I don’t think future employers are contacting people in the Sciences, or at least not in Ecology, specifically based on blogs. This seems like something that would happen more in Engineering or a Science that Industry recruits from. The Dynamic Ecology post is geared towards people in the Sciences and in academia, but perhaps it applies more specifically to Ecology. I use ResearchGate and that is where people in my niche field in Ecology and Statistics keep up with what everyone is doing and it is a place where you can download everyone’s papers without a paywall. A blog could describe what I’m working on in more detail, but I’m not sure it is the best use of my time. I’m glad it has worked for you, though.

Anne’s desk is about 10 feet from mine! I tried out twitter, but I’m an Ecological Statistician and people really aren’t very interested in statistical models (except for the small community working on similar models, but they don’t really use Twitter). The main value I see in Twitter is forming an online community in your field and keeping up with what everyone is doing. There is some science communication involved, but if you do get media attention, it’s usually not of the sort that benefits you (e.g. getting on TV to answer which animal do you think it the cutest?).

I agree with your assessment that the attitudes of the students are critical to new pedagogy methods being successful, and in many situations, current attitudes are not conducive to the new methods. If we really are undergoing a shift in how we teach, then we are probably in a transition period where the students are used to learning one way and are not yet comfortable with the new techniques. Perhaps this is solved by implementing them in K-12 so they are used to them when they get to college. I have no idea to what extent this is happening, but I suspect it’s not widespread.