A longitudinal analysis of the behavioral patterns in teachers using blogs for knowledge interactions

Abstract

Compared with traditional online forums, blogs have features such as knowledge-filtering, personal logs and digital notebooks (Blood, 2002). Many research projects explored the applications of blogs in education (eg, Churchill, 2009), and the feasibility of using blogs as a tool for professional development was discussed (eg, Hou, Chang & Sung, 2009). By analysing interactions recorded on teacher blogs, we may explore the behavioural patterns of teachers using blogs. However, long-term, large-scale empirical longitudinal research on teachers' interactions in blogs is still quite limited.

Using cluster analysis, we can place interaction behaviours into different clusters, and this allows us to explore different types of interactions as well as their proportions, characteristics and limitations. This study applied cluster analysis to explore the behavioural patterns among 11 724 teachers on the 107 teacher blogs for 46 months in Taiwan and discuss potential interaction-related limitations. We propose suggestions for teacher-trainers in their use of blogs for professional development.