From Newbie to Insider: Enculturation of New Members Into an Online Community of Blogging Teachers

• In Event: Innovative Mentoring Strategies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how a grassroots community of teacher bloggers inducted new bloggers into the community. The study analyzed behaviors of established bloggers in the community (e.g. commenting on new blogs) that helped to welcome new teacher bloggers. The study used methods from the field of social network analysis to analyze the structure of new blogger networks. A follow up was conducted two years after the original data collection to see if the structure of networks was related to persistence in blogging. The results demonstrated that bloggers still blogging two years later generally had larger networks and stronger ties to the community than those that quit blogging. Implications for structured community design are discussed.

Authors

• Hilary Smith Risser, Montana Tech

• SueAnn I. Bottoms, Oregon State University