July 25, 2011 | By: Nick Morris

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Blogging: Using a blog in eLearning

One thing I have been doing for a few years is using a blog in my teaching (see BGM Blog). Now, I will admit that it is not the worlds greatest blog, and that it doesn't attract a lot of comments, but in its defence I will say, judging by the server logs, that it does see quite a bit of traffic, mainly around exam times (odd that!?), so there must be some people using it.

The reason I started my student blog was because I am lazy (see my earlier post on The Nature of Blogging (pun intended)), and I found that every year I was being asked the same sorts of questions by students, and I was sending back the same answers. It then occurred to me that a possible solution may be to run a student blog and instead of sending back the answers by email point the students to a more complete and comprehensive answer on the blog.

So, having run the blog for a few years, what do I use it for, and what are the problems (there will be a series of posts after this one covering the software I use for blogging)?

'Stock Answers'

Well, this was why I started the blog in the first place, that is, to have a repository of stock answers that I could provide to the students, and which, if they wished, they could comment on and enhance.

The 'stock answers' side of the blog has worked well (in my opinion). I am slowly building up a series of answers to the common questions I get asked, and it is handy to be able to 'point' students to one given answer, through which they may find other useful information relevant to their course (I tend to use the categories to sort blog posts in to relevant modules). In addition, this approach also ensures that different students in different years are getting the same answer, so I am being consistent.

Repository for 'other' information

I also use the blog as a repository for other information. This generally comes in two forms: 1. Reading Lists (this has the advantage of being easily updated and copied from year-to-year); and 2. My tweets.

Part of my 'being lazy' is to "Write once, publish many", and this is something I do with Twitter, and my student blog. That is, all the Tweets I send out also get published directly to my student blog. And, if I think a Tweet is relevant to a module (e.g. it may be a Tweet about a scientific paper, or an interesting website) then I will tag the Tweet with a hashtag of the module code, e.g. #cmb2005. Another plus is these Tweets will soon vanish from my Twitter Stream, but will remain captured, and searchable by tag, on the student blog.

Openness

Another great plus for blogging for your students is you open up the course to others, and you may pick up some useful comments and ideas in the comments from people who are not on the course.

There is also the fact that you may raise your profile (see Blogging, funding and ‘impact factor’, or even contribute to the debate on a particular scientific topic (see Peer review: Trial by Twitter).

Getting Students Involved

One of the potential uses of blogging is to engage the students with the subject, however, this can be tough.

In the type of blog I run for my students it is not really a 'debating' place, but more an information repository, hence the lack of comments I guess. The use of blogging in discussion and peer review is nicely highlighted in the Nature piece "Peer review: Trial by Twitter", and is something certainly worth exploring.

And if you are looking for a guide in how to set up a class blog and getting the students involved then you might like to have a look at: Student Blogging Activity 1 (Beginner): Setting Up Your Class Blog].

Career Enhancement

There is also an argument that blogging can enhance your career and your profile as a researcher and an educator, for examples see Science Blogging and Tenure and You Aren’t Blogging Yet?!?. However, there is also still some confusion over the role of blogging in science (see The elephants in the room at ScienceOnline 2011), and there is always the potential that blogging may do your career more harm than good….

Push and Pull

Finally, one of the great things about blogging is students can decide how they get the information. They could visit the blog daily, they could subscribe to the blog RSS feed (see Do you speak my language: R is for RSS, Router, Root, Ruby), or even receive an email of updates (if that service is available). Or, if you updated Twitter when you posted to the blog they could follow you on Twitter, and then hop to the blog. The bottom line is there are multiple ways the students can pick up the information, and you will then be "Pushing, and not pulling your eLearners".

Problems with Blogging

There are a number of problems with blogging. First, in most cases, you do need a certain amount of computing expertise to be able to install and maintain the software (unless you are lucky enough to have a local IT department that can maintain it for you). There are also the usual problems that are associated with any computer software, namely, use of poor usernames and passwords and the use of outdated or insecure code, all of which might mean you open up your system for attack and/or misuse.

Another problem with blogging is it may take up quite a bit of your time (well, at least initially). If you are using a student blog as a repository of information then this initial lost time will be made up many times over as you can point students to the resource of, say, stock answers. However, if you plan to write a blog similar to the one you are currently reading, that is, you have a series of new posts every week, then you will not recover the lost time.

And finally, be careful, blogging (especially the non-repository type blogging) as you can reveal certain personality traits that may not want the world to know!

So, come on, as the article said in TheScientist - You Aren’t Blogging Yet?!? Why not?

Image Credit: Wikimedia

1 Comment

July 25, 2011 | 05:46 PM

Posted By: Nick Morris

Just came across an interesting piece on the Times Higher Education (THE) site about blogging - "Inside Higher Ed: Who is punished for plagiarism?" (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=416927#.Ti1r4SRslLw.twitter).

Last week I read the original post - "Why I will never pursue cheating again" (http://behind-the-enemy-lines.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-i-will-never-pursue-cheating-again.html#disqus_thread) mentioned in the THE. Unfortunately you can't read the original article as it has now been removed (you can still read the 148+ comments it received) although the THE does give a good summary.

What the above illustrates is the power and the pitfalls of blogging, the interest blogging can generate, and why we all need to be careful about what we post.

Blogging: Using a blog in eLearning

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