Analysis of Digital Technologies: Blogs

As a non-creative person who will have to learn to be creative in the application of ICTs into my lesson plans, I found this week's reading materials a confidence builder.  The example provided on how an international school used a blog to create their own textbook was amazing.  What an amazing project, and what an amazing product that was the end result.

Now that I have more of an understanding on blogs than  I did seven weeks ago, I can finally see glimpses of the potential learning experiences that digital technologies can provide for me in creating learning experiences, both through using my own blog as a learning manager, and through students using their own blog to journal their experiences, etc.

Following is my SWOT on this issue:

SWOT Analysis of Blogs as a Teaching Tool to Facilitate Learning

STRENGTHS: 

• Easily accessible to all members of the activity
• Can be a vehicle for many teaching strategies:  SWOTs, PIMs, peer teaching, central point of access to materials for students
• Additional material of interest can be made easily accessible through including links to other websites on the blog
• Images and videos can be included on the blog

WEAKNESSES:

• Hard to see some comments in the context of previous comments
• Inaccurate information can be contributed through comments based on unresearched and unsupported opinion

OPPORTUNITIES:

• A blog places all contributors on the same level playing field - those who find it hard to speak up in class is able to more freely express their ideas and suggestions through a comment
• Students can collaborate on assignment topics with all students adding their area of interest or expertise to the one blog so that all information can be seen at the one place

THREATS:

• Inappropriate comments are able to be posted, eg libellous materials, threats or negative comments on others contributing to the site
• It may be necessary to scaffold questions to get students to start reflecting in a productive way, however by doing this there is some debate as to whether or not such reflections could be considered as blogging as blogging is supposed to be the unadulterated thoughts and reasonings of an individual (Downes, 2004)

I have found the creation of our own blog for the assessment purposes of this course to be quite a liberating experience.  I have often toyed with the idea of creating my own blog, but never had the impetus to do so.  I have found that having a space to write about my learning experiences to be quite liberating.  Knowing that not every blog entry is to be assessed means that I have had leeway to openly blog as I felt led.  I think that I personally understand what Downes (2004) saw as a downside to using blogs in an assessable arena.  As soon as I was preparing my blogs that would be assessed, there was an immediate constraint on what I was or wasn't writing.

I think that in my case, as a learning manager I would encourage students to use a blog to record their thoughts and feelings in relation to course material, but would not use the blog itself as an assessable tool; perhaps along the lines of the following:

• English:  record their thoughts on the experiences of the protagonist in a novel as they read the book chapter by chapter, and then use those thoughts to write an essay on the novel content; and
• History:  record their reactions to viewing artefacts on a field excursion, and then use those thoughts to write a creative piece on how citizens in a civilisation would routinely use those artefacts.

Downes, S. (2004).  Educational Blogging.  EDUCAUSE Review, 39(5), pp. 14-26.  Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920