Blogging for faculty development

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

I created my Blog as a tool for:
1. improving faculty awareness of Blogs
2. providing a quick, asynchronous way for busy faculty to do some personal development in teaching.

I'm very proud of it, but to date it does not recieve the readership I had hoped. Has anyone else used Blogs in a university setting.

[Alja Sulčič]

Great blog Deirdre! Unfortunately, many teachers out there still don't understand (and trust) blogs and some don't even have the knowledge to be able to follow them (can your colleagues use RSS feeds for example?). So perhaps they just need some more time to get to know this new media form, and get comfortable in using it.

I also write my own professional blog, and I find it extremely useful for my personal development. But of course, I do try to write posts that I hope will be useful to my readers as well, Attracting readers is certainly not an easy job (especially if you're blogging about a very specific field), as there are so many great blogs and resources on the internet that you have to in some ways compete with :)

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

The discomfort with Blogs shows up when people talk to me or email me about a post, but don't use the comment function. Smile.

Actually I'm the only Blog about Medical Education out there and I'm really only writing for my College, so I don't have competition. I just work in a culture that is only just discovering technology for teaching. Doctors are however great users of technology for their practice, so I have hope for the future.

[Dora Wong]

Hi Dierdre,
Are you thinking of having them read the blog and follow the links within? Or have them communicate with the students using a blog? I think one of the ways to get faculty on board is to co-teach a class with them and show the hands-on aspect of using and starting a blog. The start up part is really the barrier I think. I'm just starting out in this myself but hope to have some experience to report back in a few weeks as I'm going to use blogs to present materials as my part of a week-long workshop. I think in any project involving faculty the chance of them buying in is higher. The face-to-face personal interaction is still the key, virtual social networking not withstanding. My 2 cents :-)

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

Thanks for commenting Dora,
I'm in the unique position of being responsible for the teaching development of 1000 faculty, 800 of whom are scattered across the province of Saskatchewan. I had hoped to use the Blog as a way to bring faculty development to the smaller communities where doctors don't want to/can't leave town to take workshops.

You're right about the individual contact, but it's too expensive/time consuming in my case. I am having more success with an online group discussion about a popular medical text. The free book seems to be a drawing card. Smile.

I'm starting to help other people set-up Blogs for students, so maybe that will make a difference.

[Ping]

This is a great start, Deirdre. As I know, some physician faculty are still struggling with their busy schedules, even just a simple daily task--hot sync their patients' logs from PDA/Palm to the data server--might become a weekly task. How about offering an incentive for using these new types of learning methods? We've hardly heard that Med schools encourage faculty adding these new integrations to their promotion packets. Many universities have integrated e-portfolio, perhaps they might consider adding blogging in near feature (if not already.)

[David Peter]

I started my blog as a way to focus attention and reflection on pedagogical issues. Readership is not there yet.

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

We should guest post on each others Blogs! http://blogs.usask.ca/medical_education/

[Steve Mackenzie]

Hi Diedre,
How do you measure your readership - by comments, (can you count views)

[Deirdre Bonnycastle]

That's the difficult issue. We have no tracking build in to our Blogs and I don't get many comments. I do get quite a few emails and hallway discussions about articles, so I know there are regular readers. In order to up the comments, I recently negotiated to have reading and commenting on articles credited as an educational activity on faculty portfolio's. I will be advertising this at the next Dept. Heads meeting in July.

[Michael D Warner]

Deirdre, I don't think I'd be too concerned that your not getting direct responses back on your blog, through the blog. It may be that readers are just not comfortable posting where they know others will be reading their post. If your getting feedback via email, you know that is the next step to them actually responding in a more public forum. Give it some more time, post questions that might not be too intimidating to respond to in a public context, and make an effort to include the procedure for responding directly to the blog every couple of weeks or so until folks get the hint that you want responses on the blog. If nothing else, your providing an avenue for communication that some might venture into that would be out of the norm for them.

Mike Warner

[Steve Mackenzie]

Hi Deidre,

I am still thinking through strategies, but i don't think an isolated blog has appeal for busy staff. I think the whole thing needs linking into a community based approach. What the best vehicle for that is i am not sure - ning network, wiki, yahoo groups, google groups, eduspaces, living journal i have yet to work out.

If i give as an example at my university DMU, we have a wacking great big web based staff portal, that staff log onto and then get links to the universities online services, there is other static information and once you've seen it once you've seen it. Well if they added forum posts, blog posts and rss feeds to this page, what a damn site more interesting it will be to staff and for bloggers with a message, what a great passing audience they can attempt to pull in and enlighten and influence.

I love your blog also
Steve

[A. P. Suess]

Deirdre,

I can't help but believe that part of the reason behind your lack of faculty participation has a lot to do with generational issues.

If you take a look at the demographics of you faculty you will most likely find they are of the generation that remembers 8-Track Tapes, .35-cent gasoline, and the Ed Sullivan Show. The personal computer emerged as a tool to improve efficiency.

By comparison, the generation of students we teach do not know a world without personal computers or the internet. To them the personal computer and, more importantly the internet, is simply a part of life. This generation uses it as an extension of their personalities. Consider the number of MySpace or Facebook sites or this generations ubiquitious use of Instant Messaging, Text Messaging and you'll begin to see the point I'm attempting to make.

So, to a member of the former generation, what use is a Blog from the perspective of it as a "tool?" Why would they need another computer program to journal their thoughts and ideas? After all, that what research papers and yellow poet-it notes are for? Why would they want to open up their hearts and minds publically and face the possibility of disagreement or discord among their peers or with their institution?

Consider as well that "faculty development" is often consided unnecessary and insulting to one who has earned a Masters or Doctorate. In their minds they have reached the pinnacle of their craft. They have taught for many years and have volumes of statistics in evidence of their mastery of the art of teaching.

If you want them to read your Blog, you will have to offer them some incentive or provide some value to do so. Sneak up on them for the first few months by providing links to "free stuff" interspersed with faculty development. For example, subscribe to "Giveaway of the Day" at http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/, and post the days link to a free software application. Then follow the link immediately with a faculty development-related article.

Give it a shot and I'll bet your readership will soar!

V/R

A. P. Suess