Teaching with Technology Blog—Using Technology to Enhance Your College Teaching

Sharing information or thoughts and having others respond to them is an effective strategy to get students and teachers to communicate and evaluate ideas in a short period. One way to share scholarly information is by using a blog.  Blogs are electronic documents or websites where a community of learners discuss events, post comments or just give their views about a variety of subjects. Chai and Kim (2010) state that  blogs  are innovative knowledge sharing technology in which bloggers can share the information with others ,the information could be text, video, or audio-based materials. A formal assessment of recent research has indicated that blogs are used as reflective learning tool that assists students to improve learning and collaborative sharing. According to Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2011) blogs emphasize the social aspects of the internet as a medium for communication, collaboration, and creative expression.

Using blogs as a teaching and learning tool will help students develop self-discipline as well as their time - management skills. Blogs will also, assist students to become active self-regulated learners and help them acquire basic and complex personal knowledge management skills. The integration of blogs into the teaching and learning process is important in the classrooms of the twenty- first century. Today’s college students are digital natives, they have an essential attribute for digital technologies, as they’ve been integrated into their lives since early childhood (Puybaraud & Hahn, 2012). Incorporating blogs into my teaching practices has the potential to start significant educational innovations; however, blogging has challenges. Some of the disadvantages include the fact that many students are self-conscious about others seeing and critiquing their work. Privacy issues can also be a challenge, many teacher and students are unwilling to share views in an open environment.  High level of trust is needed.  Blog can play an important role in teaching and learning of most students in spite of the challenges. The true potential of blogs in colleges can be seen when students and teachers use them as publishing tools. The best way to fully recognize the value of blogs as a teaching and learning tool is to become a blogger.  Educators should blog to show students that it is something of value and to model appropriate ways of doing it. Also, it is important that students, parents, and administrators are clear about the expectations and the reasoning for using the blogs. Many students are already blogging, so they are attracted by the blogging tool and will be comfortable with it being used as a teaching aid. The main reason for incorporating a blog into my teaching is that it gives me another strategy to observe and monitor my students’ progress and identify their learning needs.

Blogging is a new experience for me. As I reflect on the skill and knowledge I have acquired over the past eight week I am left with a positive impression about the positive effects that the integration of blogs into the teaching and learning process can have on both learners and teachers. My experience with blogging has made me realize that Learning on demand is becoming a type of lifestyle in the classrooms of the twenty-first century. Learners are constantly seeking information to address a problem at work, school, or to just satisfy a curiosity. Students are now taking advantage of blogging and other digital and networked technologies to seek and share information. I am now able to fully appreciate the fact that Blogs provide educators with the opportunity to connect with students in a manner that continues to provoke thought and discussion outside of the classroom setting. The use of blogs encourages learners to behave in such a way as to have an effect on each other and may increase engagement and interest in the course content.

References

Chai, S., & Kim, M. (2010). What makes bloggers share knowledge? An investigation on the role of trust. International Journal of Information Management, 30(5), 408–415. Retrieved from the Walden University Library databases.

Puybaraud, M., & Hahn, H. (2012, February). Digital natives: A tech-savvy generation enters the workplace. Workplace Design Magazine. Retrieved from http://workdesign.co/2012/02/digital-natives-a-tech-savvy-generation-enters-the-workplace.

Kitsantas, A., & Dabbagh, N. (2011). The role of Web 2.0 technologies in self-regulated learning. New Directions For Teaching & Learning, 2011(126), 99-106. doi:10.1002/tl.448