Weblog As A Learning Tool In Higher Education

New technologies have an important effect on changing higher education. Using technology also has effect on improving learning and teaching in education and especially higher education. Now some universities and institutes use these technologies to apply virtual and distance education but there are another approaches to use them. Weblog is one of them. Weblogs can be used in conventional universities along side the traditional classroom. This paper review the importance and advantages and results of using weblog in universities by surveying the projects and researches that conducted in this subject all over the world. Using weblog because of easy to learn and apply is growing up every day. And this is a good opportunity to develop using weblogs in traditional universities. Weblog provide a good opportunity for collaborative learning and communication between students and teachers even among the students. This approach is based on constructivism theory. Knowledge rather than being transmitted through instruction is constructed or created by learners as they build their own cognitive structures. Teacher’s role is not giving the information to students but is guiding them during the instruction. Usage of the weblog helps to this aim. Results of research have shown that using weblog help users to develop literacy skills, critical thinking skills, knowledge construction ability, cooperative learning, academic development and etc.

___

  • Anderson, K.H. (2004). Student’s use of weblog: Weblogs for collaboration in an educational setting. The University of Bergen, Department of Information Science and Media Studies. Available from https://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/1177
  • Ardito, S. (2002). Plagiarism, fabrication, and lack of attribution. Information Today, 19 (7) ,pp. 16-17.
  • Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (1994a) . Promoting reflection in learning: A model.
  • In D. Boud, R. Keogh & D. Walker (Eds) , Reflection: Turning experience into learning London: Kogan Page Ltd. Campbell, A.P. (2003). The experience of computer supported cooperative learning using weblogs in the university classroom: A phenomenological case study. MEd, University http://www8.ocn.ne.jp/~apc33/meddissertation.pdf cited May [on-line] Available from:
  • Coutinho, C. P. (2007a). Cooperative learning in Higher Education using weblogs: A study with undergraduate students of education in Portugal. Proceedings of the 5th
  • International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications (EISTA 2007). (pp. 60-64). Orlando, EUA.Julho.
  • Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology since 1920.
  • New York: Teachers College Press. Davenport, T. H. & L. Prusak. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. [on-line] Available from: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0450.pdf
  • Dickinson, G. (2003). Weblogs-can they accelerate expertise? Ultralab MA dissertation in Education.[on-line]Available from: [Accessed 20 January 2004] http://www.participo.com/files/ma/do_weblogs_accelerate_expertise.pdf
  • Du, H.S., & Wagner, C. (January, 2005) . Learning with weblogs: An empirical investigation. In HICSS '05: Proceedings of the Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii
  • International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-38) . Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society. Efimova, L., & Fiedler, S. (2004). Learning webs: Learning in weblog networks.
  • Proceedings of Web-based communities. 24-26 March 2006, Lisbon, Portugal.
  • Fernheimer, J. W. & Nelson, T. J. (2005). Bridging the composition divide: Blog pedagogy and the potential for agonistic classrooms [cited 24 March 2006]. Available from: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/currents/fall05/fernheimernelson.html
  • Johnson, R. T. & Johnson, D. G. (1994). An overview of cooperative learning.
  • In J. Thousand, A. Villa and A. Nevin (Eds) . Creativity and collaborative learning. Baltimore, Maryland: Brookes Press. Also available on the web at: http://www.co-operation.org/pages/overviewpaper.html Hollingworth, R. W., & McLoughlin, C. (2001). Developing science student’s metacognitive problem-solving skills online.Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 17, 50-63.
  • Fialkoff, F.& Stlifer, E. (2002). Bringing order to an unruly web. Library Journal, 127 (7), p. 2.
  • Howard, R. M. (2002). Don’t police plagiarism: Just teach . Education Digest, 67 (5), pp. –50.
  • McConnell, D. (2000). Implementing computer supported cooperative learning
  • London/Sterling: KoganPage. Mejias, U. (2005). A nomad’s guide to learning and social software. The knowledge tree: An e-journal of learning innovation. Visited 10 Dec 2006, Available from: http://knowledgetree.flexiblearning.net.au/edition07/download/la_mejias.pdf
  • Miles, A. (2002). How might I use a blog in teaching? Weblog entry, computer support for collaborative learning, 2003, University of Bergen, Norway. Available from: http://submission.intermedia.uib.no/movable/collogatories/archives/000016.html
  • Mortensen,T. & Walker, J. (2002, March). Blogging thoughts: Personal publication as an online research tool . In A. Morison (Ed.), Researching ICTs in context. InterMedia report. University of Oslo, Retrieved June 29,2005, available from http://www.intermedia.uio.no/konferanser/skikt-02/docs/researchingictsincotext
  • Oravec, J. A. (2003). Blending by blogging: Weblogs in blended learning initiatives.
  • Journal of Educational Media, 28 (2-3) , pp. 225-233. Richardson, W. (2004). Metablognition. Weblogg-Ed. Retrieved October 26, 2006. [on- line]Available from: http://www.weblog-ed.com/2004/04/27
  • Robertson, Chuch and Whiting, Wythe. (2006). Weblogs: Building an academic community in cyberspace. [cited 5 May 2005]. [on-line] Available from: http://profchunck.edublogs.org/files/2006/02/weblogs.pdf
  • Turban, E. & Aronson, J. E. (2001) . Decision support systems and intelligent systems.
  • New Jersey, Prentice-Hall,Inc. Walker, J. (2003). Final version of weblog definition, at http://Huminf.uib.no/~jill/archives/blogtheorising/finalversionofweblogdefinintion.ht ml , posted in Jill/txt Saturday, June 28, 2003, last visited 25 January 2004
  • Wang, F. & Bock. (2004). Blogs: Useful tool or vain indulgence? Elearn2005-World
  • Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education Wang, K. T. Jeng, Y.-L. Huang, Y. M. Wang, T. I. (2007). Applying dynamic blog-based learning map in web tutoring assistances. LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE.
  • Germany: SPRINGER-VERLAG. Williams, J.B. and Jacobs, J . (2004) . Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational technology, 20, 232
  • Xie, Y., & Sharma, P. (2005). Students' lived experience of using weblogs in a class: An exploratory study. Chicago, IL: Proceedings of the Annual Conference for the Association of Educational Communications and Technology. [cited 24 October 2006]. Available from: http://eric.ed.gov/ericdocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/2b/c6 /bc.pdf