Blog #5 Affordances of Blogs-Toward a Framework

Deng, Liping & Allan H.K. Yuen. “Towards a framework for educational affordances of blogs.” Computers & Education. (56) 2011: 441-451. Web. 6 June 2012.

The researchers begin by grounding their work in a review of the literature on the reflective and interactive affordances of blogs. They show the work that has been done and reveal the holes in blog study by arguing that there is a lack of empirical study in the pedagogical uses of blogs. A framework for the pedagogical use of blogs is then established using constructivist learning theories and Dewey's work on reflective learning. The framework includes self-expression, self-reflection, social interaction and reflective dialogue. "Self-expression and self-reflection fall into the individual dimension that centers on the individual processes of exploration, description, examination and deliberation" (443).

The study itself focused on 2 classes of Senior English Language students working toward a Bachelor of Education at the university of Hong Kong that were student teaching. The academic blogs themselves were optional because the researchers felt that it would be "at odds with the spontaneous and authentic nature of blogging" (444). Additionally, the students were given minimal guidelines and were not formally assessed. One of the two classes being studied did have a community blog with a discussion area and links to individual blogs. The data was collected using pre and post-questionnaires and interviews in addition to the blogs and blog comments themselves.

The researchers found that less than half of the total number of blog posts were commented on, few blog authors responded to the comments others made on their blogs, and the majority of the blog entries that did have comments only had one or two. Despite this, as reported on the post-questionnaire, the majority of participants felt better connected to their peers because of the blogging. "All of the data indicated that the act of reading not only increased the sense of togetherness, but also enhanced the cognitive presence within the group of student teachers” (448).

Overall, the results of the study causes the researchers to add social connection and reflection triggered by reading to their framework. They argue that more empirical studies on the educational affordances of blogs need to be done because the study was able to not only validate previous research, but also add a new dimension to it. Additionally, they argue for the use of this new framework in further research. 

This study is useful to DE writing instructors because not only does it begin to give us a way to talk about blogs in a pedagogical language, but it also reaffirms the reflection that blogs have been argued to foster. The most useful part of this study to take into consideration is the act of reading the blogs. As the authors mention, when students don’t appear to be participating, it’s often assumed that they’re not involved with the material or the course: the value of the lurker is re-evaluated here and should be taken into consideration by instructors. Their framework is a good place to start for empirical research on academic blogs; however, for my blog pedagogy purposes, the framework is still incomplete.