Reflecting on.......... Blogs

This reflection is on Creating a Blog  

(Image from scdene-blog.com)

I have used the PMI (Plus Minus Intersting) thinking process to examine the potential of blogs for teaching

Pluses 

Blogs......

• provide opportunities for independant and collaborative learning
• develop self expression encourage research and literacy development
• motivate learning - are fun and creative to use
• create unlimited networking possibilities - cross demographic/culture/geographics
• allow for teacher and student monitoring of the learning journey
• are easy to access, utilise and publish
• are a storage place of ideas

Minuses

Blogs....

• are dependent on internet access and working technology
• can be difficult to monitor  - response/comment - what is written
• are easy to stray off topic when writing

Interesting 

Blogs...

• Involve the unknown -e.g. where does the information go? Is it permanent?
• are in the public domain - everyone can see it and comment your view and ideas 
• are most effective when followed and commented on by others?
• require a marketing plan to encourage readers and followers

...... Refections

Blogs are an effective way for students to develop self expression and also develop their meta-learning (metacognition).  Students can put their personal touch on their posts and develop their own ideas on topics.  They can then reflect on their journey and look at 'where they were' versus 'where they are now'

A student blog also offers a window for teachers to monitor a student's educational progress and an insight into their learning style and thought process. Teachers can monitor a student's development and nurture their journey via comment on the blog or additional scaffolding.

In the same way fellow students, family, friends and the broader community can follow a student's learning journey and assist in the process via comment and discussion on their blog posts.  A blog’s user interface can be used to monitor, compare, analyse and evaluate the views and usage of a blog including what search engines were used and the countries viewers hail from.   This encourages both real-life application and problem solving as prescribed by Education Queensland's Productive Pedagogies.  It further encourages higher order thinking.  Students can compare their blogs to others and devise techniques to increase connectivity via links and engagement in others' blogs incorporating Bloom's Taxonomy application and synthesis.

Blogs provide a forum that can be managed and monitored by the student or a group of students in the case of a collaborative blog. As with the phones in class wiki, effective scaffolding guided by analysis tools such as De Bono’s hats, PMI and SWOT and coupled with engaging relevant content can help student’s stay on- task and engage in high-order thinking. 

It is important that in setting up scaffolding teachers address the potential for mis-use inherant in blogging.  Clear rules and boundaries can be put in place to ensure online safety and security of all students and others that may be effected by inappropriate blogging.  An example of this would be to develop with students a class blog user guide.

The issue of 'where the information goes' is an interesting one.  It is important for students to be aware that their blog is in the public domain and therefore has unlimited accessibility.  Words written now could still be floating in cyberspace in 100 years time.  Students should also be made aware of copyright and intellectual property rights and how they relate to their posting and commenting.

In my experience I found it difficult at first to express my throughts and views in public ie. I had a fear of 'public speaking' via my blog.  When blogging students could be made aware that they are opening their views up to all for anaysis, evaluation and discussion.  It would follow that a good understanding of the internet and information highway is important.  Perhaps learning on these topics could be done in a scaffolded wiki about these issues - or via posting about each issue on their blog.

What is the internet:

The internet revolution 1993:

Finally I have been thinking about the effectiveness of blogs with and without collaborators.  I have found personally that it is a more interesting, engaging and productive forum when others join in - or at least when you know your family is dropping by to take a look :-)  This then leads me to question whether the most effective blogs for students also require a marketing plan.  

(Image from www.capitalnetworkmagazine.com)

Our lecturer has encouraged us as students to engage in networking and to promote our blog.  I have found this to be be quite challenging.  A study on student wiki use reported in Wheeler, Yeomans and Wheeler 2008 article "The good the bad and the wiki" showed that students tend to predominantly visit and engage in pages that they have contributed to.  It would seem from a teaching point of view a blog that operates completely independently ie. without engagement from others would lose a lot of potential outcomes eg. higher learning through collaborative analysis.  Therefore do we also need to include a marketing element on our pedagogy?  Once again this could be an ideas topic for a wiki or blog posting.

References:

Wheeler, P; Yeomans, P; Wheeler, D (2008). The good, the bad and the wiki: evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning.  Brithish Journal of Education Technology.  Vol 39, No 6, 987-995.