When I read that we had to start a blog I didn't know what to expect. I had never blogged before and my only knowledge of blogs was that they were a type of open journal. To be honest I never really understood the hype - why would everyone want to nosey in on strangers diaries?! Who cares what complete strangers had for dinner or how much they hate their Mother-in-Law?! After doing a bit of research I realised I had been wrong about blogs. Blogs that exposed personal lives were like never-ending novels (and we all have one book out there that left us feeling 'lost' for weeks on end after we had finished it). The other blogs were those that pointed to specific topics. People could relate to like minded people by going on line and hunting down an idol or mentor... someone who talked non-stop about something they were interested in!
At residential school many of us felt a bit apprehensive about homework that exposed our ideas to others - what if our ideas were "stolen"? Never mind we were told, plagiarism programs will sort that out.
1. What was it's value to me as a learner?
* This activity engaged me. As a visual learner I was very excited about getting to set up my blog design and I spent far too many hours trying out different colours, layouts and text fonts, which I knew how to do all thanks to the video tutorials provided in the scaffolding. I was so engaged that even in my current technologically inept state I felt compelled to click on different things and see what I could do to make my blog look even better. I was in heaven when I discovered the gadgets feature. For me the blog allowed me to express my creativity. Then there was a turning point and my 'engagement' waned when I realised that I had spent approx 3 hours just setting it up! I then began to feel frustrated by nagging questions: Why was it taking so much time? What was I expected to say - was it meant to be informal or formal, lengthly or to the point? Who would read it and how did I want people to perceive me? The teacher mentioned us learning from each others perspectives... did this mean I would have to read 99 blogs every day in order to be the best learner I can be?
I have slowly figured out the answers to these questions along the way but the frustration has not eased and I think this is down to the impending assignment "hanging around like a bad smell". I understand that there has to be some sort of assessment involved but the fact that it was addressed so early in this process feels to me as though it has over shadowed my reflective journey and I am constantly aware of the assessment criteria rather than taking time to process my thoughts. I feel completely overwhelmed! On the flip side, blogging has allowed me to rant and ease a bit of this distress and I love the edit function:-)
A few other issues I have struggled with:
* Scaffolding. I tried my best to follow the instructions but found it difficult to navigate my learning path when I felt like every link was leading me to more links and so on. I got lost a few times and confused about what exactly it was that I was supposed to be focusing on and I constantly felt like I was missing something. I also found the activities frustrating because I couldn't see all the work material in front of me and I would reassure myself that I was nearly through this weeks activities and then one link would lead to 50 pages of reading to cover!
*Being a reflective learner - as someone who naturally thinks a lot I have found documenting what goes on in my head to be lengthly (I struggle to write less than 1000 words per entry!) and as a learner who struggles to turn my brain off I have found the learning journal to have exasperated the problem by making me think about what I am thinking.
I guess this has all been part of the learning process and I can say that I have learnt a lot. I now know how to create a blog, change features, add new posts, follow others blogs and upload voki's and other images. I found reflecting on my test results helped me to realise that there are ways of coping with this journey in accordance with my learning preferences and intelligences .
* Having very few followers and comments has made me feel lonely and the exercise seem a bit pointless.
2. Reflection on potential for my learners (how could this strategy be used to support the learning of your students?)
Blogging could be used to promote reflective thinking and document the learning process for each individual so that teachers can better understand their students and students can better understand themselves. It also encourages self directed learning and students can access this resource any time that they are near a device that has the internet. This also means that students can blog in environments suited to their learning preferences (ie, quiet room at home) where they may feel more comfortable. Another great thing about blogging is that there are so many fun features within blogging sites that engage learners and cater for all learning preferences (you tube videos, quotes, wriggling fish, etc as well as the infinite number of features) that can be uploaded on to the blog. Knowing that others are going through the same thing can be comforting and reduce isolation and panic in students who feel they are not 'getting' the course material.
One negative I would recognise from my own experience is that blogging is very time consuming and unless you are really motivated it can be difficult to keep it up regularly. This is in line with constructivism which suggests that the "responsibility of learning should reside increasingly with the learner" (Glasersfeld, 1989).
It can feel a bit like talking to a brick wall if you don't have a following.
3. Constructivism
Does this activity have any visible elements of constructivism?
Blogging as a journal encompasses constructivism.
* It allows students to actively engage with learning process and relate their new construction of knowledge with prior experiences, learning preferences, etc.
* Encourages students to engage with the perspectives of their peers and support each other.
* Give students the freedom to be creative at a pace that suits them.
4. Cognitivism
Does this activity have any visible elements of cognitivism?
* Students can make mental connections easier by using gadgets and devices relevant to them.
* By relating new information to prior knowledge and experiences they can better organise and the recall the new information in their memory.
4. Behaviourism
Stimulus - Instructions on how to set up blog.
Response - Blog setup accomplished and the address posted on the wiki blog page.
Beyond the initial stages of setting up the blog, and the instructions that may be followed to add gadgets, etc the blog journals do not fit in with behaviourism because they encourage opened ended thought rather than programmed responses.
5. Connectivism
Students can look at each others blogs and feel connected to other learners writing comments and "following" their blog. They can explore diverse perspectives within the journals of peers and can also be connected to more information through their use of links, video bars, etc. They can use different devices within their journalling to express ideas (whether it be audio or visual) and this helps connect people from all kinds of backgrounds.
6. Diversity
Caters for every student as the blog entries are completely subjective.
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