Working towards administrative licensure in educational leadership has provided me the opportunity to reflect on how school leaders can use blogging as a communication tool for their school communities. I've had a fairly broad experience with blogging over the past few years in a variety of contexts and am looking forward to spending more time back on my own blog. Finding the time to blog can be challenging given the amount of roles and responsibilities educators need to maintain on a daily basis. One of the most important components of successful blogging is finding a consistent time frame in which to construct and share thinking and learning regularly.When school leaders commit to communication through blogging with fidelity, there can be incredible benefits to a school community. Recognition of learners among all age groups through blogging provides 21st century access and models to a school community and all stakeholders. Blogging supports the process of reflective learning through the sharing of information and growth from a personal perspective for public audiences. Embedding multimedia through blogging is a great way to engage even the most digital savvy learners from school communities as it provides easy access and engagement in learning and clarifying the school mission and vision. When school leaders spend time providing feedback through positive and constructive methods in public spaces, all members of a school community feel valued and supported in the achievements and growth they are making.
Blogging can have limits depending on the goals of a school leader. Blogging structures tend to be simplistic and often don't provide extended design options as do websites. A blog however, can be embedded easily in a website as another tool or component of the website to share communications and reach public audiences. Leveraging multimedia tools can support school leaders in minimizing the time it can take to write on a blog and it can provide a more personalized touch if they are willing to engage in front of a camera. Multimedia tools can be more accessible for public audiences as they can listen to information and messages in a similar fashion to podcasting if they aren't able to find the time or interested in reading lengthy text.
Ultimately, blogging can be a highly useful tool for school leaders as they engage in leading by example to integrate 21st century technologies and engage in the role of "lead learner" within their community. Blogging allows school leaders time for reflection and capture of growth and progress which ultimately serves as a digital portfolio of sorts to make learning visible for the leader and the community. Keeping a community of learners moving forward in collaborative growth through learning is enhanced through digital tools such as blogging. When learning is visible, especially by leaders, all learners experience increased motivation and engagement thus challenging themselves in becoming stronger, more introspective participants of the learning community.
Nick, I really liked when you said, "Blogging allows school leaders time for reflection and capture of growth and progress which ultimately serves as a digital portfolio of sorts to make learning visible for the leader and the community.' I believe that we need to reflective in our practice as well, as administrators, that we it cannot just be our staff that we hold responsible for this. We should lead by example. This would be a great tool to do this! Thanks for the great insight!
ReplyDeleteNick, I agree that administrators must intentionally block out time to keep up a blog. If we don't, I can easily see it being the first thing to fall off of our plates.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about your current community. You have a lot of experience with blogging. Do you have an insight into how your school community would react to a blog? My current community would not be receptive. I frequently hear about parents and students being frustrated with all of the different modes of communication: email, facebook, newsletter, twitter, etc. I honestly do not think that anyone would keep up with a blog. How do you go about getting buy-in?
LIz, thanks for your comments. The school communities I work in very much appreciate blogging especially by students. This structure allows parents to see the learning in public spaces and view any learner at anytime.
DeleteI can see how many communities would be frustrated with the variety of communication methods however, we approach them as opportunities for personalization. When users can select the tool that works best for them, increased access is promoted. It is important to send the same messages across all platforms so users don't feel they need to manage or visit each one. Having a home base or hub can support the communications around options available for access.
Nick,
ReplyDeleteThis is Nathan. I really appreciated that you focused on how blogging can provide an opportunity for not only educational leaders but also teacher, students and parents to reflect and grow. Also you mentioned how blogging has its limits which I didn't think of but sometimes we focus too much on one specific component of technology and forget that it might be an extension of another and in the end it loses it potential or impact. Finally I really like the design of your blog, the name is very creative and the layout is very well organized.