Social Networking Project

My project involves evaluating a blog my husband used this year to communicate with the parents of boarding school students. He is responsible for the care of around 50 Year 9 boys in an independent Catholic school in Sydney.

This year to increase communication between himself and the parents he set up a wordpress blog. His experience with wordpress stemmed from the utilisation of a blog for senior students in his curriculum area.

For the boarding parents he intended them to check in with his blog weekly. He posted a weekly newsletter to the blog, but also emailed the same newsletter. This had me thinking, how many parents are using the blog and how many just open their email. Other information on the blog were photos he had taken of the boys at school, leave forms (which are on the school website) and a map of their hometowns with a photo of each student taken at their home.

I felt he was not taking complete advantage of the blog for communication purposes. I believe he should not have emailed the weekly newsletter, but emailed occasionally to remind parents to be checking in with the blog weekly.

I also felt more information should be included in the blog such as:

• leave information, 
• details for weekend sport, 
• practical information for rural families visiting boys, such as what's on in Sydney and tourist attractions.

Preliminary reading of the survey I conducted of this year's parents and their use of the blog also revealed one respondent suggesting the need for information about visiting other schools for sport, such as venue details and where to park.

I am excited about revamping his blog and presenting it to him.