By Anand Ramchand. Department of Information Systems, NUS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPAKvOwb64s&p=83FA1CD871F4A4E5 The majority of our students are intimately familiar with blogs as a communication medium, having consumed their content on a regular basis. Creating content on a blog, on the other hand, is an exercise in reflection and can be used to stimulate deeper thought in students. Together with the social interaction and collaboration that occurs in blogging, the technology is an ideal platform to engage students in the individual and social processes of knowledge construction. However, administering an exercise that requires students to blog regularly throughout a semester poses several challenges. In this presentation, I share my experiences in using student blogs to encourage active and reflective learning, and some of the practices that worked (and those that didn't) to achieve this.

1. BLOGGING FOR REFLECTIVE LEARNING
BEST PRACTICES & WORST MISTAKES
Anand Ramchand
Department of Information Systems
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The Context - IS1103 Computing & Society
! Global ethical, social & legal
vacuums around use of IT
! Objectives:
! Awareness, Sensitivity
! Exploration
! Need for reflection
FISHEYSTREAM
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2. Reflective Learning
! Form of deeper mental processing in learning
! Active & critical thinking, understanding
! Draws out personal experiences and assumptions
! Forces reorganization of thoughts for application & analysis
! Catalyst for sense-making
! Several forms - concept maps, essays, forums, wikis, blogs
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ANNIEMOLE
Blogging
! Online publishing platform
! chronological
! easily updated
! interaction via readers
! Write once, read anywhere
! web, RSS readers, aggregators
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3. Platforms
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Blog.NUS
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4. Why Blogging?
! Social interaction to support knowledge construction
! Ownership over thoughts and understanding
! Informality promotes engagement
! Enhance writing and communication skills
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Guidelines for Students
! Group blogging - 3 to 4 students (44 groups)
! Each student had to make 4 posts in the semester
! Group blog accounted for 10% of grade
! Comments counted toward individual participation (10%)
! Wide umbrella of topics or focused on a single domain
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5. Results
! 668 vs.
1200 posts & 600 comments
! Creative output
! video, audio, text
! jockeying for eyes
! Deeper insights and reflection?
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Best Practices - #1 Easy Access
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6. Aggregated on NetVibes
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Best Practices - #2 Grading Criteria
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7. Relevant - bare minimum, irrelevant posts
won’t get any score.
Descriptive - description of current state
of affairs
Analytical - draws a logical sound
conclusion
Normative - identifies ethical principles
and values being affected, evaluates effect,
claims of good/bad and ethical justification
Multi-Perspective - considers different
perspectives involved before making claims
Engaged - demonstrates thorough
involvement
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Best Practices - #3 Use Lecture Time
! 10 minutes set aside during each lecture
! Highlight both good and bad posts
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8. 15
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9. Best Practices - #4 Student Feedback
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Other Best Practices
! #5 - Group Effort instead of Individual
! internal group improvement efforts
! #6 - Use of Checkpoints
! avoid end of term crunch
! #7 - User Identities
! essential for grading
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10. Worst Mistakes
! #1 - Keeping up the
momentum
! Spent 12 hours a week
reading and
commenting - it wasn’t
enough
! Heavy reliance on
tutors, but hours are a
problem
! Momentum is vital
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Worst Mistakes
! #2 - Blogging by instructors /
tutors
! Capability constraints
! Time constraints
! #3 - Discussing the legal issues
! students need to realize
who is reading their content
! awareness of NUS IT policies
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11. Success? Failure? Recommended?
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