Course

Watch the following video which introduces the concept of what a blog is.  

Blogging has a number of potential benefits both as a pedagogical approach useful in learning and teaching, but also as a method of practicing Scholarship of Learning and Teaching.  

1.  For our learners, it has been shown by Tanti (2012) that blogging has benefits for literacy development:

"In addition to the development of traditional literacy skills, concerned mainly with the ability to construct 'well structured and well presented' texts, the collaborative use of the classroom blog provided students with the means to develop critical literacy skills in relation to interacting with an audience and with each other."

The paper produced by Tanti (2012) is linked in the references below for anyone who would like to read more.  But key features of her findings are as follows:

(a)  Blogging embraces a multimodal view of literacy which includes reading, viewing, understanding, producing and interacting with multimedia and digital communications. 

(b)  Blogs are cost effective and intuitive enabling students to construct knowledge at their own pace.  They are also known to increase participation and motivation due to the nature of the broad audience.

(c)  Studies of blogs have shown that contemporary blogs emerge through reading, writing and linking and often resemble journal entries. 

(d)  The teacher, by posting a blog entry of their own, not only becomes a member of the community but also models the behaviours and skills that students can follow in order to develop their own literacy skills. 

(e)  The pedagogy and behaviours required in blogging embraces the higher order thinking skills outlined in Bloom's Taxonomy.  (This image below can be downloaded and magnified by clicking on the link shown underneath).

One of main challenges for people who haven't written a blog before is that they don't know what to write about or where to start.  As a blogger, my guiding principle is that I write about the things that are important to me.  Things that have happened in my life, at work or in my own learning that have made an impact in some way.  

Often organisational policy and personal experience guide us to avoid using mobile devices in our learning and teaching. 

• "Mobile phones are a distraction."
• "Students are addicted to their mobile phones."

Either of these phrases sound familiar?  Well what if there was an alternative viewpoint?

Xiao (2020) points to a different perspective where online spaces could be considered an extension of a person's identity.  He points to a number of interviews conducted with students who point to the fact that they place significant emotional investment in their online interactions.

• Online spaces used as an archive for personal life histories and events.

How many of us can relate to that?  Retrieving photographs of lost loved ones?  Keeping text messages from people we no longer see?  

• Amplification of our voice

How often have you been in a room where you felt like no-one was listening so you take to cyberspace (probably social media) to vent your frustrations?

• Strengthen Existing Bonds

How often have you sent someone you know from work a friend request via social media?  How does this affect your relationship in real life? 

Xiao questions the policies and rules that we apply to the use of mobile phones in educational contexts as being more reflective of adult values and fear rather than enabling youth agency in cyberspace.

Consider a tree.  As it grows it branches out.  However, unless it has a healthy environment and is looked after by a responsible gardener then it may branch out in directions that it shouldn't go.  Similarly with our learners, the context in which they use mobile technology can actually help then to branch out and grow in healthy ways.

If we accept that the appropriate use of mobile technology in education is socially constructed then we must also recognise that parents, teachers, carers and students all attach different meanings and values to their use of technology.  The world is changing.  Technology is more pervasive in our lives than perhaps at any other time in history.  Increasingly, whether or not we choose to use technology, our live are affected by it.  Is it not time therefore to reconsider our approaches to education?

If you were to consider the use of mobile blogging as a learning and teaching approach, what would be your concerns and how would you negotiate appropriate use of mobile technology with your students?  Use the discussion forum below to record your thoughts.

MacCallum et al (2017) published research where they evaluated the affordances that mobile technologies offer to suppert and enhance the learning experience.  Their findings were based on a number of case studies.  These case studies showed that when collaborative learning, connectivism and experiential learning approaches were used then that provided a framework within which the affordances of mobile technologies could be harnessed to support and enhance the learning experience.  

Specifically their research points to five affordances that mobile technologies offer that can be used to enhance the learning process:

• portability - how often have you had learners out on field trips?  Could you be using mobile devices to capture photographs, videos or even data?  Learners can capture thoughts, ideas and events in real time as they happen.
• Evidence and Data Gathering - how many of our learners operate in workshops, labs or dangerous environments that are difficult for us to access.  Could mobile devices be used to capture evidence in those situations?  
• Communication - mobile devices offer the opportunity to broadcast live from various locations, send text messages, made posts to discussion forums and provide immediate feedback.  For learners with additional support needs for whom participation in physical activities like field trips would be a challenge, perhaps the ability to watch and communicate with their fellow students would help support inclusion?
• Interaction with the interface - mobile devices offer the opportunity to interact with the internet and a range of web based tools that places knowledge right at their fingertips.
• Outdoor environment - how many learners go out on work placement, work in kitchens, salons, childcare establishments, construction sites etc. Could learners capture evidence from those learning experiences?

From my own experience, working during a pandemic has created a range of difficulties. 

I can't easily go an observe a team of students as they assemble a Scaffolding tower - but maybe through the use of mobile technology, I can watch a live broadcast?  Or better yet, get the students to record the learning experience and post it on a blog?

I can't always get my class together to discuss main points that an author explores in a written article - but maybe I could post it on my blog and invite my students to comment on it. 

The full article by MacCallum et al is linked in the references below for anyone who wants to have a closer read.  But I hope that this short summary has provided you with some ideas and inspiration as to how you might use mobile technology in different ways in your learning and teaching practice. 

Let's explore those ideas further in this discussion forum.

At this point you should be familiar with some of the affordances of using mobile technology to enhance your learning and teaching.  You should also you should be familiar with the basics of what a blog is and how you and your students can create a blog quickly and easily.

However, how does it work in practice?

I myself have also been a blogging for a few months now, but I have done so using a mobile app.  All of my blogging has been done on my mobile phone.  So in the video below I share a little bit of my experience as a mobile blogger.

So, having reached the end of the course, what are your thoughts?  Post your comments in the following discussion forum.