Blogging was unknown to me until I arrived in Australia. Now as a requirement for Assessment 3 I am required to blog. The first natural question to be asked will be what is bloging? A search in the internet for answer indicates that blog is a short form of the term “web log” which was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997. The information technology revolution as a result of web 2.0 has seen blog becoming a learning tool for the 21st century education. Hourigan and Murray (2010) suggest that there are currently two popular types of blogs used for academic purposes in content producing namely (1) multi-authored collaborative group blogging and (2) single-authored reflective blogging. They identified three different categories of academics that frequently set up and post on their individual blogs in order to examine the generic features for blog writing task. The concluded that blogging develop specific reflective communicative skills for learners.
Scientific literature suggests that one area of academic use for blog is learning through reflection. Brandt (2008) indicates that reflective conversations between teachers and students when integrated as a practice both the teachers and students could benefit from it. Through peer feedback, reflective journal writing, and reading, teachers could uncover the obstacles and discover how their teaching beliefs need to change in order to implement transformative teaching strategies (Sockman and Sharma, 2008). Blogs can stimulate reading and motivate learning (Yang, 2009) for language learners.
Hollenbaugh’s (2009) investigation on why individual maintaining personal blog identified the following motives.
1. Helping/informing
2. Social connection
3. Pass time or relieving boredom
4. Exhibitionism
5. archiving/organizing
6. Professionalism
7. To elicit feedback or advice
References
Brandt, C. (2008). Integrating feedback and reflection in teacher preparation. ELT Journal, 62 (1), 37–46.
Hollenbaugh, E. E (2009) Motives for Maintaining Personal Journal Blogs. CYBERPSYCHOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING Volume 14, Number 1-2, 2011
Hourigan, T & Murray, L. (2010) Investigating the emerging generic features of the blog writing
task across three discrete learner groups at a higher education institution. International Council for Educational Media http://www.informaworld.com
Sockman, B., & Sharma, P. (2008). Struggling toward a transformative model of instruction: It’s not so easy! Teaching and Teacher Education, 24 (4), 1070–1082.
jerome201 