Blogging: Extending the Classroom Beyond the Meeting Time
In the Spotlight: Dr. David Betts and Bill Endres
Blogs are becoming more common in educational environments where instructors
want to continue classroom discussions online.
Stuart Glogoff, senior consultant, Learning Technologies is leading the LTC’s blog initiative. He has worked with UA faculty interested in incorporating blogs into their teaching, including two profiled here: Bill Endres, teaching advisor in the Department of English, and Dr. J. David Betts, assistant professor of literacy and technology, College of Education.
What are blogs?
Traditionally, a blog — more formally known as a Web log — has been a personal journal available on the Web. A blog is typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to publish to the Web. Over time, blogs morphed into online forums in order to discuss and comment on professional issues.
Extending the classroom
Bill Endres has a goal to “extend the classroom beyond the time the course meets in person.” In the past, he used e-mail groups and online learning communities but they didn’t allow people the ability to easily keep track of their own messages. The blog, on the other hand, allows the coherence and progression to stay intact.
Technology as subject and tool
Dr.
Betts teaches courses related to technology, literacy and the arts for the
Department of Language, Reading and Culture. For him, technology is both a
subject and a tool and he has recently had great success in incorporating
blogs into his own teaching. Dr. Betts also likes the idea of “extending
the communication” beyond classroom meetings.
How the blogs were used
In
Endres’ fall semester Freshman Composition course, each student was
given his or her own blog, prompted to post responses to issues set out by
the instructor and also encouraged to contribute to classmates’ blogs.
He also encouraged students to read and analyze newspaper stories on current
issues and post their thoughts. Reading their postings the night before the
face-to-face class, he came to class knowing “what intrigued them, what
confused them and what piqued their curiosity.” This combination of
online and in-person communication allowed the students to “become immediate
players in the conversation,” he felt.
Dr. Betts set up similar expectations in his course called Reading, Writing and Text. As a formative experiment in so-called new literacy’s, he required students read three other classmate’s blogs and make their own entries regularly.
While both instructors were concerned some students might struggle with blogging, they found that most responded well. Some students at first held back until they’d had an opportunity to read others’ comments and some chose to respond personally to posts rather than blog. However, the majority adapted easily.
Endres believes that requiring posting and having students see and respond to their classmates’ postings, was important as it “encouraged those less naturally inclined to model the others’ behavior.”
Dr. Betts reports the experience even encouraged some of his students, who were teachers, to try blogs with their own K-12 students. He also reports some being reticent to participate in the blogs.
Building community with blogs
Some disputes and disagreements that started in class were actually resolved on the blogs, Endres says, adding, “The technology was absolutely suited to this particular class.” Both instructors reported increased participation on the online blog community versus the face-to-face meetings.
Dr. Betts held before and after course surveys, finding some enlightening comments on the technology:
- “I never talk in class but I was an active participant on the blog.”
- “Using this technology lifted the conversation to a new level.”
- “Blogs created a vibrant discourse community.”
The role of the LTC
Would either of these instructors been able to incorporate blogs into their
courses without the LTC? Dr. Betts knows he would have eventually taught himself
how to set up one but doing so for each student would have been more difficult
and time consuming.
While both of these instructors would certainly consider themselves technologically savvy, both praised the role played by the LTC’s Stuart Glogoff.
“The idea of having the LTC as a resource is incredibly important,” offers Dr. Betts. Bill Endres admits he loves playing with new technology so he tends to “stay in contact with the LTC to keep up with what the university is experimenting and investing in.”
Consider Blogs
To consider a blog for your class, review our Blog page or contact Stuart Glogoff’s at stuartg@email.arizona.edu. Stuart has used blogs the past several summers in an online course he teaches for the School of Information Resources and Library Science and would be glad to share his experiences.
