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The Use of Weblogs in Higher Education: Benefits and Barriers (TYPES:…
The Use of Weblogs in Higher Education: Benefits and Barriers
TYPES:
Instructor weblog: weblogs written by instructors are mainly used as an additional communication channel to share information with students.
Student weblog: weblogs written by students are basically learning weblogs or project weblogs.
Weblogs are a personal web pages written in chronological order and maintained through a specific software that helps their administration.
BENEFITS AND BARRIERS
After having addressed the technological features of weblogs in HEIs, users need to be aware of what are the main benefits and barriers that this kind of learning tool may bring to their classroom, whether real or virtual.
BARRIERS:
Instructors may have difficulty in assessing student participation in the weblog. There are several indicators to take into account: group grading, individual posting, quality of posts, etc., as well as subjectivity vs. qualitative appreciations.
The use of technology- based tools may be another barrier. It can be of a structural nature, for instance lack of computers, or difficult access to the Internet.
Even though most weblogs are hosted in public, free ASPs, learning weblogs should be hosted in private servers.
If the weblog is public, it may suffer troll infestations, people that intentionally try to cause disruption by posting messages that are inflammatory, insulting, incorrect.
System administrators tend to be restrictive in installing new software.
BENEFITS:
The first and foremost benefit of weblogs in HEIs is their use as e-learning tools.
Weblogs help create connections between students with diverse opinions and interests.
Weblogs’ features (linking, replying, and tracking) make easier sharing knowledge and information.
USES:
There are many uses for weblogs in many fields.
Nardi: Discovered five major motivations for blogging: documenting one’s life; providing commentary and opinions.
Wagner: Proposes the use of weblogs as improved learning logs, this is, as a tool for “enhancing and strengthening the best features of this teaching technique, while giving students more responsibility for the learning and publishing process”.
Farrell: Discusses five ways of using weblogs in the classroom, each with their own pros and cons: standard class web pages
ADVANTAGES:
Weblogs are easy to setup and administrate in contrast to other technologies.
Weblogs makes easier to publish all types of resources (text, images, video, etc.) to the Web
when compared to traditional web publishing.
Weblogs can be updated easily, from anywhere without having to worry about FTP connections, web authoring software, etc.
24/7 (anytime, anywhere) access to information posted in weblogs.
Instructor does not need to periodically request the learning logs to the students.
Other technologies can be applied jointly. For instance, using of Wikis as enablers for group
writing and knowledge sharing. For example, building glossaries.