The
use of web logs (“blogs”) has become a popular
addition to many college courses as faculty try to
find new ways to integrate this popular technology
into the classroom. (Beeson, 2005; Quible, 2005;
Ducate, 2005, Glogoff, 2005). By the end of 2004,
32 million Americans said they had read a blog,
eight million Americans had created blogs, and
almost half were created by people under age 30 (Reine,
2005). In fact, Huffaker (2005) cites several
studies that reveal that a significant number of
blog authors are younger than 20. Lenhart (2006)
notes that by 2006, these numbers had increased to
12 million American adults who keep a blog, and 57
million American adults who say they read them.
Thus, students come to the classroom with a facility
for maintaining and communicating through blogs.
Beeson (2005) argues that it is an approach that is
more in keeping with their way of thinking (29).
With the increased popularity of blogs, faculty
members have been integrating them into their
courses to enhance class discussion. Past research
has summarized findings from case studies involving
the use of blogs in a single course (Glogoff, 2003;
Quible, 2005; Ducate, 2005). The authors of this
study, conducted at a business university, assigned
a similar blogging exercise in three different
courses—expository writing, e-commerce, and
government--in order to introduce students to the
use of blogs in their respective disciplines and to
help students prepare for meaningful classroom
discussion. This study finds that by completing the
required readings and then posting discussion
questions and reflections on topics of interest to
which their classmates can respond--essentially
beginning the conversation prior to the class
session--students become more engaged in the course
material. This exercise requires students not only
to read the required course materials but to engage
with them critically in order to move beyond a
superficial understanding of the materials. By
using the same assignment and assessment tool, the
authors found that blogs can be effective in
enhancing class discussion in a range of disciplines
and in integrating liberal learning into
professional programs.
Blogging in the Classroom
JOLT - Journal of Online Learning and Teaching - 1 views
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Like online threaded discussion groups, blogs are an easy way to engage in dialogue on the web outside the classroom. The availability of several blog providers such as Google’s blogger.com, LiveJournal.com, and WordPress.com make it free and easy to set up, manage, and update blogs frequently and without additional support. By using blogs “students become familiar with blogging, a tool now used by an ever-increasing number of employers to support routine operating functions” (Quible, 2005, p. 76).
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Since blogs are a fairly recent pedagogical tool, new scholarship has emerged that points to its benefits in the classroom. The ability of students and faculty to easily update an online journal promotes blogging as a new form of communication to enhance class discussion and to create a community outside the classroom. Flatley (2005) argues that the technological medium provides a space where students can interact with one another, and it can open up the classroom space "where discussions are continued and where every student gets an equal voice" (p. 77). In addition, blogs can promote collaboration (Flatley, 2005; Williams & Jacobs, 2004; Oravec, 2002).
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Beyond Current Horizons : Reworking the web, reworking the world: how web 2.0 is changi... - 0 views
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Lowering communication costs doesn’t just lead to more communication, it leads to qualitatively different behavior by web users.
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Lowering the interaction costs of communication leads to perhaps the most important feature of Web 2.0: its inclusive, collaborative capacity. The new Read/Write web is allowing people to work together, share information, and reach new and potentially enormous audiences outside some of the traditional structures of power, authority, and communication in our society. The social developments that have resulted from the Web 2.0 phenomena are best understood through a lens of democratization, but we must keep in mind the caveat that democracy means many different things in many different places (Haste and Hogan, 2006).
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Web logs, or blogs
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