Use of weblogs as a teaching and learning support tool in Higher Education

Use of weblogs as a teaching and learning support tool in Higher EducationEducational Multimedia Doctorate Program // Francesc Balagué Puxan // Sept. 2009

Use of weblogs as a teaching and learning support tool in Higher Education

Educational Multimedia Doctorate Program // Francesc Balagué Puxan


Introduction Theoretical Framework Methodology Results Conclusions

Why to use weblogs in education?

EHEA

New methodologies

Blogs’popularity

Blogs’flexibility



Research Question:

Research Goals:

To analyze the different functions of blogs as support tool.- Teaching and learning process.- Students’ reflection process.

To investigate the communicative possibilities of blogs. To analyze blogs’ advantages and issues as a resource for faculty. To analyze the use of blogs as a research platform. To become part of the blogosphere.

Can blogs improve the teaching and learning process? If so how?



European Higher Education Area

New teaching and learning paradigm:

Student centered approachLearning and competence based

New roles of:

TeachersStudentsInstitutions



Web 2.0, blogs and blogosphere

BLOGS



New conceptualization of research

Changes in the way researchers relate to each other and communicate.

Changes in the way researchers organize and manage information.

Changes in the way research articles and reports are published.

Personal research portal.

Open Licenses.



International References

Theoretical background review.

International experiences:

Weblogs at Harvard Law SchoolBrisbane Graduate School of BusinessUniversity of British ColumbiaPodcasting at Lancaster University Blogs at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Other experiences



Summary

http://blocdeblocs.blip.tv/file/2636321/





Methodology

Case study

As Latorre (1996) said, case study is a very important method for analysing social reality in social science, and it represents the most appropriate and natural way of qualitative researches.

Virtual ethnography

Virtual ethnography allows for a detailed study of linear relationships, so that the web is not only a means of communication but also a daily artifact in people’s lives and a meeting space that allows for the formation of groups, communities, that is, a new way of socializing (Hine, 2006).



Cases’ description

Case 1

Case 2

Case 3


http://aforesm4.wordpress.com/



Case 1

n= 36mean age: 22 yearsface to face

Students and teacher met in person once a week, so the blog was introduced as a support and complement, combining the flexibility of use (from anywhere at any time), and the organization of information which helped students keep track of their own process and reflect on it later.




Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

-

-


http://uoc-ie.blogspot.com



Case 2

n= 22mean age: 37 yearsOnline

The course was structured around 5 tasks, the instructions for completing them and the deadlines were given at professor’s blog. Students had to post an entry for each activity, reflecting over it according to the given instructions.




Case 1

Case 2

Case 3

-


http://www.blocdeblocs.net



Case 3

The main goals of blocdeblocs were:

To acquire a deep knowledge of the tool, its possibilities and limitations.

To create and disseminate a virtual profile promoting interaction.

To organize, record and share the whole process in a single space.

To become a part of the community being studied.



Data Collection / Instruments

Instruments Before During Posterior ProfessorInitial Questionnaire X 1 & 2Final Questionnaire X 1 & 2Interview 1 X X X 1 & 2Interview 2 X X 1 & 2Student’s final evaluations X 1 & 2Analyses of comments X X 1 & 2Analyses of posted data entries X 2

XX

X

XX

Timing of instruments Agents involved CaseStudent



Results Case 1

From the final questionnaire:

• High level of satisfaction by students with the overall experience.• The majority felt that they had learned better by using the blog.

“What would you highlight of using blogs in higher education?”

• The blog allowed their reflection and thinking and also it helped their own significant learning (were conscious of their own learning).

• It helped the organization of information and to recover what had been done.

- Professor’s interview: they continued using blogs one year later.



Results Case 2

- Advantages:

It helps with the organization and management of the learning process. It allows interactions with others, sharing thoughts and knowledge building.It favors self-reflection and idea-organization. It generates some responsibility.

- Disadvantages:

Some resistance to publishing certain reflections or to post learning activities.The interaction among students should be increased.The fact of not knowing who is the audience.



Results Case 3

15.732 visits 81 saved links

97 trackbacks 38th Alianzo’s Ranking

99 Subscribers 192 comments

(from December’06 to October’08)



Results Case 3

Impact of the spread of public content (for ex. the Wordpress tutorial).

Interaction with other networks and platforms:



General Considerations

Previous Research

Satisfaction Category

Using case study methodology

ICT Competences

“Can blogs improve the teaching and learning process? If so how? “



Specific conclusions regarding the aims of the research

1 – To analyze the different uses of blogs as a tool to support teaching and learning in higher education.

Blogs help students record and organize their learning process.

Blogs may be useful tools for the generation of knowledge.

Blogs allow for different ways of working and organizing oneself.

Blogs help students feel more in charge of their learning process.

“It forced me to make an effort setting up the content to be published. It helped me to organize better the information.”




2 – To experiment on the use of blogs to support the students' process of reflection on their learning.

Blogs helped students to reflect and think of their own learning, and those students themselves considered that it had contributed to their meaningful learning.

“It gave me the opportunity to think... to stop and think.”




3- To investigate the communicative potential of blogs.

Relations among students

Professor – student’s relations

Fostering the communicative and interactive side of blogs may require some guidelines, setting up some clear aims to provide solid reasons to do it.

“Seeing others’ blogs I could learn different ways of doing a task. But few colleagues left me comments.”




4- To analyze the advantages and difficulties of this tool as a teaching resource for instructors in higher education.

Blogs allow the systematization of the whole learning process. Facilitates their organization and monitoring of the process. Facilitates to provide feedback simultaneously.Facilitates using learning centered methodologies.

The importance of a “first session” to explain students the project.It takes a lot of time (for students and professors).Difficult to introduce this methodology with the traditional assessment system.




5- To analyze the use of blogs as a research platform

The interaction with other people allow to gain a deeper insight into the phenomenon in less time.

Turns the research process into an interactive one, not as isolated as it has traditionally been.

Very flexible combining with other tools.




6- To become part of the blogosphere in order to understand and gainknowledge on the phenomenon from the inside.

It is advisable to approach the blogosphere to get to know the environment and interact with it.

High repercussion of sharing materials online, the general impact has been greater than it was foreseen.

To be part of the blogosphere implies a new mentality, a new way of communicating, of working, of relating, etc.



Final conclusions and considerations

In order to turn students into protagonists of their learning, activities should be organized around the students' individual blog (as Personal Learning Environments).

We suggest that all citizens should keep their own “website” from their very childhood, which could be for example the government's responsibility as another personal right.



Research limitations

The novelty of the field of study and the lack of enough references and similar experiences.

To study a real educational context, with real groups and in real teaching situations, implies some difficulties.

The impossibility of comparing the learning results of the students who used blogs to those of students who did not.



Future lines of study

New research based on the comparison between groups (using or not blogs).

To analyze the use and integration of different tools and the way to organize them in an educational context (PLE).

Further in-depth research focused on the balance between students’ public writing and privacy.

More research is needed on the application of the EHEA model and its implications on students' workload and the role of technology in it.

Next and futures technologies?



http://www.irishpressreleases.ie/2009/07/29/new-irish-skydiving-record-set-today/


Photo creditshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/29796595@N02/2839489273/http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022

Moltes gràcies!Dank jullie wel

thank you very much!