Blogging: Students in

ActionDr. Marc Zaldivar

Director, Active Technologies for Engaged LearningNLI, Spring 2015

http://www.slideshare.net/vtmarcz/blogging-students-in-action

OverviewSome assumptions and perspectives

3 key affordances of blogging

3 examples

3 questions

Why active, engaged learningSome assumptions:1. Learn best by doing.

2. Exploration and innovation are (should be?) key learning outcomes.

3. It’s a long-term gain we’re after.

Why TEAL…Networked metaphor

TEAL has collaborative, active-learning at its heart.

Active learning engages students in two aspects – doing things and thinking about the things they are doing. (Bonwell & Eison, 1991)

Scenarios a plenty: Problem-based learning, Kuh’s High-impact Practices

Many are still instructor- or class-focused.

Why ATEL…

Active Technologies for Engaged Learning

Active Technologies ask students to do, create, reflect, collaborate, create.

Engaged Learning asks students to think about that participation, to become invested in being the primary site and source of learning.

Broadens our focus to a range of related, technologies and pedagogies.

Experiential Learning

Extra- & Co-Curricular Activities

Classroom Learning

Engaged Learning

3 key affordances

Easy content creation

Networking and

feedback Individuality

3 examples of blogging

Structured, semi-scaffoldedExample 1: Senior Seminar, English: http://dylanseminar09.wordpress.com/

Unstructured, community-orientedExample 2: Honors Residential College: https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/hrc/

Semi-structured, community-orientedExample 3: Awakening the Digital Imagination: https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/f14nms/

3 questionsHow might the reflective potential of blogging be used in your context?

How much scaffolding do you think would be needed?

How can we encourage the most active learning by our students using this platform?

Thanks!Resources for you:

http://atel.tlos.vt.edu

http://nli.tlos.vt.edu

http://www.is.vt.edu/

Gardner Campbell on Why not to grade blogs: http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/?p=1671

Article on Blogs in research: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/07/28/twitter-and-blogs-academic-public-sphere/

Seth Godin and Tom Peters on Blogging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livzJTIWlmY

Marc Zaldivar

marcz@vt.edu