Blogging in K12 Research

www.teachinghacks.com

Quentin was looking for K12 research papers, peer reviewed journals and studies, and have been staying away from magazine articles for now.

Here is what he found as of June 2007 on the topic of Blogging in K12. If you have any suggestions that speak directly to K12, rather than Higher Education, he would love to here about it.

Among the key findings for Quentin

•A majority (78%, n=56) of individual entries demonstrated some level of reflective writing.

•The results of this study give insight into the efficacy of blogs when used by middle school educators. These results demonstrate the potential usefulness of blogs in promoting reflective practice with practicing teachers. However, results do not demonstrate that blogs are being utilized effectively for reflective purposes.

•Weblogs provide an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue.

•The characteristics of weblogs such as the personal space it provides and the linkages with an online community create an excellent computer–mediated communication context for individual expressions and collaborative interactions in the form of storytelling and dialogue

•As a performance predictor, weblogs appear to be more appropriate than traditional course work. Capturing breadth and depth of topic coverage, and requiring students to place their work under public scrutiny appears to better prepare them for a comprehensive final exam and overall course performance.

•Weblogs enhance the traditional learning log, which facilitates cognitive constructivism, with collaborative elements, which facilitate social constructivism.

•based on the results of this research, instructors might consider the following recommendations when designing and implementing online learning environments that incorporate peer feedback:

1. Help students understand not only how the peer feedback process works, but why it is being used (e.g., to provide additional feedback, to better gauge postings).
2. Model and provide examples of effective feedback prior to implementing the peer feedback process.
3. Provide guidelines regarding how to provide effective peer feedback, such as “always begin with positive feedback and then offer information on areas for improvement.”
4. Monitor the process and, in turn, provide feedback on the feedback, at least initially, to help the process run smoothly and to allow students to benefit from the strategy.
5. Ensure that the feedback is anonymous so that students can provide ratings without feeling pressure from peers. (My caps, not Quentin’s)
6. Use multiple peer ratings for each response in order to provide an aggregated view of the value of the response.
7. Ensure that the process is easy for students to implement so as not to overwhelm them.

The focus of this reading is on using good grammar, spelling, and punctuation - by comparing online writing to offline writing. The answer to this seems - well - obvious. I mean, who marks the grammar of an IM conversation?

1. Students do adhere in some fashion to standard conventions in both classroom compositions and online writing; however, the former endures inconsistent application, and the latter suffers a downright shoddy performance.
2. Students who write via e-mail, IM, and/or blogs show worse usage of standard conventions than those students who do not write online except when it comes to thoroughly poor users of conventions. Then, online communicators demonstrate a slightly better command of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
3. Students, for the most part, do switch gears when writing in different situations.

Quentin D’Souza, www.TeachingHacks.com, has long been on the cutting edge of educational technology. For years Quentin has taken a leading role in a number of online projects that have focused on providing teachers with classroom resources, and opportunities for professional development. - Peter Aguiar - Point and Click Academic Technology News