“The integration of blogging and social networking is evident in sites such as Ning and Elgg. This kind of integration, alongside with the emergence of microblogging, has shifted the role of blogs from self-publishing and representation towards sharing, peer reviewing and collaborating.”⁴

Learning Intention

Using blogs gives students a way to review classmates’ work and receive feedback and interact with an audience outside of their classroom. “Blogging can provide students with the opportunity to interact with each other, with the teacher, and with other people around the world...These learning communities will motivate the learners by enabling them to take control over their own learning and allowing them to communicate with a real audience.”¹

Overview

“Blogs have been used for a variety of educational purposes, for example, as platforms for course announcements, as mechanisms to gather or generate feedback and as a collective peer support vehicle among different groups (of teachers, researchers and/or students). They can be used as a mechanism for aggregating resources, i.e. as a form of e-portfolio for use either within a formal course or as part of professional development.”⁴

Benefits²

• Equalizing the sharing space. Instructors can require students to share and comment on each other’s posts, thereby getting students who do not speak as much in class to speak up and getting over-sharers to be put on an equal playing field.

• Reciprocity among students^{2, 4}. “Student bloggers develop, post-by-post, comment-by-comment, a stronger sense of cooperation within their particular learning community.”²

• Learner teacher relationship. “Each student in a class of bloggers can become more closely linked with the instructor.”²

• Active learning environment. Students actively engage in course content and can make connections between course content and their own lives or lives of their peers.

• Feedback ^2,4. Students can receive feedback on writing and ideas from the instructor, their peers, and potentially people outside their classroom community if the blog is public.

• Authentic Learning Activity: When blog is public, it creates a more authentic learning activity that students can use as a professional piece of their writing portfolio.

• High Expectations. Blogging allows instructors to communicate high expectations to students. Students are more motivated to write quality pieces because they will be reviewed by peers and instructors and possibly the general public. Also, this creates a peer review system within the class.

Examples

• Blogging: Mark Staton has students blog on LinkedIn profiles helping create a digital portfolio of their writing in a professional setting through a renewable assignment perspective.⁸

• Video Blogging: Kamarie Chapman has students create their own film review vlog as a final for her class. Using vlogs, “the quality of these productions has gone up immensely. The students feel empowered by understanding the devices they have created the film from, and learn about sourcing and research through the examples I give them as a class, but also through the required sourcing of their references with the final product.”³

• Audio Blogging: David Miller started using podcasts in 2004, when podcasting first emerged in his class, Animal Behavior. He found that he not only engaged his students in this supplementary content but also engaged the public outside of his classroom bringing new voices and ideas into his classroom.⁶

• Micro Blogging: Twitter is one form of social media commonly used for micro-blogging; Dr. Monica Ranking uses Twitter as a medium for conversation in her history classes.⁷

References

1. Asoodar, M., Atai, M. R., & Vaezi, S. (2015). Blog-Integrated Writing with Blog-Buddies: EAP Learners’ Writing Performance. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 54(2), 225-252. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0735633115615588

2. Blackstone, B. F. (2011). Blogging for Pedagogical Purposes: A Transformational Methodology for Post-secondary Education. New Medias, New Literacies: Innovative Technologies, Integrated Experiences. C. Ho & A. Leong (Eds.). Available at: https://www.academia.edu/505894/Blogging_for_Pedagogical_Purposes_A_Transformational_Methodology_for_Post-secondary_Education

3. Chapman, K. (2019). Reel to Reality: Opening the Curriculum to Teach Beyond Technique in a Modern GUR Class. Innovative Teaching Showcase. Published online by the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment, Western Washington University.

4. Conole, G., & Alevizou, P. (2010). A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. The Open University. Available at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/conole_alevizou_2010.pdf

5. Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. Educase Review. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/articles/2004/1/educational-blogging

6. Miller, D. B,. & Zhao, A. (2017). Opening Up Higher Education with Screencasts. In: Jhangiana, R.S. & Biswas-Diener, R. (eds). Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science. Pp. 125-138. London: Ubiquity Press. Doi:https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.j License: CC-BY 4.0

7. Rankin, M. Some general comments on the “Twitter Experiment.” Available at: http://www.utdallas.edu/~mar046000/usweb/twitterconclusions.htm

8. Staton, M. (2019). Creating Lifelong Learners through Open Educational Practices. Innovative Teaching Showcase. Published online by the Center for Instructional Innovation and Assessment, Western Washington University.