Source: (Kurtzman, 2016) Source: (Morris, 2013) Brigitte's post, as always, raised some thought-provoking and slightly uncomfortable points about our collective experience with the NGL course blog. It was a timely read, as the lack of course participation and interaction had taken its toll on me, and my interest levels in the course had waned considerably. My motivation had become one of resignation that I would just get through the course as best I could, and move on. However, I felt buoyed by the increased activity of course participants. Perhaps it was prompted by the activity report - who knows? But what I did discover, was that other participants (Adam, Miranda, Angela) had experienced similar feelings about the lack of connectedness and interaction in this course. Brigitte also pointed out that some participants may have had limited experience using blogs; this may have affected their confidence about getting involved early. These developments got me thinking about the blog as a teaching tool, and motivated me to "seek" out more information about the psychology around blogs; what motivates people to create them; who uses them and for what purpose? These questions are important as blogs have become a popular tool of choice in education design. Why use blogs? According to Statista (2014, as cited in Duarte, 2015), there were approximately 173 million blogs on the world wide web. I suspect that number has doubled since those statistics were produced. Why are they so successful? The success of blogs is partly due to their ease of use and the interactivity element. The other element of their success - or failure - is influenced by whether they fulfill their purpose in reaching their audience. Blogs can be classified into different categories and groupings. Williams and Jacobs (2004, as cited in Duarte, 2015) identify five different types of blogs: group blogs, family blogs, corporate blogs, community blogs and blogs defined by their content. Edu blogs can include: school blogs, degree blogs, teacher blogs, course blogs, alumni blogs and student blogs (Sim & Hew, 2010, as cited in Duarte, 2015) Are they useful in the education setting? Blogs satisfy three elements that motivate people; expressing personal identity, creating community, and consciously structuring experiences. In the education setting, they can extend participation outside classroom time and space, as well as, facilitate reflective, collaborative and interactive practice by students (Duarte, 2015). However, using blogs as a teaching tool needs to be considered carefully in terms of what the purpose of the blog is, the audience for the blog, and the sustainability of the purpose. Duarte (2015) explored the use of blogs among Higher Education students and concluded that:
The quote below sums up what teachers need to consider when including blogs in the design of their course. "Instructors play an important role, as no technology becomes an effective learning tool without a lot of effort of the teachers. They need to do their best to match students interests with their instructional expectations and goals in order to increase the students' motivation to become and remain involved with blog activities" (Duarte, 2015). And finally, returning to some of Brigitte's concerns, I too have found it difficult to respond to posts, even though I have enjoyed reading them. That may be explained partially by the fact that we haven't established enough shared experience to feel connected, and so therefore feel inhibited to respond. I also feel that the personal blog has its limitations. The process of the public click is a useful one; one that I think is similar to keeping a journal or diary. Do some individuals overdo it, and become quite self-absorbed and insular? Is it important that other people read your blog? Isn't it like the proverbial tree in the forest? If no-one reads your blog, does it really exist? As a student, I have explored the blogs of a few of the "experts" cited in this course - Goodyear, Siemens, Cormier and Downs. It is interesting to see the difference in the approach and organisation of their own blogs. Here are the links again: David Cormier : http://davecormier.com/ Stephen Downes: http://www.downes.ca/ Peter Goodyear: https://petergoodyear.net/blog-posts/ George Siemens: http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/ References Duarte, P. (2015). The use of a group blog to actively support learning activities. Active Learning in Higher Education 16(2) 103–117.
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