THE USE OF WEBLOGS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: BENEFITS AND BARRIERS
RELATED WORK
The log can serve as the basis for generating Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs),
support class discussion
Provide the basis for the creation of a class presentation and web site
A learning log is a tightly
focused academic journal
Is created as the student becomes knowledgeable on an individually assigned topic
Weblogs are defined as “personal web pages written in chronological diary form and maintained through weblogging software”.
Students can share their results with others
Students can focus on content
Students learn about web page creation in an intuitive way
Students can jointly write a weblog
Instructors can monitor published weblogs easily
Instructor do not need to convert student documents and publish them, as it is already done
English words related to weblogs are defined: weblog or blog for short, a cross between a diary, a web site, and an online community
Blogging, the act of creating a weblog
Blogger, the person who creates a weblog
Blogspace or blogosphere: the connected realm of blogs that exists on the Internet and is accessible via links to other blogs
Specialty search engines and weblog indexes
The authors believe that “blogging has the potential to be a transformational technology for teaching and learning”.
Studies indicates that learning with weblogs enhances students' cognitive and social construction of knowledge.
WEBLOG TYPES
Literature shows some attempts to classify weblogs in terms of different features.
The proposed classification is based on two dimensions: style and content.
Style
There are the interactive weblogs and the closed weblogs
Based on whether the weblog author allows for comments on the weblog.
Based on whether the weblog author allows for comments on the weblog.
Content
There are many sorts of weblogs
Personal topics
Political/social/economic commentaries
Information technology
Etc
Merging the styles and the contents, some types are suggested
Personal journal
Links galores
Interactive commentary
One-way commentary
Hodge-podge
Etc
Mernit proposes eight types of weblogs
The professional journalist
The non-traditional journalist
Bloggers focused on a specific theme
Movement
Event
Topic
Interest
The education community
The self-expression/journaling crowd
The business/marketing/promotion community
Business weblogs behind the firewall
The experimenters and innovators
Classification according to the role (instructor or student) played by the writer of the weblog in the teaching/learning process
Instructor weblog
Student weblog
Are mainly used as an additional communication channel to share information with students
Usually contain course content, course management information, general commentary
Are basically learning weblogs or project weblogs
A project weblog, often authored by a team of students, documents the project progress and findings.
Learning weblog
A learning diary, created concurrently with the learning
experience, and reporting on the learning content as wells as the process
Including time taken, sources used, and so forth
USES
Nardi discovered five major motivations for blogging
Documenting one’s life
Providing commentary and opinions
Expressing deeply felt emotions
Articulating ideas through writing
Forming and maintaining community forums
Weblogs are being used to satisfy a variety of communication needs to favour e-learning practices
Possible uses is provided in
Improving writing skills
Encouraging reflective writing
Reading student weblogs for assessment
Sharing resources and ideas
Recording progress and process
Course administration
Group work
Farrell discusses five ways of using weblogs in the classroom
Standard class web pages
Professor-written weblogs which cover
interesting developments that relate to the theme
Organization of in-class discussion
Organization of intensive seminars where students have to provide weekly summaries
Requiring students to write their own weblogs as part of their grade
ADVANTAGES
Besides the advantages that weblogs inherited from being based on Internet technologies, weblogs have advantages of their own that can be translated into real benefits for users
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.)
Weblogs allow instant publishing with just one click
Weblogs can be updated easily, from anywhere without having to worry about FTP
connections, web authoring software, etc.
Weblogs have the ability to reach a large audience without losing information quality and allowing for different levels of detail.
24/7 (anytime, anywhere) access to information posted in weblogs
No special blogging software is needed to create a weblog
Instructor does not need to periodically request the learning logs to the students
Other technologies can be applied jointly
BENEFITS AND BARRIERS
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.
Discussions in weblogs promote higher levels of thinking, because people can think before answering back.
Collaborative weblogs support team work and group learning
Because of its format similar to that of a personal diary, weblogs encourage informal communication, creativity and self-expression
Accuracy of project outcomes increases due to the continuous flow of feedback from the teacher and fellow students from the weblog.
Teachers may benefit from the possibility of monitoring projects in real time
Final grading is faster and easier
For non-computer science students, weblogs provide the chance of learning about web page creation, hyper linking and other www topics.
Writing in weblogs is attractive in the sense that teens and college students, and people in general
The use of weblogs (new technologies) prepares students better for the current labour market.
Different instructors and students from different parts can share a weblog and teach and learn together
Barriers
Instructors may have difficulty in assessing student participation in the weblog
The use of technology- based tools may be another barrier
Most weblogs are hosted in public, free ASPs, learning weblogs should be hosted in private servers, so that they do not show neither advertisements nor banners
System administrators tend to be restrictive in installing new software
If the weblog is public, it may suffer troll infestations, people that intentionally try to cause disruption