Thursday, January 13, 2011
Determining whether to use blogs in an online course
As with any other tool, the decision about whether or not to use a blog in a course is influenced by a combination of your learning outcomes, your students and their abilities and learning styles and your own skill in using a blog. I took a long time deciding whether or not to create a blog for the courses I am teaching but decided that there would be more advantages than disadvantages. I would like to get some thoughts on how students feel about using blogs though. To add your comments click on the date and a box will open that allows you to post your comments.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Just some thoughts:
ReplyDeleteAs a student, I see a lot of advantages to using a blog, as opposed to a journal, for instance.
Journals are, in my view, simply reflections (generally forced and sometimes meaningless) in the form of a monologue which is later commented by the lecturer. There is no real chance to reply to the lecturer on her comments, communication stops.
With blogs, on the other hand, communication can continue, and even can become a group discussion. We can learn a lot from other people's experiences. Of course, there is the issue of confidentiality. But, being honest, I wouldn't write (in a blog or a journal to be submitted) anything that is highly confidential.
As a lecturer, I think it is quite demanding to use blogs. You need to propose interesting topics for discussion, be constantly checking what your students say (although the idea is also that they gain independence), and motivating them to participate.
Jairo
That's food for thought Jairo, don't you think the journal also has its place? It sounds like you are really not a fan of the journal. You are correct about the blog being demanding but at the same time it can be quite rewarding. Just imagine I did not know your views about the journal until today. I can see a blog being really useful in a course that looks at cultural differences for example and individuals are posting different experiences and photos.
ReplyDeleteJust a quick question .. I have not used blogging in my classes yet.. but does the size of the class count? I am worried that if I start a blogg with my class of 300, I may not cope with the students entries... or am I just being "lazy" for lack of a better word...
ReplyDeleteI think if you are planning to post in response to each comment then the size of the class will count. You can make general comments after a period of time and have a set time to put postings. The size of the class will not matter in this case.
ReplyDeleteJairo, I think journalling is a very useful exercise because of its contemplative, reflective element. Some students would prefer to journal than to blog certain ideas that they want to share with their lecturer alone on myeLearning for example. Journals are therapeutic in addition to helping with articulating one's thoughts in written form. I find journals are highly useful for a Literature class. Literary journals can be fun while improving one's expression and thinking skills. I've never thought of using blogs for my Literature classes (because as I've already said I don't particularly like blogs [hating on others; anonymity; etc, that I see very prevalent in this medium, academic or otherwise]), but I am open to how it can be advantageous and may well try it for one of my Literature courses in the future.
ReplyDelete