Blogging: Publishing, Connecting, and Engaging Other Educators Globally

Blogging is a way for educators to publish their ideas, connect with other educators and engage in audiences from around the world. As a self-publishing platform, blogs allow educators to share their ideas easily with other educators. For example, as an administrator, I often share how our school approaches a particular problem. Recently, in a blog post I shared how our school deliberately chose to not use regular classroom desks and instead chose to use movable tables to facilitate collaboration. As a networking tool, a blog can connect educators with others around the world. Recently, through my blog, I connected with an educator in South Africa who wanted to ask questions about a blog post I had done earlier in the year. I have also connected with educator authors as well. Finally, blogs give educators the potential to engage a global audience of educators. I have connected with educators on all continents through my blog posts. The world truly becomes a much smaller schoolhouse.

Recently, I shared much of this information in a presentation with my doctoral class. Here's that Google presentation entitled "Blogging for Real: Publishing, Connecting, and Engaging in World-Wide Audiences."

Educational Blogging Is About "Earning Your Readers' Attention"

"Content may rule, but your online content must be the right sort of content: Customer-focused. Authentic. Compelling. Entertaining. Surprising. Valuable. Interesting. In other words, you must earn the attention of people." Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman in Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business

Educators blog for a number of  reasons. Self-reflection, conversation, and sharing ideas are just three of those reasons. Ultimately a decision to blog is a commitment to engage your readers with content. Deciding on what that content should look like is an important consideration for education bloggers too, not just businesses, and Handley and Chapman's advice has some application to educators trying to find content for their blogs. They point out, your content "must be the right sort of content." To be the right content, your content must:

• Focus on your readers and readers' needs. If you have blogged for any length of time determining this is rather simple. Those posts that get a great deal of page views versus those that don't are an excellent clue to the kinds of content your readers want. For example, readers of this blog are often looking for information regarding iPad apps, because two of the blog posts that have received the most traffic were about iPad apps for educators. Another indicator are comments readers leave behind. Those posts that receive the most comments are also an indicator of what blog readers are interested in. Oftentimes, I also have readers leave comments that lead to ideas for information they are seeking. Of course, if your goal is to simply journal and reflect, then focusing on the needs of your readers isn't necessary. But, if your goals include gaining readership and engaging others, then you must focus on your readers' needs and wants, which means giving them the kind of content they are looking for.
• Be authentic. Being truthful, honest, and open with your readers is important.For example, I simply do not blog about things that I have not read, nor do I blog about web tools or software apps I have not personally tried. I receive numerous emails requesting reviews for new web tools and reviews for books, but I have not yet written reviews of products I have not tried myself nor books I have not read. This is my commitment to authenticity. My blog content must be extension of my own life and practice as an educator. This means I post from the perspective of my own experience. Being authentic in blogging also means opening up to your readers about your own experiences and thoughts as well as opinions. But if you want to engage readers authentically, you can't deceive them by promoting products you haven't  used yourself, nor can you promote books you haven't read. Finally, being authentic means leaving a bit of yourself in your blog posts too and being vulnerable.
• Be informative. Handley and Chapman talk about making your content entertaining. Educational blogs can be entertaining, but in my experience, most educators are looking for information: they are looking for ideas and content that will help them in their educational practice. By being informative, you provide readers with timely, useful information that they can either taken back to their schools or school districts immediately, or you give them something to really think about that they share with other educators, thereby sparking a conversation. Being informative means giving your readers the kinds of information that they can use.
• Be interesting. It has been pointed out quite often that web content readers are very selfish, especially those who read blogs. If readers are not engaged rather quickly, they lose interest and move on. In my experience, if I do not engage readers quickly, I notice that those blog posts get very few page views. Often, those posts that I perceive as well-written, thoughtful, and engaging, sometimes are the very ones that few read. I have learned to reign-in the English and literature teacher in me in order to engage readers, who aren't usually looking for literary finesse, but who are looking for content they can use. Being interesting means writing about topics of interest to readers, and giving them information they find interesting and useful.

Handley and Chapman offer some very interesting advice to those who would engage in not just blogging, but in providing any kind of web content for others to consume. Content is important. In the end, we have no choice but do what Handley and Chapman suggest: "we have to earn the attention of people," and that is done by providing them with the kinds of content they are looking for. That maxim is true for those who are educational bloggers too.

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6 Tips for Engaging Readers of Your Educational Blog

Let's face it. One of the reasons we blog is because we want people to read what we have to say. In order to do that, we have to provide readers with engaging content. In my years as a blogger, I have stopped puzzling over why some blog posts get over 5,000 page views and why some are ignored. It has to do with giving your readers engaging content, and author's Andy Beal and Judy Strauss offer solid advice for doing just that in their book Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.


While Beal and Strauss's advice seems to be specifically geared to businesses seeking to develop an online reputation, it also offers educational bloggers some solid advice on providing engaging content that captures readers' attention. Here's their six tips, liberally modified for the edublogger trying to engage others with blog content.

1. Remember it's about the reader, not you. How many times have you stumbled upon those educational blogs that seem to be more about promoting a person or consultant, instead of providing engaging, useful content for readers? Bloggers, including myself, have egos, and often we want to bluster about ourselves, but the truth is, our readers want content. they want new ideas and fresh content; they don't necessarily want to know our life stories and past successes. Make sure your content is for your readers, not for yourself.

2. Offer something new. All of us who blog regularly are guilty of regurgitating links and what others say and what everyone else is linking to. It's the blogging "echo chamber." But the truth is, those posts that are most successful are the ones that say something new, or offer some fresh insight on an ongoing topic of interest. According to Beal and Strauss, if you want your blog to be a "trendsetter" and one that everyone connects to, you have to offer fresh content or new insight. Educational bloggers that want readers, have to give them something they haven't seen before.

3. Be a passionate poster. Just as Beal and Strauss suggest, "Clearly state your opinion in your area of expertise and do it with gusto." Who wants to read content from bloggers who aren't passionate about their expertise? If you want your readers to be engaged in your content, then you must be passionately engaged yourself.  Share what you think and what you you believe to be true. Don't worry, if someone disagrees, that's what comments are for. Educational bloggers who want to write engaging content, have engage their emotions in what they write.

4. Be yourself, or "Show your personality." To be "radically transparent" as Beal and Strauss suggest, you have to reveal your true nature when you write. Be authentic. Readers love writing that comes from authentic people. Write in "textbookese" and you'll lose readers. As you write as an educational blogger, don't be afraid to show yourself in your writing.

5. Invite participation. In the blogging world, this means writing in a manner that invites your readers to comment. A great deal of content invites no response. In fact, it is written in such a manner that suggests that comments are forbidden, or at minimum unappreciated. As a educational blogger, give your readers content that invites them to share their thoughts and ideas as well.

6. Give your readers lists. The reality of the blogosphere is that readers love lists. (Hence this list.) Web readers don't like paragraphs; they like short scannable lists. As a educational blogger, it you can put your content into a list, you are giving web readers what they want, easily accessible content.

The bottom line is that if your want people to read what you have to say, then you have to provide them with the content they want to read in a format they want to see. One of the challenges I have found as a blogger is to repeatedly provide content that readers might want to see. Ultimately, anyone can provide content, but to provide what Beal and Strauss called "engaging content" means giving readers something they haven't seen before.

21st Century School Leaders Are Bloggers Too!

I have been blogging for almost 4 years now. My first blog was an experiment on Blogger in 2008 that I'm not even sure anyone ever read. I posted to it infrequently, and to be honest, I can't even remember the name of that blog. I've long since taken it down. My second blog was a staff blog I created while principal of a middle school. I used that blog instead of a weekly newsletter, or even an email update like this one. The problem I discovered was the same. How do you find the time to blog, even if it is for your staff? In 2010, I closed down that blog as well, and I opened my current blog, The 21st Century Principal. In December, The 21st Century Principal turns two. Yes, I have been blogging away at it for almost two years now, and with this blog, I have been just a bit more successful, but perhaps not in the way you might think.

I recently earned my first pay check from Google for blogging. Perhaps I can now say, "I am a professional blogger," but I don't think I'm ready to blog full time. I’m not even close to reaching the six figure income level that the Probloggers claim you can reach, so receiving this check was just a novelty. The truth is, I never began blogging because I thought I could make money. I began blogging because I basically wanted to do four things: 1) Share my own thoughts and ideas about technology, leadership, and public education, 2) engage others in conversations about the same topics, 3) connect with others. and 4) satisfy my own fascination with writing that led me to be a high school English teacher many years ago. But, if I were to measure my own success at blogging, I would measure it by the simple fact that I have successfully met these four goals I originally had for blogging.

Since I began blogging two years ago, I have shared my thoughts and ideas 260 separate times. Unlike my first blog, as I look through my page view counts, I've had one particular post that was viewed over 6,500 times. So I do feel that I have successfully shared my own educational experience and thinking with others. I have to come to see page visits as an indicator that people are at least visiting the content I write. Whether they stay long enough to engage in all of the content is another question entirely.
In addition, I also feel I've engaged others in educational topics of interest to me and them. While I have only had around 266 individual comments on my blog posts, I have also received countless emails from educators around the world, sharing their ideas and thoughts too. So, I've no doubt been able to successfully engage in a global conversation with others.

In addition to engaging others in educational topics of interest,  I have also successfully connected with others. Through my blog, I have connected with Technology Directors in New York state, Portland, Oregon, and even Sidney, Australia. I connected with authors of books I've read and blogged about. I connected with teachers and other administrators worldwide. Out of those connections have sprung relationships where freely sharing ideas and resources is the norm.

Finally, I have been able to satisfy my "inner writer" through blogging. The had been one big fundamental thing about writing that has been reinforced by my blogging, "There's nothing like having an audience who reacts to what you write." Having something to say and someone to say it to is fundamental to the writing process. My blogging has made that very clear to me.

The truth is, I believe blogging to be the perennial tool to engage students in authentic writing. It is also the tool to get educators, especially school leaders plugged in to the global education conversation. When I started teaching 22 years ago, trying to find authentic audiences for my students' writing was impossible. They wrote in "essayese," which is stilted and inauthentic in language and in style. Very rarely did I read student writing in which they were truly engaged. From my own blogging experience I have learned that writing in the 21st century is engaging a global audience. Educational leaders need to be engaging in the use of 21st century tools like blogging too.


Blogging is one of the tools by which school leaders can demonstrate what it’s like to be a 21st century communicator and technology leader.