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Three days ago I offered '7 reasons why youth workers should be blogging'.
In the discussions that have followed, mostly over here on my main blog, we've explored a number of reasons youth workers may not be active bloggers.
Andew K Brown highlighted that the way most statutory sector youth workers are employed may means they're reluctant to blog for fear of 'rocking the boat'. Tony Taylor reflects on the way in which "in the hurly-burly of practice folk are run off their feet [and] knackered" suggesting that finding the time to blog could be a challenge. DK and Mas both suggest a skill shortage - youth workers are not sure how to blog - and more senior management isn't supportive of blogging as a mechanism of communication and reflective learning. Tony goes on to suggest "the prospect of an upsurge in blogging will be related intimately to a
resurgence of collective struggle around the meaning and purpose of
youth work."
But blogging is not just about identifying the barriers - it can provide a platform for collaboration aimed at overcoming them - and that's just what has happened in this case.
As a start on addressing the skills gap, Mas has put together a draft guide on blogging for youth workers - you can find it attached to this post.
If you think you might like to start blogging - head on over and take a look at the guide. Does it help you? What more does it need to say? What should the next draft include? You can share your thoughts in the comments on Mas' blog post.
As for the comments below (you may need to sign-up and log-in to be able to comment on the C&YPN blogs) - if you're a youth worker it would be really interesting to hear if the barriers about are those that are stopping you from starting to blog? Or are there other reasons we need a collaborative campaign to overcome?
What are the barriers to blogging for you?