Blog #2 Student feelings toward blogs

Ellis, Josephine. “Student writing blogs: Apprehension, ambivalence or appreciation?” Communication Journal of New Zealand. 11.2 (2010): 7-29. Web. 19 May 2012.

Ellis’s article specifically focuses on student attitudes and perceptions toward blogging (and peer review in those blogs) using the blogging feature within Blackboard. She found that while many students were apprehensive to begin with, at the end of the term, that apprehension decreased. The author first emphasizes that despite the desire to use the latest and greatest technology in the classroom that technology choices must be based on sound pedagogical principle (8). Then, the use of blogs in the course is justified through the literature review.

The author first discusses the previous research on the advantages using blogs in the writing classroom. For example, peer review, collaboration, audience awareness, the ability to approach learning from a constructivist perspective, and reflection (to name a few). The author also includes a brief mention of where to find “some cautionary tales” (9). After addressing the ways the blog has been used, Ellis discusses issues of privacy and how it’s been “dealt with” so far. According to Ellis, some researchers/teachers have required pseudonyms, while others have asked students to keep blogs private and only share with the instructor. The most recent development in dealing with this issue is using “internal blogs” (blogs built into the Learning Management System (LMS) and hosted on the school’s server). Ellis also introduces the research on peer feedback in blogs, which supports the use of them, but also addresses some of the typical issues that are rampant in peer review literature. The final section addresses the research on “disinhibition” and emotions of the students participating in blogging.

The study itself surveyed 339 students in a first year composition course via a questionnaire. The blog required students to analyze a piece of their own expository writing and provide guided feedback to classmates. The questionnaire asked primarily “how do you feel” questions with five emoticon options ranging from very happy/confident to very unhappy/unconfident. Two of the ten questions allowed for open-ended response. The results showed that students felt the Blackboard blogging feature to be easy to use and addressed any issues of privacy. While some students desired the ability to use a pseudonym (something Blackboard doesn’t allow), this inability prevented “destructive” comments. Students overall responded the most positively to the ability to receive feedback from peers.

This study is useful to my own research because I intend, in my pedagogy project, to use Blackboard (an internal blog), and the research support this use as a solution to privacy issues outside of the classroom. In addition, understanding student attitudes toward using this technology for peer feedback is useful when considering it as a course component because it emphasizes valuable ways to use the technology to support sound pedagogy and aligns with my anecdotal experience. This article is also useful for its literature review that focuses on the research on several important areas related to blog use in the writing classroom.