In a recent post we highlighted many of the advantages of educational blogging. The benefits are clear, so why aren’t all educators blogging?
While we firmly believe every educator and classroom could reap the rewards of blogging on some level, we are certainly aware that there are many real and perceived obstacles that can make blogging difficult.
In an effort to identify the key obstacles to blogging that educators are facing, we have created a poll.
We invite all educators to complete the poll. It doesn’t matter if you are currently blogging, have only dabbled or have never blogged. We want to hear from you.
What can make blogging difficult for you? Why aren’t you blogging more? Select any options that apply to you.
Look out for a post identifying key obstacles to blogging and strategies to overcome them in the coming weeks. Why not follow Edublogs on Facebook and Twitter so you don’t miss this post and all our other regular updates?
Feel free to elaborate on your poll response in a comment. What obstacles are you facing? We’d love to hear from you!
Cool.
I manage 5 class blogs. It can be difficult to sign in and this is very frustrating to me and to my students. However, my esl students love doing it. When they can get in and be successful they get really excited about it, so I’m trying to persevere. I am new to doing it……
Hey there,
Good on you persevering! That’s fantastic to hear your students have shown some excitement for blogging.
We’re sorry to hear you’re having trouble signing in. Feel free to email [email protected] and we’ll try to troubleshoot this with you.
Kathleen
I last taught English was eleven years ago. I simply haven’t taken the time to look at it.
Time can certainly be a a barrier! Thanks for sharing, Robert.
I added my vote to the poll, but felt that there was so much more to add. In particular, I think that the obstacles change as you move from personal blogging to facilitating blogging in the classroom (https://readwriterespond.com/2017/08/blogging-obstacles/).
Hi Aaron,
This is fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to put down your thoughts. I have left a comment and encourage others to read your post too. You’re certainly right that there are differing obstacles with personal/classroom blogging. This is such an interesting topic. I can’t wait to explore it more!
Cheers,
Kathleen
I thought I could vote on multiple factors making blogging difficult. As I clicked, I did not see that my previous answers disappeared. Time is an issue, but the concerns for student safety on the internet prevail in my district. I believe the privacy option through edublogs might be a break through in my fight to introduce blogging to my students and to “get my feet wet,” as well. Thank you.
Hi Janice,
Thanks so much for letting us know the poll wasn’t accepting multiple choices. That was an oversight and we have fixed it up.
That might be a great strategy to start with a private blog and then hopefully your district might allow to change things slowly!
Great to hear from you, Janice.
Kathleen
Hi Katlheen, thank you for this poll. I keep my writing workdshop blog as a sort of “archive” of my students texts – some are mine too, as I write along with them. As my school is only carefully approaching the path of innovation, kids aren’t given time expressely to blog or to train blogging skills. Also, as I don’t know any Portuguese Community similar to Edublogs, I keep as in a little island, surrounded by English speaking Bloggers. I’m working as a Tutor for four years now, and my dream would be that my school would asked me to blog with my students and not just for them.
Hi Ines!
How fantastic you write along with your students. What a great role model.
I wonder if any of our readers know of any Portuguese Edubloggers? Are you on Twitter?
I love your dream! I hope it comes true 🙂
Kathleen
Like most educators (as you can see in the response to your poll)–Time is the biggest issue, we wear many hats, on top of our obligations outside of our careers…
Hi James,
Managing time is certainly a big obstacle. There is so much to juggle! I’m really looking forward to exploring this issue in an upcoming post so stay tuned.
Kathleen
I teach a Teaching Writing in Middle School course. The past two falls, my college juniors have blogged using a class Kidblog. They wrote well and responded well to each other. I would like to expand so that the public could benefit from their writing. I just don’t have the expertise to move to that level.
Hi Zelda,
That’s wonderful to hear you’d like to expand your blogging. I certainly agree that you see some additional benefits emerge when the students have that authentic audience.
Did you know we have a free self-paced professional development series for teachers? It will help you become familiar with blogging step by step. It’s called Teacher Challenge https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/
Let’s know if we can help you further.
Kathleen
I did not know about Teacher Challenge. I am eager to check it out. Thank you.
We have to blog/made to blog at my school. It takes all the fun out of it. It takes ages to upload media and then it doesn’t work and it crashes and then there is very
Iittle response from anyone. Kids rarely comment and parents even rarer.
Love the idea of it but get very little support from ICT leader and community
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for such an honest response! Being made to do something is often difficult. Sorry to hear you are facing so many obstacles. I hope our upcoming post will help give you a few ideas to stick with it. Meanwhile, if you’re using Edublogs and there are blog issues that our team might be able to help with, please feel free to email [email protected] We are always happy to help!
Good luck!
Kathleen