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Opinion
Instructional Strategies for Blogging
Statement categories and the development of the individual learning voice
5/9/2007
Summary
Blogs can be used effectively to develop individual learning voice for students, but, as an instructional tool, they must be intentionally designed into the course and clearly valued throughout the course to ensure student motivation and participation.
Ongoing challenges:
- Problems with technology can develop if sufficient time is not given (preferably during the first class meeting) or through adequate online tutorial regarding the set-up steps and publishing functions of a blog site. If students feel confused or ill-prepared for the task, this will seriously diminish their productivity through blogging during the course.
- Students can get stuck on "I am not a journaler" mentality so that the instructor must work hard to define blogging for the course and dialog with students as to its usefulness in their learning process.
- Participation may be sporadic rather than continuous throughout the course. Therefore, instructors are challenged throughout a course to stimulate students towards their blogs and to comment back to students' posts in their blogs. If the instructor remains current and consistent, it is more likely that students will be too.
References
Ruth Reynard, "Blogs in Higher Education: Personal Voice as Part of Learning." Campus Technology, 2005.
Ruth Reynard is the director of faculty for Career Education Corp. She can be reached at rreynard@careered.com.
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