Relationships are the oil that makes the machinery of schools run smoothly.

I couldn’t agree with you more, but I am starting to realize that like any institution that deals with large groups of people with varying ideas, opinions, and styles of communication, a school can quickly become political machine, and building and marinating relationships can become complicated.

You also said,

Face-to-face communication on the other hand is often the best way I know of to improve relationships. And if the improvement of relationships is a goal unto itself, then we should be always looking for ways to improve relationships and getting away from our computer screens more often may be a partial answer.

While this may be true to an extent, I am realizing that I often have deeper more meaningful exchanges with people I communicate with online in blog comment boxes than during face-to-face talks. Realistically how many reflective conversations do we have with our peers on a daily basis, especially in the midst of the storm that any school year could become? Admin and teachers alike often become bogged down in keeping up with curriculum to the point where we don’t have the type of face-to-face conversations I think to which you are referring.

I like to think that open honest communication in the form of blogging is a great way for people within an institution to get to know their peers on a deeper more substantial level. It is one thing to talk about superficial matters at the lunch table, or more meaningful pedagogy in meetings, but nothing like a deeply reflective post could give people insight into the intricacies that make education such a fulfilling career.

Don’t get me wrong; I agree that face-to-face talks are a crucial part of maintaining a healthy well “oiled” machine, but I think they often revert to small talk and chatter, which is a necessary component of relationships. But if a school wants to truly understand how everyone thinks, why not use the very tools we are teaching the students to use. Imagine a school where teachers reflect and share their ideas, their successes and failures in a dynamic multi-media, text rich environment, for all to see, read, and comment on.

Ultimately, I think we teach students to write for these very reasons- the ability to write honestly, openly, and communicatively is the purpose of writing.

I also agree with you when you say,

our schools should do everything possible to support the development of high quality professional relationships.

I think you are realizing that the Web 2.0 is a great tool for

connecting with other interested professionals around the world and develop a relationship of sorts.

I hope you can see that it can be that same tool within a school community. Sorry I got a bit carried away.