abed6107d-fall09 - home

University of West Georgia 
Course: ABED 6107 
Instructor: Dr. Sunil Hazari 
 
Group Members: 
1.) Nicola Ball 
2.) Frank Florian 
3.) Katrina Matthews 
4.) Hope Oremegue 
 
 
Journal Article Critique 
 
Article Reference: Ellison, N. B., &amp; Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122. 
 
Summary: 
In their article “Blogging in the Classroom: A Preliminary Exploration of Student Attitudes and Impact on Comprehension,” Nicole Ellison and Yuehua Wu discuss their findings on students’ stance on using blogs in the classroom. The authors focused on two main issues: the helpfulness of specific characteristics pertaining to educational blogging and other attributes of blogging such as giving and receiving feedback. Ellison and Wu conducted their research in a nonrequired undergraduate course that contained 68 students made up of mostly juniors and seniors during the fall semester of 2005. Students were required to complete “a series of short (one to two pages) writing assignments over the semester as part of their graded requirements for the course,” where three of the assignments were submitted via hard copy and the other three were posted online (Ellison and Wu, 2008, p. 108). When posting their work online, students used their own weblogs, before uploading their URL to a course management system for grading. Ellison and Wu provided further research which explained that “active learning experiences are superior to passive models of instruction” and discuss the use of discussion boards, electronic portfolios, and weblogs in higher education (Ellison and Wu, 2008, p.101). With this paper, the authors shed light on a subject that is becoming more relevant in classrooms today. 
 
 
 
Author's Findings: 
Mixed reactions with student’s opinions were found at the end of the research. Students were encouraged to use the informal writing style and the interactivity with blogs assignments when reading other ideas from students. In addition, students liked the idea in getting feedback on their own blogs. However, students did not like the idea of being forced to critique other’s ideas, the idea for negative feedback or writing feedback that may be insulting to others, remembering different passwords and the uncertainty whether the assignment was received by the instructor was stressful and aggravating. 
 
Students suggested that they gained most of their understanding by reading other blogs and not necessarily their own blogs. It was interesting to find out that students did not find helpful the feedback from their own entries, but yet they found more interesting the ideas found in other blogs. This was probably due to the diverse ideas and perspectives found in their peers’ blogs, as opposed to their own ideas. Students were also discouraged by the lack of effort put into the posts that some students did make to their blogs. 
 
Blogging may encourage students to write their own ideas and opinions in their own voice and style; this might be beneficial for some instructors while others might disagree. 
 
 
Critique/Analysis: 
While reading the findings I found too many limitations that in my opinion this research might not necessarily point out the true benefits of using blogs in the classrooms. I think that the group of students chosen for this research might not have been the right one. The students were all from the same class and were more versed in the use of technology. Also, students were given extra credit to participate, so it would be difficult to determine the real reason for involvement in the study. The lack of direction from the instructor led the study in a negative direction. Woo (2009) talks about how the successfulness of the blog relies heavily on the discussion topic and the guidance given. The instructors failure to do so made it stressful and difficult for students to comment on their peer’s blogs. When doing this type of research a more diverse group should be chosen, there needs to be detailed instructions, the instructor and/or researcher should monitor the students progress and their postings to ensure that right ideas are backed up with references and that students are actually using critical thinking. Woo (2009) also suggested that instructors should teach students how to respond to web posts. If this was to be implemented, blogging would lose its purpose of accessibility to different opinions. If bloggers are given a guideline as to the sound and product of their critics or comments, it would take away the creativity of blogging because comments would be tailored according to rules and specifications instead of sincerity and honesty. 
 
The findings and documentation of the article is too complex. One would consider the irony since blogging requires very little technical knowledge and is meant to promote critical thinking while facilitating learning. The results given by the author were difficult to follow, leaving the reader confused. The author gave some very good statistical information in the beginning of the article, like the fact that amongst persons between the ages of eight and eighteen, there exposure to media was more than 8.5 hours per day, however, the age of those in the study exceeded this and nothing further was discussed. Although the author used headings to separate the topics, the article still did not flow well and was very hard to follow. The author could have used more relevant and less confusing examples to describe the process of their research and results in conclusion to educational blogging. 
 
Educators should not attempt to utilize blogging to teach all the class assignments. Weblogs would be much more useful as a class project, to encourage critical thinking, as well as to inspire creative writing. Weblogs would also be useful as a resource to assist students with the development of analytical thinking, in an effort to raise confidence and enhance their skills in public speaking. Since many bloggers write in an informal style, it might be challenging to teach students how to write professionally using blogs, therefore it has its disadvantages. However, wikis offer educators a collaborative environment in which to interact with students and students with each other, they teach students how to work in well within a group, which is very important in a world where creating knowledge and sharing information requires team effort (Richardson, 2009, p.69). 
 
References: 
 
Woo, H. L., &amp; Wang, Q. (2009). Using weblogs to promote critical thinking - an exploratory study. Proceedings of World Academy of Science: Engineering &amp; Technology, 37, 431-439. 
 
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for the classrooms. California: Corwin Press.