Using Blogs to Encourage Collaboration

The article titled Using web logs as a tool to encourage pre-class reading, post-class reflections and collaboration in higher education reviewed how students used blogs to help them complete pre-class reading assignments and post-class discussions.

Several benefits of blogs were discussed. This included the ability for students to see each other's work, the ability of students who don't have personal websites to share with others in cyberspace and the ability for students to learn to be analytical (Al-Fadda & Al-Yahya, 2010). When used for students whose English is a second language, using blogs helps students learn English more thoroughly (Al-Fadda & Al-Yahya, 2010). Forcing students to blog can encourage students to learn new vocabulary and work with other students to determine the best use for English. Lastly, English is the international language of websites so using blogs to help students learn English better will help the students over the long term (Al-Fadda & Al-Yahya, 2010).

Issues faced by students used in the study included a lack of instructor presence on the blogs and difficulty of the level of readings discussed on the blogs (Al-Fadda & Al-Yahya, 2010.

Reading this study allowed me to look at blogs in a different view, as a tool for students to teach them a language. Having the information public can add additional pressure to ensure the information posted and the language used is accurate. I'm not surprised that the study found blogs can come across with low professor involvement and found that it is difficult for students to collaborate and have a vibrant discourse when classes use blogs.


References:
Al-Fadda, H. & Al-Yahya, M. (2010). Using web blogs as a tool to encourage pre-class reading, post-class reflections and collaboration in higher education. US-China Education Review, 7 (7), 100-106.