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Blogs in Higher Ed: Personal Voice as Part of Learning
1/11/2005
Instructor's comments- It would be better to establish individual blogs as the only way to journal in order to actually evaluate the effectiveness. Blogrings (Blogrings here refer to students within a class sharing their blog with specific individuals to prompt response.) could be encouraged to support small group connection and student-to-student support. This could probably provide more learning support than discussion boards and/or chat.
STUDY 3
In this group there were 27 who blogged. These students were in a first-year
creative writing class and were expected to blog twice a week on any topic that
interested them; a few times the instructor gave them a topic. The instructor
checked on them periodically, but did not check their grammar, mechanics, or
spelling. It was more of a self-reflection exercise, so there was no grade assigned.
Students - Most of the students enjoyed it at first; a few did not like
it, but at least five were very excited about blogging and thought it should
remain in the syllabus for next semester's students. One student said she hated
the idea of blogging at first, but now she is hooked on it. This student continued
blogging even after the end of the semester.
Instructor's comments - Enjoyed blogging and checking students' blogs, although found it difficult to remember that blogging was taking place regularly. The class formed blogrings at the suggestion of one of the students - there were three blogrings altogether. The plan is to keep blogging as part of the syllabus for next semester, and to check on each student's blog much more regularly.
STUDY 4
Only six students participated in a language support group although a blogring was started. This project will continue next semester during which time the use of the blog for these students will be assessed more carefully. So far, the students have found the blogring helpful in staying connected.
Summary and Recommendations
Although each of these small pilot studies has given some indication of initial
responses from instructors and students, there is potential to attempt more.
What has become clear so far can be summarized as follows:
- Blogging must be integrated early in the course design and must be clearly connected to the course outcomes before it can become anything more than just an extra task for the students.
- Grading d'es seem to motivate the students, but it seems to be more effective to grade according to effort in relevancy to course content and outcomes than simply on numbers of submissions.
- There is an issue with privacy, particularly with older students. This should be addressed by emphasizing how to secure and share entries.
- Instructors need time to evaluate the importance of self-reflection as a methodological approach in learning as well as the value of integrating personal voice in the learning context. Otherwise the exercise will be perceived as futile to the students.
As we progress to our next phase of study, we will attempt to better prepare each instructor by discussing how blogging relates to course outcomes. As with all new instructional technology, understanding of the benefits to the teaching and learning experience should be fully grasped by the instructor and shared with the students before integrated into the course.
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