Blogs, Tweets, and Protests: Learning Movement Theory through Online Case Studies

Blogs, Tweets, and Protests: Learning Movement Theory Through Online Case Studies - This article takes the practical inquiry model as an approach to designing a course on social movements that combines self-directed investigation and group discussion as an avenue for deep learning. For the purpose of developing a case study, a guided approach is provided that allows the students to explore theory on their own and make connections to the case material they discover online. In the process of developing the case study, students are required to journal about their experience and what they discover as they comb through their selected sites. The data can include several elements (e.g., blogs, chat rooms, Facebook, twitter, publications, photos, links to other groups, history, etc.).

When i complete in reading this journal i realized that this journal takes the practical inquiry model as an approach to designing a course on social movements that combines self-directed investigation followed by group discussion as avenues for deep learning. The paper provides a guided approach that allows students to explore theory independently and make connections to the case material they find online. Apart from engaging students in theory, our approach also becomes an effective vehicle for demonstrating the work necessary to conduct historical, unobtrusive, and online ethnographic studies without spending much time on the nuts and bolts aspect of research methods. This article presents a guide for developing a case study by using social movement website data. This data not only serves to aid students in completing a case study, but also allows students to explore social movement theory concepts.

Read This One : Blogging at university as a case study in instructional design

Source :
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
2016, Volume 28, Number 1, 119-124
ISSN 1812-9129

Author :
José A. Muñoz From California State University (San Bernadino)
Kenneth R. Culton From Niagara University

Direct Link :
www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/

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Blogging at university as a case study in instructional design

Blogging at university as a case study in instructional design - The potentials of ICT such as blogs seem to be obvious, universities find challenges in using them pedagogically. For example, there is dissonance between blogging and pedagogy, or rather a gap between rhetoric about blog potential and blog practice, which has prompted this investigation and professional development in the use of blogs at the University of New England. Preliminary findings show fundamental implications for professional development in pedagogical uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Blogs are primarily personal journal and opinion entries, which enhance a feeling of social interaction. Through a blog, a person gets a feeling of belonging in a wide range of professional activities such as psychological therapy, law, journalism, and research. To provide a justification for the pedagogical use of blogs, Papacharissi considered blogs to be ‘transformational communicative technologies, which, according to Framer et al. allow users to connect and become part of an active social corpus, while exercising and legitimating their personal expressive spaces. Blog users inherently expect social transactions, communication, personal assertion and empowerment through blogs.

Related Journal : Blogs, Tweets, and Protests: Learning Movement Theory through Online Case Studies

The currently described project in the journal that I read is part of a larger research designed to gain a better understanding of how blogs might be used more effectively in university contexts. Further research is necessary and is being conducted in the area of pedagogical use of blogs. The findings reported in this paper have proved to be helpful in structuring the second phase of this research about the adoption of ICT in university education, and the attendant need for professional development in the pedagogical use of ICT tools such as blogs.

Source :
International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology

(IJEDICT), 2010,
Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp. 14-29.

Author :
J. W. F. Muwanga-Zake, M. Parkes and Gregory, S.

University of New England, Australia

Original article at :
ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=796

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Using Social Media to Reinforce Environmental Learning And Action-Taking for School Students

Using Social Media to Reinforce Environmental Learning And Action-Taking for School Students - These class experiences reinforce the research findings but suggest it is not a simple process to fulfill this transfer of learning on a broader scale across classrooms. Unless environmental educators and teachers share a similar conceptualization of the role of trips in curriculum, little follow-up with respect to action-taking may occur.

Trips may become simply a fun self-contained learning experience. Clarifying educational philosophy with the teachers beforehand is important. There is also a contradiction between environmental educators aiming for transfer of learning and action-taking while simultaneously encouraging teachers to dictate their own aims for the trip experiences. Participatory discussions and training involving teachers and environmental educators would seem particularly valuable. Unfortunately in many contexts due to financial limitations and practical pressures, environmental organizations and schools frequently prioritize content and logistical discussions over broader consideration of trip roles and aims.

Related Journal : The Use Of Blogs In Learning English As Foreign Language

Environmental educators typically do not have the resources to provide this additional help for the teachers. The teacher is left to her or his own devices while feeling pressure to move onto additional curriculum outcomes, sacrificing the actual doing of the actions, yet action taking is a key element of developing action competence. If resources are constrained, should organizations cut back on the number of programs they offer so as to direct resources to the follow-up action-taking back at school? These are hard decisions and funding organizations often value number of children participating over the longer term learning impacts.

Social media can have a valuable educational role only if teachers are comfortable with its use and have a clear conception of how to facilitate its use in the classroom. In-service training can play an important role in suggesting the benefits and answering the how-to questions, but it must be participatory in nature if it is to influence those teachers who focus on the negative aspects of technology in children’s lives. Social media provides positive opportunities for environmental educators if they employ it with careful consideration and thoughtful discussion with teachers. Students greatly value and benefit from appropriate social media interaction, the challenge is bringing teachers to this realization and helping them gain the
skills to utilize it.

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