Classroom Blogging

Ellison, N., & Yuehua, W. (2008). Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration

 of Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehension. Journal of Educational

Multimedia & Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122. Retrieved from Education Research

Complete database.

            The use of Blogs is more recently making its way into the learning environment.  They appeal to students because of the social and technological aspects and they allow for learning to be done beyond the confines of the classroom walls.  A Blog is essentially an interactive discussion.  It has been found that students are more likely to take their time and post thoughtful pieces of writing on a Blog because others will be reading and commenting on it.  Communicating with others allows for more learning to be done because classmates can clarify or build upon concepts that are being discussed.  In a sense, students are working collaboratively to learn and discuss a topic.

            In the study referenced above, researchers surveyed college students about their feelings using blogs in their class throughout the course of the semester.  It was found that the students liked the less formal writing format and the ability to interact with classmates from any location.  The students found the most benefit from reading others blog postings rather than writing their own entry or reading comments from classmates.  The researchers were somewhat surprised by these findings.  They would have expected the reflective nature of the students own entries would have been imperative to their learning.  Also, it was surprising that student’s comments were not helpful leading them to wonder or assume that students were too critical on themselves or that the comments were not constructive.  The researchers plan to further study the impact of peer to peer learning.

            As I was reading this study I was thinking of ideas of how I could incorporate a Blog into my classroom.  One idea that struck me was to introduce new classroom topics on a Blog to have students discuss their prior knowledge.  That would give students who had no prior knowledge of the specific topic to learn from their peers and come to class with more direction.  I think one of the most beneficial aspects of using a Blog in ones classroom is the collaboration component which also fits nicely into the constructivist theory.