AndrewMiddleton's blog

I came across a paper by Stuart Glogoff entitled 'Instructional blogging: promoting interactivity, student-centred learning, and peer input' in the current issue of Innovate. In it he provides an overview of his instructional use of blogging.
He describes how, 'Given that many online students miss the face-to-face contact realized in a traditional classroom, blogging offers particularly useful opportunities for learner-centered feedback and dialogue.' (2) He notes that students build upon their own research in a peer review process 'commenting on the value or relevance of blog entries to their own experiences, and suggesting additional resources.'
Glogoff describes how a colleague uses a class blog to summarise important classroom discussions, and clarifies and reinforces the key learning points from the week.
Glogoff uses the student's blogs to offer immediate, directive feedback, leading them towards new resources and new understandings. He notes that because of the public nature of blogs he uses e-mail and f2f exchanges for more critical discussion with individual students.
As with other online communication, he notes that there is still an element of the student group who are reluctant to participate in a public discussion online, even when they are required to do so. This is particularly the case in situations where there is no f2f.
Equally, where students do make contributions, it can be disheartening (de-motivating?) if nobody comments on posts. This is to do with expectation setting presumably. Also Glogoff refers to a case where the teacher had invited students to blog, yet there was no requirement, neither did he comment on posts. As might be expected the blogs were abandoned after the first week.
He describes how, in setting his assignments, he was explicit in what he expected his students to do. Upon evaluation, student engagement, satisfaction and learning were high.
In conclusion he finds that this technology works best when 'integrated into a coherent pedagogical approach.'

Reference

Glogoff, S. 2005. Instructional blogging: Promoting interactivity, student-centered learning, and peer input. Innovate 1 (5). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=126 (accessed August 2, 2005).

Catherine Howell's response to my question concerning the use of blogs as an e-Portfolio tool was fascinating and unexpected for me. Being fresh to the exploration of blogs to support learning, my focus had been on the formative opportunity that the technology appears to offer. The ease of use, the bite-sized reflection and the potential for peer support suggest a powerful tool for learning.
I had not yet considered the implications of capturing the immediacey of the reflective activity - how a process that primarily records the learning journey for the learner might be misconstrued by other travellers who come across evidence of that journey at a later date.
My original assumption was that the main opportunity for the learner was in the process of recording and receiving peer and tutor support. There is also value for the learner in reviewing their own progress over time.
I am not sure how important it is to consider blog entries as being representative of a person. When we read a blog don't we understand that the ideas are transient?

I attended the Educause Live! online session last week on The Current State of E-Portfolios in Higher Education. I've found these Live sessions very useful. e-Portfolios and PDP (Personal Development Planning) are not at the centre of my agenda, but my interest is growing with the idea that blogs, for some students, might be all the technology they need in terms of maintaining an effective learning portfolio.

I discussed the idea with some colleagues earlier this week. These were some of the points I presented:

"Blogs as a portfolio tool:

A time-based framework. A flexible container showing evidence of learning, especially reflection upon activities, with comments from peers and/or tutors. It works as an online diary and can be highly visual with a potential to use multimedia (audio blogs, video blogs) as well as simple text. Links can be made to other evidence and information. The construction of the blog is a highly reflective process.
           May require technical confidence; there may be accessibility considerations; need to decide about level of access to other people; shows weaknesses and misconceptions."

I'm now interested in finding out why people might think that blogs are not a good idea as an e-Portfolio tool. Any thoughts?

Why am I doing this?

• Because it was so easy to set up
• I am interested in how new technologies can be used to support learning
• I want to find out how community of like minded people might inter-connect through blogs

Concerns

• I might set this up and never come back
• I might feel isolated - as though I'm talking to myself

I have several ideas of how blogs might be useful to learners. My role at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK is to explore the potential of technologies to add to the learning experience. To this end my attitude is to keep pushing ideas out and testing them. This blog may provide me with another channel for testing my ideas. In particularly I expect the Educause community to be on a similiar wavelength to me most of the time. I am also intending to blog in the context of other educational communities.

I have other blogs that I use for other interests outside of my professional life - there is a tension on how compartmentalised areas of my life should/can be.

I see this process as a contemplation process that may be effected by the given context. That's one of the most intesting things for me to explore at the moment.