The use of blogs for writing of online journals

Nair, S. S., Tay, L. Y., & Koh, J. L. (2013). Students' motivation and teachers' teaching practices towards the use of blogs for writing of online journals. Educational Media International, 50(2), 108-119.

Background

The authors highlighted that blogs could be a platform to cultivate communicating, sharing, analysing, reflecting and writing skills among students.

Aims

This case study explored students’ motivation and teachers’ teaching practices regarding writing in two conditions: conventional paper and pencil mode and online mode via blogs.

Sample

The participants were 224 Grade 5 students who were proficient at using computer devices, and four teachers who taught them English Language in a Singapore ICT enabled school.

Method

Data included students’ grades for two conventional paper based and two online blog writing assignments, students’ submission rates for the four assignments, interviews with the four teachers involved and 18 of the students, and a student survey on their perceptions regarding the use of blogs for their learning.

Findings

Both quantitative and qualitative data results indicated that generally the students were not averse towards online assignments and blogging. The students’ average online blog journal score was higher than their average paper and pencil journal score. However, the difference was statistically insignificant. Out of the 197 students who took the online perception questionnaire survey, about 73.5% indicated that they either agreed or strongly agreed that blogging was important, interesting and useful to them, 20.5% were neutral and 6% did not agree. In addition, 12 out of the 18 students who were interviewed stated that they preferred to write online via the blogs. However, the submission rates of the paper-based and online writing assignments differed significantly – 93.8% of the paper-based assignments were submitted as compared to 75% of the online blog entries. From the teachers’ interviews, three out of the four teachers indicated that they paid less attention to the submission of their students’ online writing assignments. Only one of the four teachers managed to get all her students to submit all their online assignments.

Implications

The authors concluded that the students were not universally motivated by the use of blogs for their writing assignments. The findings also seemed to suggest that both students and teachers tended to take online assignments ‘less seriously’. More specifically, monitoring of the students’ online assignment submission was not practised by the teachers as they were more used to the conventional paper and pencil form of assignment submissions. However, the authors highlighted that this in-depth analysis of the data had shed useful insights and considerations regarding the use of blogs in engaging students in writing.

Original article retrieved from Google Scholar.