I’ve been pleased with the coverage this blog has been getting in its first week and a half since I started advertising it on twitter to generate coverage (before that It had been dormant for about 6 months, after initial registration, while I procrastinated about starting it or not).
So far it’s generated over 650 hits, and is presently averaging 60-70 page views a day - I’ve also had a number of re-tweets by credible national organisations such as National Educational Trust, and the SSAT to name just a few, and have received positive messages from a number of people in the education community.
The only slight disappointment to date has been the lack of comments on most of the blog posts and it’s made me question how ,as the site develops in the future, I can ensure it becomes a platform to not only flag up topical developments, but a medium for interactive debate about policy and frontline practice at a time of significant reform to the UK public sector.
I have a passion for new developments in the education and skills sectors and the national policy and delivery systems that underpin them, but often felt frustrated that, unlike the US which is blessed with a variety of excellence education and training policy blogs, in the UK there aren’t that many places to turn to.
Don’t get me wrong there are a great number of excellent online resources and news sites for education and training policy, such as Guardian Education, LSIS policy updates, the National College’s Leadership Library and the Innovation Unit to name just a few.
But for a policy enthusiast and arm-chair educationist such as myself there isn’t really a dedicated cross-phase hub for showcasing and reviewing interesting policy reports and White Papers, sector best practice publications, and thought leadership events.
So my mission statement in setting the blog up was simple - create a site that tracks and provides (hopefully) intelligent analysis and comment on national policy developments and emerging and existing best practice across the field of schools, further education, training and higher education and to a lesser extent early years provision and the wider children’s services and wellbeing agenda.
I would welcome feedback and new ideas – through both the comments section but also directly via email on ukeduscape AT gmail.com on how I can improve the blog further in terms of the quality of content featured and its inclusiveness to the user community.
To kick things off, I’ve listed in the bullet points below a few ideas, as well as some questions, which I’d welcome your thoughts on. Please feel free to provide other thoughts and ideas beyond the scope of this quick ‘consultation’.
- As the blog develops in the next few weeks and months I’m hoping to provide some original investigative feature pieces/ articles as well a series of profile and policy-focused interviews with influential and inspirational politicians and practitioners in the education and skills community in various roles and organisations that have interesting stories or perspectives to share. Would people be more willing to leave comments if this is the case? And should I be looking to interview politicians or leading professionals in the sector first and foremost, or a balanced mix of both?
- Would people object to non-Education stories appearing from time to time – as in for example reviews of books or pamphlets relating to wider public service reform and political developments that may in time affect the sector, or should this be tackled on a separate blog?
- I’m a big reader of policy think-pieces/ pamphlets/ books relating to national reform and sector-led improvement strategies within schools and further education in particular and am planning to do more reviews over time – would people be interested in submitting their own reviews for me to host or link to?
- In time, if the site continues to grow its user base and exposure, I’d like to offer people opportunities to guest blog on UK Eduscape on issues of importance to them – do people think this is a good direction to take things in?
I look forward to hearing from you and thanks for reading this site.
Daniel
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