Seírbhísí TF UCDUCD IT Services Blogs as Reflective Learning Tools Niall Watts Educational Technology Officer 5 th Annual Teaching & Learning Conference, NUIG, June 2007

Aims of Research Do students learn from blogging? –How to measure learning? –Reflection & Collaboration –Learning Style (Kolb) Active or Reflective Individual or Collaborative –Blogs promote reflective learning? Background to Research –Open University –Hype about new technologies –Little educational research –Methods criticism – student evaluations

Blogs in Web 2.0 Context

What is Reflection (Reflective Learning)? Reflection describes the processes where learners explore their experiences to gain a better understanding and appreciation of their learning (Boud, 1985). Many students find reflective learning difficult and initially resist it… Properly implemented blogs can help bring about reflective learning (Bartlett- Bragg, 2003).

Kolb’s Learning Styles Based on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory –Accommodating: intuition, people –Assimilating: logic, theory –Converging: practice, technology –Diverging: imaginative, group work Which would you expect to be reflective/collaborative ? Reflection Assimilating Diverging Collaboration Accommodating Diverging

Learning Styles Critique Valid & Reliable (Kolb) 71 theories of learning style. 13 major (Coffield) Doubts – usefulness & validity

Case Study Students using blogs for course work Multimedia & Communications Minimal scaffolding Develop critical writing and thinking skills “Tool for creative thought perceived electronically”

Methods – Learning Style Student Consent Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory –Statements match a phase in Kolb’s Learning Cycle –Results plotted on graph –Students scored themselves –Discussion

Methods – Text Analysis Blog posts coded for reflection using heuristics (Hatton & Smith) Risk of subjectivity Writing categorised as reflective (or not):

Student Blogs

Methods – Collaboration Count number of comments made/received by classmates Count classmates listed as ‘Yahoo! Friends’ Online community?

Methods – Triangulation Kember’s Questionnaire on Reflection –Agree/disagree 16 questions on their learning Blogging habits questionnaire (10 questions) –Do you enjoy blogging? –Does it help you to learn? –Do you/read comment on your classmates blogs?

Results – Blog Analysis One third of posts reflective One third of comments reflective 1 comment for 3 posts suggests collaboration Yahoo! Friends suggests online community

Results – Learning Style Converging Learning Style dominant among bloggers: –Four keenest bloggers –One non-blogger

Results – Reflective Learning Triangulation: –Kember’s & own questionnaire -Most students highly or somewhat reflective -All bloggers highly or somewhat reflective

Conclusions Bloggers reflective & collaborative learners Unexpected Result – Converging Learning Style –Not associated with Reflection or Collaboration –Skills with Hypermedia (Kolb) –Practical, hands-on Sample bias? –Students existing community –Teaching & learning practices –Lecturer well-known blogger

Questions