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