What are Blogs?

Blogs, short for web logs, are online journals that usually allow commentary and feedback. Early blogs required a knowledge of HTML and database programming, so they were limited to those with these skills or resources. With the advent of easy to use blogging tools, such as WordPress, Moveable Type, and others, blogging has expanded to literally thousands of blogs ranging from the very personal, to corporate, to official subject matter journals, and educational.

To learn more about blogs, read ELI's introductory "7 Things You Should Know About Blogs (pdf)", or download the complete 64 page "Guide to Blogging (pdf)". The following paragraphs are excerpts from this guide and contain links to individual sections.

Examples in Higher Ed

English Writing

Barbara Ganely teaches English at Middlebury College in Vermont. Barbara has found that blogs are a great way to teach written expression and thoughtful critique; so much so she uses this tool in her freshman year Exploring Contemporary Ireland though Writing and Film course. The blogs supplement her face to face course and avoid the limitations she finds in online learning management systems.

Ganley uses a technique called "slow blogging", which encourages her students to take time in crafting deep and thoughtful posts. She compares this form of writing to the academic tradition of writing scholarly letters to colleagues. What emerges is an environment were students learn to reflect, critique and debate ideas. Her students' blogging commentaries become an very detailed record of the class.

Journalism

Alfred Hermida uses blogs to teach journalism at University of British Columbia's School of Journalism. Hermida feels blogs give students a good feel for modern beat reporting and insight into new journalism as they engage the local community in their blogs.

Students found the blogs to be a added bonus, as they developed skills that employers were interested in. In some cases the blogs help students land summer internships.

Blogs Beyond Writing Class

If you think blogs are only appropriate for writing course, then look again. Blogs have become an important tool for business marketing (the legendary Portland bookstore Powell's literary blog http://www.powells.com/blog/), scholarly research (Economics: http://www.delong.typepad.com/ ,or Mathematics: http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/), and an assortment of online journals (Political Science: http://www.politicalsciencejournals.blogspot.com/).

For more information download the section What Others Are Doing (pdf).

What Do Students Think About Blogs? - Better Yet, How Did They Perform?

You can download What do Students Think? (pdf) to read several students reflecting on their experience with blogs as well as useful tips on blogging rules in the classroom. However, I am going to break from the usual format here and give you a summation of findings from conference presentations on blogs in the classroom.

In a two semester pilot study at Cornell, Clare van den Blink and Joan Getman tracked the progress of student writing in eight academic blogs. What they discovered should not be a surprise to anyone. Just as student peer-reviewed work tends to be better than a private assignment, so the blogs tended to be even better than similar peer-reviewed assignment. The reason student's gave for their improved writing were:

• It didn't feel like "homework", which is SO high school
• They didn't know who might read it "out there" and in several cases a student's work was cited in another blog - a badge of honor
• They were contributing something real

These are good examples of positive student engagement with an assignment, what more could an instructor hope for? Let me also note here that the Cornell pilot found that students had similar responses for wiki assignments. What you can take from this is there is the sense of ownership and authentic experience which has raised the bar for student performance.

There is one caveat to keep in mind. Due to FERPA regulations governing privacy, you must give students an option to turn in a paper based assignment if they do not want to participate in a public blog. In the Cornell pilot, only one student opted out of writing a blog, even though the same student was a regular commenter on other students' blogs!

How To Get Started

So, you want to add a blog to your course. Where do you begin? The first step is to think about where and how it will fit into your course. As stated in the Guide to Blogging, blogs should be used to engage students sharing of knowledge, critical reflection and debate. Blogs can be online journals, portfolios, research diaries, class assignments, reflections on course readings, a group discussion, or emulate professional practice. Within this framework students also have an opportunity to learn about plagiarism, copyright, privacy, and ethics.

Download the section How Do I Get Started (pdf) to learn more about how best to incorporate a blog into your course and the many resources available online to help you.

Assessment Strategies

There are a variety of ways to assess both the effectiveness of the blog project as well as student engagement, and each depends on your initial goals and strategies. The section How Do I Know If It Works (pdf) contains key questions to ask yourself about the overall project as well as individual assignments. It also includes a matrix with sample criteria for determining the effectiveness of a blog.

Additional Resources

The final section of the Guide To Blogging is Where Can I Learn More (pdf) which contains links to general information, implementation guidelines, blogging services, and support considerations.

ATC's Notes From the Edge blog

The Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) Discovery Tool: Guide to Blogging is designed to help you explore blogging's potential and limitations. ELI Discovery Tools are practical Resources designed to support the development and implementation of teaching and learning, and technology projects on campus. They are available to ELI member institutions only. © 2007 EDUCAUSE