Blogs in Education
I’m extremely interested in the idea of using blogs in higher education and believe the opportunity to create, organise and maintain their own blogs could provide students with a tremendous opportunity for deeper exploration in subjects of interest. My theory is that the creation of their own unique virtual space would inspire a greater sense of ownership in not just the course, but the subject matter as well; and this could in turn lead to a greater synthesis, appreciation, and retention of information.
In reality however I am currently unfamiliar with any examples in which blogs have been used in this manner. A proper research mind dictates objectivity, therefore one of the many investigative tasks I’ve set for myself is to locate real world examples in which blogs are being used to support learning and teaching, either as a tool for documenting student progress, a research journal, presentation page, collaborative portal, or other activity.
I will post synopses of anything I find here.
One such course, ENGL 112, run by Elizabeth Clark, is scheduled to commence this semester at Mesa State College in Colorado. Elizabeth described the first assignment in her blog, 4RxT (”Using Blogs As Research Journals“).
Students will be asked to review a series of websites and video clips covering blog use, history and basics, and then complete a series of activities - not unlike those you’d find in offline assignments.
- “Brainstorm a list of topics you’re interested in using for your research project this semester….
- Write three paragraphs about the topic you’ve selected: (1) identify your topic and explain why you chose it, (2) discuss what you already know about your topic, and (3) discuss what you don’t know and want to learn about the topic….
I would be very interested to see what emerges from this experience and have submitted a comment on her blog requesting/encouraging her to post a summary when the semester is complete - or better yet, an ongoing account of the discoveries and hurdles that arise.
The prospect of a public discussion on classroom experiences may be a bit too much to ask however, so it remains to be seen whether we’ll hear anything further from this.
Update: Just to clarify, because I didn’t write this post nearly as well as I had in my head - it is the integration of blogs into coursework and/or research activities that I’d really like to delve into.
This is the most significant aspect of an integration, because in order to be truly effective from an educational standpoint, use of blogs can’t just be thrown into the mix on a superficial level. Careful consideration and planning must be given to educational aims and outcomes, ways of measuring and/or assessing these outcomes, methods of tying the online aspects back into traditional face-to-face settings, and the more esoteric vagueries of how to inspire the growth of an online community that focuses on (or includes) a dozen or more student blogs.
The theory of blogs in education is an inspiring thought; the reality is undoubtedly much more complicated.
Monday, January 28th, 2008