Blogs: A qualitative investigation into an instructor and undergraduate students' experiences

Abstract

This study reports on the experiences of an instructor and an undergraduate class who used blogs in their teaching and learning environment at Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey. Qualitative data were collected from observation of students' activities when working on blogs in the classroom, analyses of students' blog documents on the web, and interviews with 42 students. Most students reflected that blogs are user friendly and convenient tools for publishing and sharing studies. Moreover, blog implementations contributed positively to students' information searching and writing skills, despite the limited opportunities that many students had for Internet access outside the university. However, students' ignorance regarding copyright issues and their tendency to copy information from online sources and paste it into their blogs was a common problem.

Group blogs: Documenting collaborative drama processes

“…Anderson, 2007;Godwin-Jones, 2003;Nardi et al, 2004), as is the literature on blogging within educational contexts (e.g. Chong, 2008;Hurlburt, 2008;Instone, 2005;Tekinarslan, 2008;Williams & Jacobs, 2004). However, there is less reported on the experience of 'group blogging', where ownership of the space is collective.…”

“…Many authors describe the social learning that takes place in collaborative spaces such as blogs, and the importance of personal ownership of the space (see Anderson, 2007;Chong, 2008;Nardi et al, 2004;Tekinarslan, 2008). Nardi et al describe blogging as a support for cognition, and use Vygotsky's expression "thinking by writing" (Nardi et al, 2004, p.227), meaning that the act of writing promotes thinking and understanding, and the blog becomes a bridge between the writer and the reader.…”

“…Some researchers point out the under-utilisation of educational blogs that are not well integrated into learning activities (e.g. Tekinarslan, 2008) and Nardi et al note that, like other online communication tools, small-group blogs with multiple authors can have problems where individual voices become dominant, not only because of the personal writing style of individuals, but because of the formatting of blogs, where comments to original posts are displayed beneath main topic postings, so that some voices can become subsumed within a topic thread, displaying at a secondary level of importance. In our experience, it was not the format of the blog that was an issue for our students, as all members of the group blog had equal status in terms of creating the end product and equal rights to contribute at the first level of contribution to the blog.…”

Students’ Perception on Formative and Shared Assessment: Connecting two Universities through the Blogosphere

“…Those advantages have been proven time and time again in the existing literature on the subject (Boud & Falchikov, 2007;Davies, 2010;López-Pastor et al, 2013;Lorente-Catalán & Kirk, 2014). In our particular study the students made special reference to the advantage of active participation, also emphasised in other studies (e.g., López Meneses, 2009;Salinas & Viticcionli, 2008), which contributes to generating interactivity between the students themselves; emphasised as well is collaborative learning, also described by Huffaker (2004) and Farmer, Yue, and Brooks (2008), as well as by others; or the interrelationship between theory and practice (e.g., Tekinarslan, 2008;Williams & Jacobs, 2004).…”

What Are The Usage Conditions Of Web 2.0 Tools Faculty Of Education Students?

“…Williams and Jacobs (2004) emphasize that blogs are environments which make easier learning in the processes in higher education, is easily attuned to the learning environment and students easily express themselves. Besides, blogs are environments which writing skills are developed (Godwin, 2007;Johnson, 2004;Seitzinger, 2006;Tekinarslan, 2008), is provided active learning, teach the information literacy in the academician guidance and students can be received opinion from other students and their teachers. At time same time, blog provide critical thinking skill, cooperative study, feedback and active participation (Huffaker, 2005;Richardson, 2006).…”