What Parents Think About My Class Blogging….
What: Survey results from Parents. Their response to our class blogging.
Why: I wanted to gather data to see the Parents perceptions of the class blog and how often they use it. I also wanted to perform a stage 2 survey to see if Parents have moved to purchasing broadband since the last survey in June 2007.
How: The survey was stuck into each student’s diary in November 2007 for their Parents. Parents had one week to complete the short survey.
Results:
18 of the 23 Parents completed the survey (78% participation).
1/ Q: “Do you have a working computer at home?”
A: 95% = Yes (95% said “yes” in June)
2/ Q: “Do you have broadband? (Fast Internet connection)”
A: 83% = Yes (55% said “yes” in June)
3/ Q: “On average how often do you as a Parent and your child interact with the class blog?”
A: 
4/ Q: “Do you believe that the class blog benefits your child’s education?”
A: 14/18 Parents (78%) = Yes (4 Parents (22%) failed to complete this question.)
Summary:
- Most Parents (95%) had a working computer at home.
- Children and Parents were far less likely to use the class blog if they didn’t have broadband.
- There has been a definite shift (55% - 83%) to purchasing broadband since June this year.
- 53% of students use the class blog at home on average more than twice a week.
- 78% of Parents interact with the class blog on average less than twice a week.
- ALL Parents who correctly completed the survey believe the class blog benefits their child’s education. One reason why four Parents may not have filled this part of the survey in could be because the question was hard to read and may have been missed accidentally.
on January 17th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Hello Jamin
Thank you for visiting me. So, I have come to check you out. What an interesting survey? How did you get the parents on board in the first place and how long have the students been blogging? What did you use for your survey? Was it online or a hard copy? Anyway I really look forward to working with you in the future. Keep up the great work.
on January 18th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Murcha - thanks for a leaving a comment :+) In response to your questions:
I just tried the idea of blogging out with my class (initially I didn’t have any faith in it but thought I better give it a try).
In my school we have student diaries. I would communicate with my parents using them and other paper notices.
The students started blogging in May 2007.
For the survey I used a hard copy because that was the best way to communicate with them at the time and it was also the easiest to manage.
:+D
on January 27th, 2008 at 2:33 am
I’ve just found your blog.
This is a very helpful post. Thanks for taking the trouble.
I haven’t done a formal survey of my parents (I teach Yr 7/8) but I am sure that the results would be similar. I got very good feedback last year.
Perhaps I could do a survey this year.
I do want to be more consistent this year. My blogging for parents fell away in Term 3. I am sure that discouraged some parents.
Anyway, Thanks.
Russel Montgomery
on March 13th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Thanks for the survey. It’s good to have some data to back up the good work you are doing and even in Tauranga.