Last spring I blogged about a research project that Etty Rosen, a researcher from Israel, was doing about my classroom blog. She sent questionnaires to each of the parents in my class, asking them to rate a wide range of items including Internet access, visits to our blog and involvement with their child. She recently finished compiling the data, and was kind enough to send me a copy of her spreadsheet. Some of the results are below. It is interesting to note that three years ago, less than one third of the children in my classroom had Internet access at home. That has changed dramatically.
The results are overall very positive. Obviously, I wouldn’t keep blogging with my students unless I felt it was valuable, but it is nice to have some research to back up what I think is happening.
Primary Preoccupation 
This is beautiful! It is great to see the things we’ve been taking about for the last several years begin to show up in numbers and research and not just in our “gut feelings” and anecdotal evidence. Thanks so much for sharing this!
By: Clarence Fisher on October 2, 2008
at 3:16 pm
Great that you’ve had some research done. It’s obviously nice to have numbers to back up what you know and feel is/has happened. I particularly liked the last graph, sometimes teaching can be very thankless and it is nice to see the number high for appreciating what the teacher does in the classroom! The classroom blog is certainly a great way of sharing not only the great learning, but the great teaching too 🙂
Thanks for sharing,
Rachel, NZ
By: Rachel Boyd on October 2, 2008
at 5:54 pm
Thanks so much for sharing all this info. Is it possible to get a copy of the original questions that were sent to parents?
In doing my own research on classroom blogging practices, I came across your site and conference presentation with Prof, Lewis. Your collaboration with Prof. Lewis to provide mentoring for the students with blogging buddies is really exciting and a great example.
Maybe it will be possible for your students to use text-to-speech software to save you the time of reading back comments to them.
By: Lynne M Bailey on March 17, 2009
at 5:25 pm
[…] research study centered around this blog and how parents viewed it. You can read about it here: https://primarypreoccupation.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/proving-it/ Tags: blogging, blogging buddies, first […]
By: First Graders Have Blogging Buddies | Academic Musings & Tech for Learning on March 17, 2009
at 8:22 pm
Hi Kathy,
I’m putting together a presentation on blogging for teachers in my district for August. I would love to use this post as a way to show what happens when you blog with your students. Would it be okay to include some of the graphs in my presentation (with proper citing)?
I have included your classroom blog in my list of exemplary class blogs. Your students are so lucky to have you as their teacher. I just hope as they continue on their educational journey that their other teachers are as innovative.
By: Paula Naugle on May 23, 2009
at 11:53 pm
I’d be happy for you to use some of the graphs. They are really Etty’s graphs, but she has always freely shared her results.
Good luck with your presentation.
By: kathycassidy on May 24, 2009
at 1:06 pm
i like your blogstyle, Im subscribing to your blog.
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By: Masucci on January 27, 2010
at 6:56 am
Thanks so much for posting this. I have been seriously considering doing a classroom blog this year after seeing a colleague try it with her class last year. This is the straw that broke the camel’s back. I need to bookmark this to show anyone with questions!
By: David Fleming on July 12, 2010
at 6:03 pm
I’m glad it’s useful to you, David. I think you’ll love blogging and will never want to teach without it again.
By: kathycassidy on July 12, 2010
at 7:01 pm