"Confused" by Erika Wittlieb (2014). Licensed under Pixabay License.
Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/upset-sad-confused-figurine-534103/
When I was asked to begin yet another blog for yet another university subject, higher education’s obsession with the act of blogging weighed on my mind. What is it about blogging that has university course designers drooling? Why haven’t I seen a corresponding upsurge in blogging by the secondary teachers I work with? And is blogging even relevant anymore?
Looking Within
Seeking to find out what exactly was happening in some of the classrooms in my workplace, I conducted a quick poll with 25 secondary students visiting the library. It was a rudimentary study on a small sample, but the results were interesting nonetheless:
Upon pondering the data, three main aspects became clear:
Looking Without
The benefits of blogging in the 21st century have been widely published. Academic research shows that blogging can have a positive impact on students by developing their: agency, empowerment, motivation to communicate, multiliteracies, critical thinking, and the skills to safely and effectively contribute to Jenkin’s notion of participatory culture (La Caze, 2017). Additionally, blogging can be an effective tool to support reflective learning (Muncy, 2014). As a digital iteration of journaling, the process of blog-writing allows students to think deeply about their learning, engage in reflection and synthesise their learning. The opportunity for students to interact with a real-life audience through blogging, adds an element of risk and challenge, an authentic feedback loop and the potential to experience meaningful interactions on a global scale.
So, if student engagement is reported to increase with blogging (La Caze, 2017) and the majority of students I spoke to are interested in blogging.. why aren’t my colleagues blogging? Looking For Answers
The above quote refers to the implementation of pedagogies for the teaching of new literacies. Yes, it’s an extremely valid point that educators need to help students build the skills required to be confident and successful participants in the digital sphere. However, it is clear that very real barriers exist in the classrooms of many teachers. The use of blogs in teaching by newly qualified teachers has been investigated, with a focus on teachers who had been trained in blogging during university studies (Boulton & Hramiak, 2014). The researchers found merely 49% of the teachers used blogs in their classrooms despite being able to confidently use the tool. Unfortunately, they also found a range of obstacles such as lack of leadership support, gaps in student skill, time constraints, insufficient ICT capacity and stringent ICT security such as firewalls and policies (Boulton & Hramiak, 2014). These obstacles might not cause difficulty individually, but in combination, they could prove to be too much for teachers with competing priorities. It is of no surprise, then, that blogging sometimes ends up in the too hard basket. Looking Forward
Sometimes it just takes one brave soul to give us the courage to take the first step. Thankfully, there are ample examples of teachers writing about the power of blogging in the classroom and the impact on student learning. Below is a list of teachers who have shared their experiences for the benefit of students worldwide. Have you tried blogging with your students? Share what happened in the comments. -BJK
References
Boulton, H., & Hramiak, A. (2014). Cascading the use of Web 2.0 technology in secondary schools in the United Kingdom: Identifying the barriers beyond pre-service training. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 23(2), 151–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2013.802994 Clinton, K., Jenkins, H., & McWilliams, J. (2013). New literacies in an age of participatory culture. In H. Jenkins, & W. Kelley (Eds.), Reading in a participatory culture: Remixing Moby-Dick in the English classroom (pp. 3-23). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. La Caze, S. (2017). Changing classroom practice through blogs and vlogs. Literacy Learning: the Middle Years, 25, 16-27. Muncy, J. (2014). Blogging for Reflection: The Use of Online Journals to Engage Students in Reflective Learning. Marketing Education Review, 24(2), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.2753/MER1052-8008240202
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