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A blog is a
website with entries that are in reverse chronological order. All blog
entries can be assigned tags by the creator of the blog. These tags are called
labels which can help in the search, archiving and categorizing of posts. The
term Weblog was conceived in 1997 by John Barger to describe an emerging method
of Web-writing (King & Cox, 2011). Nowadays, the
majority of colleges and universities use an LMS (Learning Management System)
to enhance or deliver their courses.
A Learning Management System is a web-based application whose objective is to assist instructor in delivering
their courses to their students. Blackboard is he most popular and used
learning management system; however, some colleges and universities are
creating their own LMS. There is also the open-source learning management
system, Moodle that is used by many school districts to supplement junior high
and high school courses (Machado & Tao,
2007).
Within the Learning Management System is the ability to create a discussion
board. It is an instructor’s tool to enhance a face-to-face class, support a
hybrid course or use for an online course. It provides experiential
learning opportunities for students and encourages critical thinking. A
discussion board can be as simple or sophisticated as an instructor
wants to make it. (Magnuson, 2005).
Is learning centered
on an individual’s environment? Does it matter what a person observes and
experiences for it to have an influence on how they assess information?
According to advocates of the social learning theory a person’s environment,
observations and experiences impact attention, retention, reproduction and
behavior. All of this is crucial to how and what a person learns.
How does all of this
relate to online learning? A virtual world is much different than face-to-face
interaction. If blogging is to be utilized, instructors must expand beyond
student discussion boards. Students must be thoroughly engaged and connected in
an online course and if blogging is incorporated correctly, this will be
accomplished.
Students believe they
are more involved through blogging. It feels more like a community because it
is more personal and they can apply the course material to their lives, beliefs
and experiences. Blogging produces more personal writing because students write
with their own voice. They can connect their learning experiences to other
students.
Discussion boards
tend to be less personal and more academic and it is similar to being in a
standard classroom where the instructor dictates the knowledge and students
seldom participate. It is less social, personal and encouraging. The lack of
community between students is apparent because students do not engage as
personally as in blogging ("Blogging vs Threaded Discussions").
Blogging as reflective practice in the
graduate classroom. (2011). In K. P. King,& T. D. Cox (Ed.),
The professor's guide to
taming technology (p. 90). Charlotte, North Carolina:
Information Age Publishing.
Blogging vs Threaded Discussions in Online
Courses | Connected Principals. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/6431
Brooks, L. M. Blogs vs wikis vs forums. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubdhy4oOMcM Inc.
Magnuson, C. (2005). Experiential learning
and the discussion board: A strategy, a rubric, and
management techniques. Distance Learning, 2(2), 15-20. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.er.lib.k-state.edu/docview/230714208?accountid=11789
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