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