Week 9, Assignment 1: Research on Blogging

"The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation

Hui-Yin Hsu & Shiangkwei Wang (2010): The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation, Literacy Research and Instruction, 50:1, 68-88

This article summarizes new research on the effectiveness of utilizing blogging to improve comprehension and learning motivation among college students.  The research is particularly timely given the relatively fast rates of adoption of technology in education.  Moreover, it is thought-provoking to future educators like me as we consider how to incorporate technology in the classroom in instructionally-effective ways. While the results of this research on using blogging did not show measurable gains in students’ reading performance or learning motivation, they raised some points which should be considered for future research and debate. 

Primarily, the research concludes that students who used blogging developed a learning community that helped students support each other.  One significant impact of such a community could be the increased retention rate as compared to a group of similar students who had not engaged in blogging for the same class.  The increased level of support may have helped students deal with difficult academic or social situations, understand new learning concepts, and realize that frustrations are often shared by others in the same situation.

Additionally, the use of blogging offered students another form to express themselves beyond in-class discussions and demonstrate their knowledge and comprehension.  Not only does the interactivity of blogging foster a deeper discussion of the topic or lesson among students, it gives instructors more opportunity to assess the interest in a subject, clarify misunderstandings, provide more meaningful context and examples, and gain evidence in students’ deficiency or proficiency.

A key takeaway from this research is that upfront and ongoing support for instructors is critical to allow them to maximize use of technology.  As with all new things, there will be a varying degree of comfort among educators with technology.  It would be wrong to assume that all instructors will have the skills, knowledge and comfort to effectively incorporate new technology like blogging in the classroom.

As a future educator, I am enlightened by this research on how I can utilize blogging in a classroom.  Specifically, I know that a solid knowledge base and comfort level of such a tool would be a necessary first step.  I also know that the tool needs to match the objective.  Based on these results, a proper objective to utilizing blogging could be to offer differentiated forms of expression and knowledge to students who feel more comfortable in this medium.  Also, the use of blogging could help deepen the knowledge of a topic among students and create a stronger sense of community. Depending on the grade level of my future students, I can envision having them blog about their activities during a long school break like at the end of the calendar year.  That would be a fun way to keep students engaged and help build a rapport that will translate into the classroom learning environment.