Hi Everyone,

This is a summary of an article entitled  Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration of Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehension. It is from the Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia.

This study explores student perceptions of blogging in the classroom regarding (a) which specific characteristics of educational blogging (writing an entry, reading other students' blogs, or reading other students' comments on one's blog) are most helpful for understanding course content and (b) other aspects of the instructional blogging experience, such as the process of providing and receiving peer feedback.

Quantitative data analysis revealed that reading other students' blogs was believed to be most helpful for understanding course concepts. Analysis of the open-ended responses revealed a need for more guidance regarding the process of reviewing and critiquing the work of peers and appreciation for the way in which blogging exposed students to more diverse viewpoints from their peers.

The study also pointed out that recent work in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL) field supports the view that active learning experiences are superior to passive models of instruction. For instance, the research concluded that learning is best facilitated in contexts that include hands-on, experiential opportunities and high levels of student participation, interaction with peers, and student-teacher communication.

In addition, Internet-based communication technologies allow students to create and share their writing, as opposed to merely consuming texts selected by the instructor, these tools are inherently well-suited to support these kinds of constructivist, peer-focused experiences.

The research indicates that in thinking about the role of interactivity in web-based learning, there are several potential benefits of online group communication and typically group communication provided collaborative learning. When learners interact with their peers or instructors, they are able to build their own knowledge and to share their knowledge with other;-both important aspects of peer-to-peer learning. Similarly, interaction allows students to create

knowledge and negotiate meaning, thus making the interaction both more engaging and more rewarding.

The paper also showed that other research suggests that integration of technology has

the potential to increase student learning, although these claims must be considered in the

context of the difficulties associated with this kind of research. For instance, the study empirically examined whether technology enhanced actual student learning. In their study, they defined use of technology as students' participation in class discussions on an online threaded discussion board; student learning as the students' overall performance in the course represented by exam and project grades; and technology use as percentage of participation in online threaded discussion. They found that students' use of technology had a significant main effect on students' learning in that the more students participated in the discussion board, the higher their grades.

Because the blogging format encourages students to engage with positions divergent from their own, blogging can potentially enhance analytic and critical thinking skills. Students may be more invested in their writing if they know they are writing for an Internet audience and their peers, as opposed to only an instructor. The "read/write" functionality of blogging, wherein readers are encouraged to comment on blog posts and thus become part of an evolving, public discussion, is a primary reason behind blogging’s popularity and is what differentiates it from other earlier forms of online interaction tools used by instructors, such as closed, threaded discussion forums. Additionally, the ability to express oneself in a digital environment, or "digital literacy," is considered by some to be just as important, as evidenced by recent attention from industry and policymakers. Finally, blogging and other technologies may disrupt traditional communication and learning patterns in the classroom. For instance, the participatory and decentralized structure of blogging may discourage the "sage on the stage" approach to teaching and instead recalibrate communication patterns so that knowledge sharing is increasingly student-to-student and student-to-instructor. Finally, incorporating online tools into curricula has the potential to shift learning from a time- and space-bound activity that occurs only in the classroom within a specified period of time to an activity that is diffuse, ubiquitous, and concretely embedded in real world issues and events.

Ellison, N. B., & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205847595?accountid=40795