The article on "The impact of using blogs on college students
reading comprehension and learning motivation"
was very interesting and surprising to me. I would have
thought that using blogs would have more impact on improving
reading skills, reading performance and motivation but it did not.
It did however, affect the retention rate of students withdrawing
during the semester. Less students withdrew from the class and
the instructors believed that this was because the interaction
among students in the blogging groups was much greater than
in the control group. It was interesting to see that students who
did not feel comfortable expressing their opinions in class tended
to discuss more controversial issues on blogs and in the classroom.
So the blogs became an equalizer enabling all kinds of students to
express comprehension and share their opinions outside of the in
class discussions. The blogging students would also use blogs to
explore conversation topics that were of concern. It helped some
students with assignments, school learning, life as a college student
and friendship and family issues. I feel like this enhancement and
interaction is something that not only pertains to college students
but even younger grades as well. When I was younger, I was always
afraid to ask questions, so I believe blogging would have been a
great benefit. For me, the important thing to take away from this
article is how teachers perceived the blog and were not really ready
to embrace everything that the technology had to offer. Professional
development is definitely needed to help integrate technology into
the college context and college teachers need to have the
technology skills and pedagogical training that is necessary. It would
also be interesting to redo this study in about 5 to 10 years to see if
using blogs has increased in the college classroom and what the
outcome on students will be.
Susan, I like how you talk about students feeling more willing to post on blogs then participate in class. I think this is an interesting concept because some students feel more comfortable typing things rather than saying it out loud. I think if teachers can use blogs and classroom discussion then they can balance the communication portion of their class for all students.
ReplyDeleteSusan in reading your post I was not necessary surprise about the reading skills not increasing when blogging. I say this because if you are not taught how to read to comprehend and make connections, then one is just reading and not getting anything from the reading as a whole. Blogging enhances the communication between peers and teachers. Some students do not like talking in class and blogging gives them the opportunity to say something without all the eyes and embarassment if the answer given is incorrect.
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