I’ve been spending time browsing through these open access journals mentioned on my previous post.
The Spring 2009 issue of The Journal of Interactive Online Learning has an article “Am I Making Sense Here?”: What blogging Reveals about Undergraduate Student Understanding.
This study examines how blogs can extend learning and facilitate transfer of learned concepts. Blogging was used after a nutrition course was finished to document and analyze the learning. Blogging conversations were explored over seven weeks to determine what happened in the blog conversations and to see how participants were making meaning of nutrition science concepts. Students were asked to post 21 times (3x per week) and comment on 35 posts by others (5x per week). Most posted and commmented more often than requested.
Four themes emerged from the analysis of how students made meaning of the nutrition concepts through their blog conversations. The first themes had students writing about nutrition science from the context of their daily lives as they strived to apply what they had learned. The second theme had participants recognizing and critiquing perceived barriers to successfully applying what they had learned about nutrition. The third theme had the students viewing the news media as an expert source of information as there was no instructor voice in the blogs. The fourth theme centers on unanswered questions in conversations and how these questions indicate gaps in students’ understanding of nutrition concepts.
The study has samples of the orientation materials used and interview protocol.It’s an interesting qualitative case study that could get us thinking about directions to head toward in future studies.
This online journal has lots of interesting articles. Its aims as listed on the “About” page are:
Provide a forum for the dissemination of research on interactive online education
Disseminate ideas that enhance the practical aspects of interactive online education
Further knowledge and understanding of emerging innovations in online education
Foster debate about the use and application of online education
Interactive communication is the master key of learning whether in school or not.
Forgive me, but as a fellow educator viewing this site for the first time, I had to comment on the following startling error: “It’s aims…” Shouldn’t educators know the difference between “it’s,” the contraction of “it is,” and “its,” the possessive adjective? I don’t think teachers are helping their students if the former don’t know basic differences such as this.
Startling error is corrected. Thanks, Sara!
Anne, I hope I didn’t seem rude, and thank you for the correction!
Hi there.
Thrilled to find this online. I’m an adjunct professor at Niagara University, and a doctoral student in Special Education at Univ. at Buffalo.
This semester I’m teaching a service learning course. My students “blog and vlog” each week (a before and after reflection). In addition to the points you made, I’m noticing that the “vlog” (we refer to it as a video confessional) provides a space for students to advocate ideas relating to what they want to learn/add to the course design.
I am currently an undergraduate and am taking a computers in education class. We actually have been doing a lot of blogging and learning how technology in the classroom can benefit the students. I saw this article and saw how it applied to my own situation. After we learn something new we blog about it and it is a great tool to see what others in our classroom think and get their feedback as well. I will definitely read this article!
online education is also great specially if you do not have time to attend regular schooling;**
I think allowing students to become familiar with the possibilities of online education through the use of blogs and commenting is especially inspiring. Not only are students learning how to navigate and utilize the web, but they are also learning that educational possibilities of it through the use of conversation and participation. Great study!