educational outcomes for using blogs
Baggetun and Wasson (2006), suggest individual ownership is one of the most important features of a blog. Their study on peer feedback on blogs, in an advanced German course, relies on the use of blogs to support usual teaching, providing a more efficient way of learning. The study focused on analysis of content rather than context of the blog, i.e. what was being blogged rather than the experience of the learner. Using a knowledge log either to review what has been read or learnt has potential to provide useful instructions to prepare learners for an exam or assessment. This kind of instructional blogging was seen to be useful (Brescia & Miller, 2006) and further supported by Chen and Bonk (2008), whose survey and case study of 51 postgraduates in China, used blogs to reflect on each other’s learning. The learners reported improved literacy skills (although attention to the emotional content of learning was not pursued to any great extent). The study revealed an important point about how deep learning can be obtained via externalizing views and obtaining peer feedback comments might potentially have been modified to suit tutor needs.
You’ve raised some really interesting topics here - and I wasn't quite sure where to put my comment as it refers to several different posts.
ReplyDeleteI think that identity is a key consideration for both ourselves and our learners if we’re adopting a socio-constructivist view of learning. As you/Seely Brown says the roles are becoming blurred through the use of web 2.0 technologies, and if we want our students to engage in authentic practice we want them to think beyond their just their learning and more about how they’re going to make use of their learning.
I wonder if one step is to help students think about the purpose and audience for their blog. Are they writing for themselves or for others? Why are they blogging? – sometimes this will be because they have to but what do they see as the potential benefits of blogging.
I also think you raise an interesting point about how we create these independent learners by not enforcing structure or rules. But how do we get uncertain learners started in these processes – do they need any scaffolding to make that first step?
Sorry Lin, that's me Emma. I couldn't get it to show my actual name.
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