Good evening from Germany! We are using blogs in our virtual study modules at the university. One task format there for example is making comments on a certain topic and/or reacting to an existing entry (discussions). Although we always try to limit these contributions to a certain amount of words, students tend to write more. Evaluations show that they really appreciate this kind of interaction. The same happens at our practical placements in all school types: Students use blogs for collecting opions of pupils, contributions are also made when pupils are asked to display/share there findings after exploring new content or finishing small research projects. In a nutshell: Sharing, discussing, cooperating, participating, problem solving - all aspects of competences could be integrated in blogging tasks in almost any subject.

Dear Professor, I have used blog and I also I use google free site. It is www.sites.google.com/site/dbafaau/

https://sites.google.com/site/dbafaau/

http://iaus.blog.com

Hi Mardene, blogging is becoming quite a popular form of 'alternative' assessment and is seen as a good way of developing writing skills as well as a useful format for reflective writing. I think there are potential uses across the disciplines. At my institution people are using blogging in marketing and criminology, for example. I am adding some links you might find useful.

https://www.mendeley.com/catalog/blog-not-blog-student-perceptions-blog-effectiveness-learning-collegelevel-course/

https://www.mendeley.com/catalog/adventures-blogosphere-blog-readers-blog-writers/

Hello!

Already utilized very blog in teaching, when I'm away to do a PhD in Physics Teaching.

My first experience was interdisciplinary, along with Professor of Sociology, History, Geography, Languages and Informatics (I).

It was the presentation of the film The Kite Runner ... We conducted a historical participation, geographical, cultural and students participated in the blog posting your opinion regarding (PIPAS HUNTER PROJECT).

In my work I present some documentaries chapters of "The Universe" - History Channel. It also works with the social issue of Science and present the movie "Contact" (Jodie Foster - 1997).

Always in order to discuss the topic and students to present their opinion on the blog posting (STUDIES IN CYCLE depth NATURAL SCIENCES - PHYSICAL).

Later in the classroom discusses the problem!

Note that the Federal Institute where I work (Brazil) is in rural areas and students are built in their courses.

USE OF A DIGITAL MODEL EDUCATIONAL TRAINING MODEL OF MENTAL, PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN MODERN TECHNICAL IN PROGRESS.

Article USE OF A DIGITAL MODEL EDUCATIONAL TRAINING MODEL OF MENTAL,...

Greetings from Toledo, Ohio! 

In agreement with all the posts here (no need for me to replicate the answers therefore), you can also measure the impact on social media on knowledge sharing within the class, visualize the data you can extract from the responses, map out the ontological field (the domain) by preparing a list or concept map of tags used in the responses, and see how those responses inform the discussions, research papers, theses, or dissertations that those students may be gathering input from.  So, there are three perspectives to this topic: ontological, epistemological, and methodological because knowledge creation is at the center, supported by organizing knowledge, and of course putting all that into teaching practice in a methodical way.  Great topic!

Dear Mardene

Blogs as learning tools are very interesting.

I use this resource and I wadding, students are motivated and continuously involved

Wow thanks all for your input.  Appreciated!

I have also thought about using blogging in my courses; especially my online courses as one type of assessment.   I do think that this format of expression related to particular topics can lead to creativity and expand the opportunities of writing and interacting for students.  Let me know how it works...

Mardene:

I have used discussions forums, which are similar to blogs, in having students debate about an issue related to the course content but also draws on their own experiences and societal/global context. Please see my recent conference paper at the last SoTL annual conference in Indiana, U.S.

Many thanks,

Debra

Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...

I'm member of an innovation grupo who use new technologies like educative blogs "edublogs" in universitary studies.

In our blog you can see several papers and congress conferences about teaching with blogs.

http://edublogsycolaboracion.blogspot.com.es/

I hope you find it useful.

Rodrigo

http://edublogsycolaboracion.blogspot.com.es/

Thank you for all. I am. i didnot used it before but i am intersecting for any new technology.

Could anyone help me how can i start to use it?

Regards

Ayman 

I have a colleague who does this kind of research. Search for Lisa Deng and her works. Here is a sample:

Deng, L., & Yuen, A. H. K. (2009). Blogs in higher education: Implementation and issues. TechTrends, 53(3), 95-98.

I teach English Literature to students on my Blog's Page Classroom. It is quite helpful for all students of English Literature.

http://vipinbeharigoyal.blogspot.in/p/class.html

We are using blogs to enable students to record their progress with a given project and to enable our external collaborative partners to provide feedback.

I hope that this helps, Erik

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Hello Mardene, No have not used this as a teaching tool. Perhaps little more information. I may try it with my students and let you know. By the way, I wondered if you could shed some light on how further education colleges promoting   fairness, quality and social justice in relation to educational opportunities and professional experience?

Dawn

Hi Mardene. I have used it as a teaching tool for the following subjects:

1) Interpersonal Communication

2) News writing

It can be very useful especially if they are asked to work in groups and among their members and other classmates they  can interact actively via the blog. It also opens up avenues for outsiders to comment making it more of a global platform for learning besides the typical classroom audience.  It trains them to write and gauge how audiences will react to their topics, so its no longer just to get grades alone but they have a reputation to maintain as blog writers etc.

Most importantly blogs give them a form of ownership, something they own, a sense of belonging that increases their responsibility and in-turn their willingness to take a more active role in learning.

I think as long as the subject requires forms of interaction you can use blogs to create rooms for exchange of ideas and information .

Dear Mardene,

I see a lot of practitioners' posts here. I wonder if their answers with "I do this" are really helpful.

Your question is " how persons feel about using [blog] as an educational tool."

I posted earlier one single reference. If you follow it up, you will find research works by LIsa Deng on teachers' perception of using Blog as a teaching tool. She has done empirical research on this.

Cheers

Absolutely... microblogging too...  

Blogging, like any active learning strategy, needs to be relevant and authentic.  There are many ways to achieve this as some previous respondents have indicated.  Many LMS have embedded blog systems that can be utilised for just about any subject.  They needn't be text heavy; most blog tools can accommodate a variety of media.

I think there are some very effective ways to combine blogging with a variety of learnign activities - we've used a curation strategy that is effectively a blogging exercise to foster enquiry, information literacy and interdisciplinary engagement.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262300998_Digital_Curation_opportunities_for_learning_teaching_research_and_professional_development

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272158083_Indigenous_perspectives_on_integrating_learning_technologies_in_a_tertiary_enabling_program

Conference Paper Digital Curation: opportunities for learning, teaching, rese...

Conference Paper Indigenous perspectives on integrating learning technologies...

Hi Mardene,

Please allow me to clarify. Are you referring on the use of personal (professional) blog as teaching methodology or making online platform (free or internally-developed)? We're currently taking advantage of this learning technology given the schedule, being working professionals, and the location of our students. Materials are uploaded as well as discussions for the students to interact in the thread. The challenge for us is the connectivity. But generally, it's a good learning strategy.

Hi Mardene, we used blogging to help final-year writing students as they went on their internships and developed their portfolios. I have attached the paper from that project. Gteat topic! Dawn :)

Hi Mardene,

I recently used a blog to teach my Ed Tech class. Please have a look at egerton-ed-tech.blogspot.com/2014/11/edci-351-bed-science.html 

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Hi Mardene,

Four years ago I started to use blog as learning tool for students of the Faculty of Agriculture (I'm teaching biostatistics). I actually use three on line tools: 1) the blog, where I post slides from the course, similar exercises that I use on seminar, 2) a facebook account associated with this blog (students subscribe to this page and they are informed when something new appear on blog or students can send chat messages when they have questions) and 3) educational platform edmodo.com.

p.s. I could give an URL for my blog, but the blog is writen in Romanian languages

Hi Mardene,

I use bloggs regulary to teach Spanish as a foreign language. We use them with university students. ~They post videos, comments and they interact with other students in the commentary section. If you are interested in these type of bloggs, I can send you the links.

Marta

Not only do my Secondary students have a class blog, which they seem to use for homework queries generally- you may care to look at a colleague´s Chemistry blog, Mr Steve Sheriff, in which he has an entire secondary subject curriculum from 11 - 18 and various other delights such as photos, links and associated work and planning. This admirable blog also has the side effect of fulfilling all management desires for recorded planning and is a valuable tool for students( as well as for other staff).

qlnp.blogspot.com

We use blogs regularly with teachers in our technology grad class to show them how to set up and use a blog. They tell weekly how they integrate technology in their classrooms and add links to student projects. This semester we are using blogs with undergraduates to share with students in literacy block in two other universities how we integrate technology in literacy practicum. Excited to see how this collaborative venture goes!

Hi Mardene,

Here is a paper we wrote that outlines the use of blogging in an educational context.

This paper primarily focuses on educational blogs as an engagement and reflective tool for accounting students and how they can improve educational outcomes for accounting students.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242096685_New_paradigms_in_the_teaching_and_learning_of_accounting_Use_of_educational_blogs_for_reflective_thinking

Hope it is of some help.

Regards,

R

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A good Question Blogging is a good tool but It is one way teaching But I think the use of Social media can be more effective like especially for Education https://www.edmodo.com/ social network for the Students teachers and parents.......................best of Luck.......................

Thank you all so much for your responses. I am going to go through all of these in more details.

I am working on this... I keep a blog (www.andreaugfonseca.blogspot.com) with data, teaching and learning resources, important links, instructions for students etc. Nevertheless, there is too little response (no comments) from the students. Maybe 1) they are not too willing to read and to write comments and 2) the internet connection available is too poor.

I used blogs within Moodle modules, the blog which students actively engage with, acts as "idea sharing and support." The students see this as been informal and the content is directly related to their current needs. This creates issues for the HE learners as it results in most students have very similar in text referencing and reference lists, so I have to limit which modules I provide the "idea sharing and support" blogs on.  However, this is a great tool to foster collaborative learning on project-based learning, when the students are allowed to use it informally.  I often post questions which challenges the quality and/ or usefulness of the weblink or comment to stimulate critical thinking.  

Edublogs https://edublogs.org/ are used systematically for that purpose. Perhaps you will find a research on the use of this platform per subject and level among their own blog posts.

Yes, dear Mardene, I use blogs and blogging to inspire my architecture students to acquire better communication skills, become more daring in expressing themselves, and more inclined to eventful dialogue. These skills are very important especially because they probably  will never work on an architecture project by themselves, but always in a group. Besides, blogging is quite fun. I let them create blogs of any subject and for whatever purpose, but they must explain their blogs to their classmates and may become better critics of the work of others.

I have been blogging for many years, and I have a quite large readership, considering I have a rather erudite blog. The good thing is that I have had visitors from all countries on the planet, from some countries more than others, but the fine thing is that I can share insights, theories, and information with others that are interested in the same subjects I follow. It is great to blog. If you want to peek into my blog, it is titled Bodegón con Teclado (Still Life with Keyboard):

https://bodegonconteclado.wordpress.com

Best regards, Lilliana