Is blogging the same as discussion board
activities?
I believe blogging and message boards do have similarities. Both are found online allowing messages to be
viewed and commented on by others. Think
topic, post, comments. However they are different
enough to serve different purposes. For
example one difference between a blog and discussion board is that a blog
should have a specific purpose for posting ideas, thoughts and articles and the
author should stay one topic, whereas a discussion board is broader. Since new topics can be posted on message
boards, the posts have more potential to go in unintended directions.
What are the pros blogging
brings to adult learners?
There are myriad pros that blogging brings to both educators and adult
learners alike. For educators, blogs are
an easy tool to incorporate into curriculum, as they are simple in structure,
easily accessible and free. Witte (2007)
suggests that by incorporating blogs into curriculum, educators can help
“shrink the technology gap and better prepare students to become citizens of a
global society” (p.96). Similarly,
Oravec (2002) believes that students who are required to access blogs as part
of their learning and will “help students get a better sense of what the
Internet has to offer” (p.621). Blogging
also has been shown to help develop not only a student’s online skills, but
also to help strengthening their writing skills, (Witte, 2007). Students who know they have an audience of
not only their instructor, but also their peers will be more likely to write
more clearly and carefully (Santos, 2011). Although this is my first attempt at
creating a blog as an adult learner, one pro for me is that I can share my
opinions and have my own voice. In a
traditional classroom setting, I am less likely to participate. The online participation whether it is from a
message board or blog has enhanced my own critical thinking skills.
What are the cons blogging brings to adult
learners?
As with any new
learning tool that is incorporated into curriculum, there will be cons for both
the educator and the adult learner. One
issue for the instructor could be time management. King & Cox (2011) note that reading
students posts on a regularly basis can be time consuming and it may not be
possible to provide timely feedback leaving the student feeling disconnected. Also, if an instructor is going to
incorporate a blog into the curriculum for the first time, he or she must have
effective planning and clarify expectations otherwise blogs will turn into chat
sessions and learning outcomes will not be properly addressed. Safety issues
are a concern to some students who do not feel comfortable sharing information
on a worldwide platform even with the use of pseudonyms. Access is another issue. Students who do not have easy access to a
computer or the internet would have more difficulty keeping up with their
blogs. As I mentioned earlier, this is
my first experience creating a blog, but I can still appreciate the benefits of
blogging and I believe the pros outweigh the cons.
- King, K. and Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Oravec, J. (2002). Bookingmarking the world: Weblog applications in education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(7), 616-621.
- Santos, A.. (2011). Blogs as a learning space: creating text of talks. Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 4(6), 15-19. (PDF) (Open in new window)
- Wittle, S. (2007). That's online writing, not boring school writing: Writing with blogs and the Talkback Project. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(2), 92-96. (PDF) (Open in new window)
WEB GRAPHICS
- (2013). List of top
five blogs about blogging that allow guest posting. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved
from
Hi Karyn:
ReplyDeleteSo,you posted your 1st blog. Congratulations! It looks great and reads well. I like that your comments addresses blogging from an instructional standpoint as notes such issues as time management, effective planning, expectation clarification, and student-instructor interactions. All of the above can have a substantial impact on the learning experiences of adult learners who expect an instructor's presence in the learning environment and timely as well as consistent feedback. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
~Aja
Hi Aja,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I know that the question wasn’t supposed to include the pros and cons of those teaching adult learners, but I have often wondered: do the instructors really read all of these blog/discussion posts? How can they keep everyone straight? It looks like Dr. Kang does a great job of it, but I wonder how much more/less time he spends on online classes when message boards and blogs are incorporated rather than a traditional face to face class.
Karyn
Hi Karyn:
ReplyDeleteIn the course where I created my first blog, the teaching assistant for the course regularly checked our blogs, whereas the instructor checked our discussion board postings.
In the 2nd course where I had to do a blog, both the teaching assistant and instructor posted comments to our required blog and discussion board postings.
In this course, Dr. K does not have a teaching assistant, so it is my guess that he is depending heavily on the grading rubric listed in our course syllabus. The rubric acts like a quick check list to see if we addressed all the assignment requirements.
I have found that many of the traditional instructors at SU, do not provide students with or use grading rubrics; thus, grading is a very labor-intensive and time-consuming activity for the majority of them.
What are your thoughts about grading rubrics and do you think in this course, it was beneficial for Dr. K to provide one to us?
If a rubric had not been provided for this learning activity, what steps would you have taken to get a better handle of the learning expectations and outcomes?
~Aja
Hi Aja,
DeleteI think grading rubrics are great tools. For a student to know what the instructor expects relieves a lot of the student stress and once created, creates a lot less work for the instructor. If I am not giving a grading rubric for an assignment, I tend to ask a lot more questions to ensure I’m on the right track especially if directions confuse me. However, I have learned that some instructors don’t provide a grading rubric and are intentionally vague in instructions in order to promote critical thinking from the students.
Thanks for your post and insight!
Karyn
Hi Karyn!
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job on your first blog post! You made some great points. The statement you posted from Witte (2007) that, "educators can “shrink the technology gap and better prepare students to become citizens of a global society” (p.96)". is a vital point in my opinion. From an instructor standpoint this is something to keep in mind. As an instructor my general focus is on teaching my students the material in my course, however, making sure that I am helping them with other aspects of their education which will benefit them in the future is something important to keep in mind.
Karyn,
ReplyDeleteAja discussed the one topic that I was most connected with, and that is how difficult it must be for educators to keep up with all of these blogs, the posts, and the comments for each post. It IS very time-intensive as Aja brings up without some help, like from a teaching assistant. For the instructor, the possibilities seem limitless for using a blog to help "model the process [or even be used] as a portal, with different pages established for a syllabus, list of assignments, roster, and posted documents" (King & Cox, 2011, p. 93). However, that being said, once the students create their blogs, the instructor still "needs to read them on a regular basis, [a] task that can become daunting if not planned and managed well" (King & Cox, 2011, p. 93). I think the key words there are "planned and managed well". As with anything, I think if you are left to reading all the posts yourself, you need to stay up on time management in order to get through the posts / comments you need to in order to appropriately grade the learners' work. That being said, I appreciate the guidelines set by the grading rubric. I think the grading rubric does help both the learners understand the expectations and the instructor be able to grade the learners' work easily and more consistently.
King, K. and Cox, T. (2011). The professor’s guide to taming technology. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Karyn ,
ReplyDeleteWitte’s comments about students online skills improving is a good one to highlight. (Witte, 2007) I know that when I first started blogging several years ago I had no idea how many things were available to me via the internet. Blogging gave me the confidence to go and explore those areas expanding my knowledge and understanding considerably!
I agree with many of your cons for blogging as adult learners. Access will always be an issue. Even though one would think that a group of graduate students like our class would not deal with access, I had limited access to the internet last year simply because I was dependant on a satellite system that was spotty at best.
I can also see that as an educator, keeping up with all students’ online blog presence (following links, watching videos, checking out other interactive parts) could be very overwhelming! There would be a certain necessary dependence on student participation with each other especially if the class had more than just a few students.
Witte, S. (2007). "That's online writing not boring school writing": Writing with blogs and the Talkback Project. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy , 51 (2), 92-96.