When reading an example comment on a blog in class today it occured to me that blogs are a very difficult format for assessment. The example comment on this case was overly focussed on form rather than content and as such gave the blogger critique on better ways to blog. I imagine that in assessing a blog there is considerable weight given, if only at a sub-concious level on the part of the marker, to the layout and form of the blog itself. The introduction of blogs and wikis into academic study is often difficult for teachers as...
they are often stymied by institution-level requirements for particular assessment schemes or the measurement of particular kinds of ‘learning outcomes’
(Bruns & Humphries, 2005, p. 3).
It was put to me that we have become overly focussed on assessment but on doing some further reading I discovered that assessment is so closely linked with a student's learning that it is impossible to separate the two. Assessment is the way in which we show what we have learned and gain feedback as to whether what we think we have learned is in fact what we were supposed to learn. According to Boyer assessment tasks are inextricably related to the quality of learning for the student, in fact:
[g]ood teaching is inseparable from good assessing.
(1995, p. 104).
We are the first generation of digital natives and the internet is our homeland. We are a generation used to fitting a complex message within the limited characters of a single text message without regard for grammar or spelling. For many of us a blog is about expressing ourselves and it is a format the lends itself very well to our free and easy use of the english language, lol. "[F]or those... who are beginning to take the first, wobbly steps towards using blogs in the classroom" (Farrell, 2003). finding the balance will be a difficult task.
The benefits of using blogs in an educational setting are well recognised as Windham reports, the great thing about blogs used by students as a learning tool, "according to students and faculty, are the openness and the chance to interact with their peers." (2007, p. 5). However, she goes on to warn that students might not necessarily be as interested in this great new medium in fact “[t]hey probably see it as homework and not some new thing” (McColluch cited in Windham, 2007, p. 8).
There are millions of blogs on the internet and therefore there are millions of different ways to blog. Presumably this means that there is no wrong way to blog. This has raised some important questions for me in relation to the way that I approach my blogging exercise. Initially I was enthusiastic about blogging but the requirement to combine an opinion based format with an academic style has presented some obstacles for both my peers and I. According to Windham students often experience difficulties integrating grammar and style rules into their blogging (2007, p. 9 ). For this reason it is suggested that faculty should grade on content and reflection, not format or grammar (Mollihan cited in Windham, 2007, p. 9).
As John Grohol points out ‘blogs require constant feeding, nurturing, and attention, far more than ordinary Web pages’ (Grohol 2002). Perhaps this personal and time consuming format is not one which is easily adapted to an academic environment? After all, how can you assess the true "value" of an individual's contribution? Isn't that up to the masses of cyberspace to decide?
Boyer, E. L. (1995). The Basic School: A Community for Learning. New York: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Bruns, A., & Humphreys, S. Wikis in Teaching and Assessment: The M/Cyclopedia Project. In D. Riehle (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2005 International Symposium on Wikis, New York: Association for Computing Machinery.
Windham, C. Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog. Educause Learning Initiative. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3010.pdf
Farrell, H. The street finds its own use for things. Out of the Crooked Timber of Humanity, No Straight Thing Was Ever Made. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from http://crookedtimber.org/2003/09/15/the-street-finds-its-own-use-for-things
Grohol, J. (2002). Psychology of Blogs (Weblogs): Everything Old is New Again. Psych Central. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://psychcentral.com/blogs/blog_new.htm
6 comments:
I feel that blogs are important outside of the personal setting when it comes to developing one's professional personal branding (see http://del.icio.us/hansua/mediaprofessional) online. I think that this assignment is a good exercise to think about and develop skills in using blogs beyond the personal context. Academic context? I'm not sure, but definitely when it comes to graduate careers. I have included a link to my 'media/communication' blog (not the KCB201 one) in several CV's that relate to media and communication job applications (and have been successful at a couple). Some people have talked about HR and potential employers searching one's public profile online. If that practice is becoming more common, I think that professional/academic blogs is a great way to have control over your online "personal brand".
Blogs emerged in New York after the September 11, as many New Yorkers felt it a place to recount the events and aftermath whilst communicating to the rest of the world about their personal experience (Flew, 2005). Blogs were used by the New Yorkers as a personal reflection of the events unfolding around them.
A simple browse through other blogs listed on Blogger.com, illustrates that the number of personal reflection blogs far outnumbers those "academic" discussions and blogs. This may be as a result that not all academic are online and aware of blogs as a resource for communicating to the world. But the rise of the use of blogs in such instances of the 2007 federal election demonstrates the use of blogs as a commenting tool not as an academic setting.
COMMENCE THE BLOG TRAIN
My response = http://theexplosionblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/do-blogs-subjective-assessment.html
I am glad that you raised this topic, Isha. I too feel that blogs are personal, somewhat reflective and very hard to judge objectively.
In an online community it is believed that everyones ccontribution is important, and no less important, than anyone elses - because without the first idea, the others would not have been able to grow, develop and evolve.
As far as academic blogs go, it is frustrating for students of this subject as we are expected to be knowedgable about a topic that until recently we knew nothing about. Most academic blogs are written by experts of their respective fields.
Finally, I think that as a university assignment the total word count and work load for this one piece of assessment is far too full on.
It is great to be able to see/ comment on everyone elses work though.
I agree that assessing someone’s Blog could be a potentially controversial and a dangerous practice unless it is done in a way that reflects an individual’s contribution and commitment to their Blog rather than the content they are posting. There is issue’s relating to Blogs that relate to all virtual cultural environments. Such as security and personal information issues, internet language versus academic language, copyright, intellectual property and the reality that virtual cultures are constantly changing. They are also changing in a way that no one can predict, which could have unforeseen consequences.
I feel it should be more how the student interacted with the Blog interface and how well they managed to keep it updated, rather than a criticism or celebration of their academic language and academic style of writing. As Isha states in her entry “According to Windham students often experience difficulties integrating grammar and style rules into their Blogging (2007, p. 9 ). For this reason it is suggested that faculty should grade on content and reflection, not format or grammar (Mollihan cited in Windham, 2007, p. 9).”
Virtual Cultures is relatively new phenomenon and the fact that someone is able to grade your contribution to this online environment is quite hard to understand. The fact it is a new part of our society and generally is only understood by the younger half of the population is indeed an insight into the future of our society; everything is going global, worldwide, online, virtual or interactive. There are no real ‘experts’ on virtual cultures, (just researchers), and at best it is more a social experiment and as Time magazine explains “it could fail”. I also think that anonymity is one thing people enjoy about the web and assessing someone’s entries and keeping tabs on their entries, in a way, encourages people to write what others would want to hear, rather than what they really think. Even if this is a sub-conscious action, inevitably students of assessment Blogs know their entries are going to come under scrutiny in one way or another. In turn resulting in personal opinions unable to be expressed and true reflections just buried deeper. Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t this in a way go against the whole purpose of Blogging?
References:
Grossman, L. Time’s Person of the Year - You – Time. 2008. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html (Accessed May 10, 2008).
Windham, C. Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog. Educause Learning Initiative. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3010.pdf
Firstly, congratulations on a beautifully balanced post. I found it a truly interesting read.
I work part time in a school, working predominantly with high school students. One of the activities we regularly undertake is a discussion blog, similar to the one established for the KCB201 tutorials. The reason that we partake in this ritual is that it is mandatory for teachers who are operating under the umbrella Education Queensland to complete what is known as a 'ICT certificate' (interactive computer technologies certificate). A component of this ICT certificate is to prove (or rather demonstrate with 'real world examples') how the teacher is integrating new media technologies into their teaching practices.
To me, the main problem of blogs in educational institutions lies not in the integration of the technology into learning practices (there are instances when blogs undoubtedly add great value to the lesson being taught), but in the forced integration of this writing style into areas where it is not suitable. Writing a blog is a skill, in the same way as writing a formal essay or a recipie is a skill. However, we clearly understand that both these styles have their place; we wouldn’t start our formal academic paper with ‘take a pinch of the dialgolue grown by Mason (1998) and add to a half a cup of the opinion of Fitzpatrick’. We understand that each style has it’s place and purpose, and the same understanding needs to be reached regarding blogging.
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