not have mentioned my blogging at all.

[Ewan McIntosh]

As Stephen points out, the learning blog of a teacher can make answering all those "give me an example of..." questions so much easier. But now, as I, too, have the lucky position of choosing what to do next year, I am the one asking the interviewers if they have blogs of their own, so that I can find out more about who I am working for. Does it not work both ways?

[Doug Belshaw]

I always put on the stuff about my blog, etc. and my interest in educational technology on application forms. The trouble is, most employers in the teaching arena aren't really interested in one's potential to help changing per se; they're more interested in more pragmatic considerations like 'how much is this person going to cost me?' and 'will they get on well with the other members of the team?' and even 'will they look the part on parents evenings?'

The wonderful world of blogging and the harsh reality of education can sometimes feel poles apart... :-(