Thursday 12th June
Gathering information
Much time has really been spent on research; both of papers and of writing up the report. One of the difficulties has been in targeting information that is specific to the blogging for assessment issue; much reading has not been fruitful as when I ‘step’ back I realise the paper is more about collaboration and wikis, or motivation and retention, or comparing and contrasting the technological capabilities of VLEs versus Web 2.0 use (very interesting in itself, but again not relevant). The focus then becomes unclear and I appreciate I cannot include all of these threads, as there would be too many theoretical ideas to justify within such a short report.
New papers uncovered that may be of some value to me are –
Using blogging for higher order learning in large cohort university teaching: A case study; Brett Farmer, Audrey Yue and Claire Brooks Australasian Journal of Educational Technology2008, 24(2), 123-136 - An Outstanding Paper Award recipient, ascilite Singapore 2007 Conference http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet24/farmer.html (accessed 10/06/2008)
Modelling blended learning environments: Designing an academic development blog, G. E. Lefoe and W. Meyers
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=asdpapers
The issue of blogging as somewhere between a reflective journal and a portfolio of assessment evidence seemed to strike a chord with me as well; http://lttf.ieee.org/learn_tech/issues/october2006/index.html#_Toc148658501 and http://electronicportfolios.com/reflect/whitepaper.pdf (this also provided an excellent diagram of the balancing of portfolio assessment as a test versus as a story – very interesting.
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/news/erecord/2005-06/0327/best.html - discussed that credit had, in 2006, been given for a law student who blogged; "Blogs can transcend the ivory tower of legal academia by providing information to the general public. Not only prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges were using his blog as a resource, but relatives of criminal defendants and crime victims were using it as well. These are people who would never pick up a law journal." There are indeed a number of
“blawgs,”(http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/2006/02/academic_bloggi.html) on the law front, which link to the usefulness of blogs as developing practice and feeding this into academic credit. I see this is linking back to the issue of whether blogging is an unusual blend of personal and the social construction of knowledge.
I also received a response from the CMI regarding ethical guidelines for research –
‘I’m not aware of any guidelines specific to the Institute but many higher education institutions have their own guidelines. The following may also be helpful:
ESRC Research Ethics Frameworkhttp://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/opportunities/research_ethics_framework/
Research Guidelines from the British Educational Research Associationhttp://www.bera.ac.uk/publications/guides.php
You might also be interested in a forthcoming research report from the Institute: Generation Y: Unlocking the Talent of Young Managers which looks at managers’ uptake and use of blogs. The report is due for publication tomorrow and you should be able to download a summary from www.managers.org.uk/research. All the best with your project, …’ (09/06/2008)
I will certainly review the new report, as this has implications for the type of students who may be participating in the diploma course. I have also asked for a definitive answer on the validity blogs as assessment evidence and will hopefully receive that soon.
I feel I now have a sufficient range and depth of literature on the subject – I have reached the point where it would be difficult to review many more papers in any detail. Time to step back and ‘pull out’ the ‘big issues’, to justify my proposal…
Thursday 12 June 2008
Sunday 8 June 2008
Useful blogs?
Useful blogs?
One of the key things that I wanted to bare in mind when looking at blogging research was the usefulness of the blogs – I wanted these to be k-logs (bodies of knowledge) which were in fact reflective diaries; this is the only way I could see the blogs being useful and for it to be possible to submit the work as assessment evidence.
A number of papers, notably from the teacher training and medical training professions, (Sauer et al, 2005; Stiler and Philleo, 2003) were uncovered and it is interesting to see that students saw the importance of their k-log as a record of occurrences as well as integrating this with applying theoretical perspectives.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41 - was particularly interesting as this set the context well for the use of blogs to record professional research (both formal and informal) and developed the idea of the benefits of allowing others to share and comment on the blog. While much is also written about wikis (‘…from the Hawaiian wiki, to hurry, swift…’ as it states within this paper), this will not be part of this project.
Of much interest is this article -
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/22_Farmer.pdf - as there are clear references to the theoretical perspectives I would envisage taking, such as thoughts from SchÖn, Boud and Vygotsky. Additionally, the paper set its research within HE students, which is again relevant to my proposal; the quote of ‘…the application of weblogs in an education setting will, at best, have a limited impact if due consideration of these developing communication dynamics are ignored…’
So, lots of reading and summarising to do…
I have also been looking at the project requirements and have decided to do Project A, the research proposal. In considering this I thought the best idea, in the absence of a pro-forma to complete, was to work round the flowing headings –
Introduction
Background
Literature review
Methodology
Resources and feasibility
Limitations and ethical considerations
Expectations
Likely further research
Recommendations
I still need to try to try to find some institutional guidance on the ethical issues, as no policy appears to be in place.
References
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41/
Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education
Maged N Kamel Boulos, Inocencio Maramba and Steve Wheeler
BMC Medical Education 2006, 6:41doi:10.1186/1472-6920-6-41 (accessed 01/06/2008)
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/22_Farmer.pdf
Blogs @ anywhere: High fidelity online communication
James Farmer and Anne Bartlett-Bragg
Faculty of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia (Accessed 01/08/2008)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1525-1594.2004.29005.x
Thoughts and Progress "Blogs" and "Wikis" Are Valuable Software Tools for Communication Within Research Groups Igor M. Sauer, Dominik Bialek, Ekaterina Efimova, Ruth Schwartlander, Gesine Pless and Peter Neuhaus Artificial Organs Volume 29 Issue 1 Page 82-83, January 2005
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LDTMpFYZQnPJlh8wyf7dnxrxkJctvW2jHYyP5Ghw8kGqbzCzgN1Z!-500149612?docId=5001961901 Blogging and Blogspots: An Alternative Format for Encouraging Reflective Practice among Preservice Teachers Journal article by Gary M. Stiler, Thomas Philleo; Education, Vol. 123, 2003
One of the key things that I wanted to bare in mind when looking at blogging research was the usefulness of the blogs – I wanted these to be k-logs (bodies of knowledge) which were in fact reflective diaries; this is the only way I could see the blogs being useful and for it to be possible to submit the work as assessment evidence.
A number of papers, notably from the teacher training and medical training professions, (Sauer et al, 2005; Stiler and Philleo, 2003) were uncovered and it is interesting to see that students saw the importance of their k-log as a record of occurrences as well as integrating this with applying theoretical perspectives.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41 - was particularly interesting as this set the context well for the use of blogs to record professional research (both formal and informal) and developed the idea of the benefits of allowing others to share and comment on the blog. While much is also written about wikis (‘…from the Hawaiian wiki, to hurry, swift…’ as it states within this paper), this will not be part of this project.
Of much interest is this article -
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/22_Farmer.pdf - as there are clear references to the theoretical perspectives I would envisage taking, such as thoughts from SchÖn, Boud and Vygotsky. Additionally, the paper set its research within HE students, which is again relevant to my proposal; the quote of ‘…the application of weblogs in an education setting will, at best, have a limited impact if due consideration of these developing communication dynamics are ignored…’
So, lots of reading and summarising to do…
I have also been looking at the project requirements and have decided to do Project A, the research proposal. In considering this I thought the best idea, in the absence of a pro-forma to complete, was to work round the flowing headings –
Introduction
Background
Literature review
Methodology
Resources and feasibility
Limitations and ethical considerations
Expectations
Likely further research
Recommendations
I still need to try to try to find some institutional guidance on the ethical issues, as no policy appears to be in place.
References
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/6/41/
Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education
Maged N Kamel Boulos, Inocencio Maramba and Steve Wheeler
BMC Medical Education 2006, 6:41doi:10.1186/1472-6920-6-41 (accessed 01/06/2008)
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/22_Farmer.pdf
Blogs @ anywhere: High fidelity online communication
James Farmer and Anne Bartlett-Bragg
Faculty of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia (Accessed 01/08/2008)
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1525-1594.2004.29005.x
Thoughts and Progress "Blogs" and "Wikis" Are Valuable Software Tools for Communication Within Research Groups Igor M. Sauer, Dominik Bialek, Ekaterina Efimova, Ruth Schwartlander, Gesine Pless and Peter Neuhaus Artificial Organs Volume 29 Issue 1 Page 82-83, January 2005
http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LDTMpFYZQnPJlh8wyf7dnxrxkJctvW2jHYyP5Ghw8kGqbzCzgN1Z!-500149612?docId=5001961901 Blogging and Blogspots: An Alternative Format for Encouraging Reflective Practice among Preservice Teachers Journal article by Gary M. Stiler, Thomas Philleo; Education, Vol. 123, 2003
Monday 2 June 2008
A week thinking about it.....
Considering my thoughts last week, I see that I have actually come up with aspects of blogging which are very diverse and could not possibly be addressed in such a short piece of work. I also wonder if all are relevant to evaluating what ‘knowledge’ is out there, which would actually provide information to conduct further research of my own.
I have to really dismiss the second question straight away; firstly, due to the limitations of the ICT available within the institution, I would likely be discussing a range of political issues which could arise from evaluating the ‘best’ technology and access. I’m not a ‘techie’ – I am interested in the use of the technology and not how it works (or, in this case, should work). With the range of blogging tools available, perhaps basing a model of embedding learning outside the restrictive VLE would be a sensible choice. While it is clear even at this stage that if research was to be carried out within this context, the issue of access and reliability would be crucial, I am selecting to not address this for the purposes of this project.
So, would it be useful to explore what has been researched on learners engaging with blogs for reflective writing? Possibly; initial searches have uncovered this theme from teacher training courses and medical faculties. However, I am now thinking that addressing the last question may be linked to the engagement of the medium and be a motivation for blogging. If learners are to be encouraged to use a blogging medium, it seems only fair that credit is gained from this. The attitude of ‘what’s in it for me?’, even among …… learners, suggests that some ‘enticement’ is made to use the tool
What would be the benefits of using blogs as an assessment method? This topic is of interest to me, not least because, as educational institutions and awarding bodies strive to address the widening participation agenda (HEFCE, 2001; DFES 2006) and the diversity of student needs increases, ‘new’ methods of teaching, learning and assessment must be considered. If blogging is increasingly acceptable as a medium of communication, could these texts perhaps contribute to earning academic credit towards qualifications?
As well as the widening participation theme, the issue of the assessment tool is valid; will students use this and/or learn from this? I also need to consider some theoretical perspectives, such as reflection (very relevant for practising managers) and pedagogical issues such as my beliefs in learning through collaboration and the use of peer feedback. Additionally, I should clarify the setting within which I am viewing any research to be evaluated; this is specifically for a professional qualification - the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 5 Diploma in Management. This earns 60 CATS points and involves a number of reflective learning activities within a range of modules, such as managing resources, recruitment and selection and other management areas of professional development. Students are from diverse organisations and generally learn much from each other, through classroom activities. However, time constraints are high and attendance (for 6 hours per week) is often complained about.
This has now given me more ‘food for thought’ and my plan is to look for existing research on blogging for assessment, management blogs and reflective blogging.
I have to really dismiss the second question straight away; firstly, due to the limitations of the ICT available within the institution, I would likely be discussing a range of political issues which could arise from evaluating the ‘best’ technology and access. I’m not a ‘techie’ – I am interested in the use of the technology and not how it works (or, in this case, should work). With the range of blogging tools available, perhaps basing a model of embedding learning outside the restrictive VLE would be a sensible choice. While it is clear even at this stage that if research was to be carried out within this context, the issue of access and reliability would be crucial, I am selecting to not address this for the purposes of this project.
So, would it be useful to explore what has been researched on learners engaging with blogs for reflective writing? Possibly; initial searches have uncovered this theme from teacher training courses and medical faculties. However, I am now thinking that addressing the last question may be linked to the engagement of the medium and be a motivation for blogging. If learners are to be encouraged to use a blogging medium, it seems only fair that credit is gained from this. The attitude of ‘what’s in it for me?’, even among …… learners, suggests that some ‘enticement’ is made to use the tool
What would be the benefits of using blogs as an assessment method? This topic is of interest to me, not least because, as educational institutions and awarding bodies strive to address the widening participation agenda (HEFCE, 2001; DFES 2006) and the diversity of student needs increases, ‘new’ methods of teaching, learning and assessment must be considered. If blogging is increasingly acceptable as a medium of communication, could these texts perhaps contribute to earning academic credit towards qualifications?
As well as the widening participation theme, the issue of the assessment tool is valid; will students use this and/or learn from this? I also need to consider some theoretical perspectives, such as reflection (very relevant for practising managers) and pedagogical issues such as my beliefs in learning through collaboration and the use of peer feedback. Additionally, I should clarify the setting within which I am viewing any research to be evaluated; this is specifically for a professional qualification - the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Level 5 Diploma in Management. This earns 60 CATS points and involves a number of reflective learning activities within a range of modules, such as managing resources, recruitment and selection and other management areas of professional development. Students are from diverse organisations and generally learn much from each other, through classroom activities. However, time constraints are high and attendance (for 6 hours per week) is often complained about.
This has now given me more ‘food for thought’ and my plan is to look for existing research on blogging for assessment, management blogs and reflective blogging.
Tuesday 27 May 2008
Project background
This blog is primarily to record my progress of research and thinking regarding the use of blogging for assessments, for the ECA component of the Open University course H809. This does not mean, however, that all material will be used for the ECA, nor is the intention to end the blog on completion of the course. It is anticipated that the blog will be a record of my progress as well as a depositary of resources, for possible future research in this area.
Being a great believer in recent widening participation strategies, particularly looking at the use of different assessment strategies to support the success of non traditional learners at HE level, I enrolled for this course with the intention of finding out more about blogs and wikis and to assess if the use of these could be 'doable' within professional management courses. Although I work as an Associate lecturer with the OU, am also currently employed at a management and business centre, where I am involved in CMI (Chartered Management Institute) and ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) courses. These classroom-based courses could offer opportunities to embed blogs and or wikis to enhance the student experience.
'If blogging is increasingly acceptable as a medium of communication, could these texts perhaps contribute to earning academic credits towards qualifications?'
As technology improves and social networking widens, blogging appears to be emerging in many spheres; from personal diaries and ‘family albums’, to special interest groups (both leisure activities and in a vocational/professional sense). So, to firstly clarify what blogging is, the simple answer of being a contraction of the word ‘web log’ is true; however, a range of definitions include -
A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
…Blogs evolve around a certain subject, be it a personal blog where the "blogger" writes in first person, or a political blog, commentary on local news and so on. ...www.dottraffic.com/glossary/
…Web pages that work as a journal that our normally updated daily. Blogging sites can provide excellent information on many topics, although content can be subjective.www.le.ac.uk/webcentre/help/glossary.html
Like an online dairy. This can be about and be used for anything at all, it can be used for news, reviews, products etc for a business, organisation etc. This is great as it helps the user stay in touch with the website with new and up to date information.germworks.net/blog/2007/02/11/web-jargon-explained/
But why blog? One study (Nardi et al, 2004, available online at http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1031607. 1031643 ), which looked at this, proposed that there were three main types of blogs being created -
Personal online diary or journal formats
A source of information from and on other websites (known as ‘filters’)
A body of knowledge on particular subjects (I shall refer to these as ‘k-logs’)
It was noted that most blogs (70%) were of the personal journal type and that blogging was seen as a social activity. One issue I feel particularly relevant was the idea that
‘Bloggers desired readers, but wanted controlled interaction, not the fast-paced give-and take of face-to-face or media such as instant messaging’ (p223).
Nardi et al (2004) also suggested that bloggers were motivated to blog in order to
Update others on their lives
Express opinions to influence others
Seek other’s opinions and feedback
‘Think by writing’
Release emotional tension
It is the aspects of ‘thinking by writing’ and receiving feedback which are of greatest interest to me here.
These initial ideas form the basis of my first questions -
- Would learners engage with a blog facility for writing up their reflective practice?
- What technology and access issues would afford blogging as an embedded course component?
- Would blogs be a valid method of assessing learning outcomes?
Being a great believer in recent widening participation strategies, particularly looking at the use of different assessment strategies to support the success of non traditional learners at HE level, I enrolled for this course with the intention of finding out more about blogs and wikis and to assess if the use of these could be 'doable' within professional management courses. Although I work as an Associate lecturer with the OU, am also currently employed at a management and business centre, where I am involved in CMI (Chartered Management Institute) and ILM (Institute of Leadership and Management) courses. These classroom-based courses could offer opportunities to embed blogs and or wikis to enhance the student experience.
'If blogging is increasingly acceptable as a medium of communication, could these texts perhaps contribute to earning academic credits towards qualifications?'
As technology improves and social networking widens, blogging appears to be emerging in many spheres; from personal diaries and ‘family albums’, to special interest groups (both leisure activities and in a vocational/professional sense). So, to firstly clarify what blogging is, the simple answer of being a contraction of the word ‘web log’ is true; however, a range of definitions include -
A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
…Blogs evolve around a certain subject, be it a personal blog where the "blogger" writes in first person, or a political blog, commentary on local news and so on. ...www.dottraffic.com/glossary/
…Web pages that work as a journal that our normally updated daily. Blogging sites can provide excellent information on many topics, although content can be subjective.www.le.ac.uk/webcentre/help/glossary.html
Like an online dairy. This can be about and be used for anything at all, it can be used for news, reviews, products etc for a business, organisation etc. This is great as it helps the user stay in touch with the website with new and up to date information.germworks.net/blog/2007/02/11/web-jargon-explained/
But why blog? One study (Nardi et al, 2004, available online at http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1031607. 1031643 ), which looked at this, proposed that there were three main types of blogs being created -
Personal online diary or journal formats
A source of information from and on other websites (known as ‘filters’)
A body of knowledge on particular subjects (I shall refer to these as ‘k-logs’)
It was noted that most blogs (70%) were of the personal journal type and that blogging was seen as a social activity. One issue I feel particularly relevant was the idea that
‘Bloggers desired readers, but wanted controlled interaction, not the fast-paced give-and take of face-to-face or media such as instant messaging’ (p223).
Nardi et al (2004) also suggested that bloggers were motivated to blog in order to
Update others on their lives
Express opinions to influence others
Seek other’s opinions and feedback
‘Think by writing’
Release emotional tension
It is the aspects of ‘thinking by writing’ and receiving feedback which are of greatest interest to me here.
These initial ideas form the basis of my first questions -
- Would learners engage with a blog facility for writing up their reflective practice?
- What technology and access issues would afford blogging as an embedded course component?
- Would blogs be a valid method of assessing learning outcomes?
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