Why should we use blogs in our professional learning?

In the past, leaders were encourage to share their experiences with a small, chosen group of peers through informal meetings. Via the telephone, sharing in focus groups, meetings at conferences, or writing journal articles submitted to popular professional magazines were other ways that educators shared their experiences with others.

Because of the power of technology, educational leaders today have a wider variety of methods to share their experiences. Blogging is the new “journaling”. Sharing one’s experiences from the field is as easy as logging onto your email. The need to have the face to face contact is slowly waning. In fact, Generation “Y”ers have little desire to sit in a room and ‘share’ with others. They are constantly connected via electronic media and carry this power in their hands. Connecting through instant messaging, webinars, blogs, social media outlets and through online journal posting is their ‘wave of the present’.

Leaders can use these new tools to separate their professional work output from their personal opinions, thereby protecting their jobs from the invasive inquiry of the media. Blogging with peers is more informal and akin to chatting on the phone. Having this immediate feedback can boost the action research process, making the cycle run a bit faster. Above all, a blog can give an educator a more informal site to reflect on his or her learning -- to talk about what is happening in their own lives that makes a difference in the students they are teaching.