Can this blog help me?

What is the value of keeping a blog?

I am writing this post to tease out the question of whether writing this blog will help me in my study for a PhD and beyond. In the post I will be commenting on two journal articles about blogs to help me find some answers. The first article was written by Pedro Hernandez-Ramos in the USA in 2004. The second article was written by Karl Steffens in Europe in 2006. References for both articles are available at the bottom of this post.

Hernandez's article deals with using blogs as a tool to promote reflective practice among student teachers. He writes in a clear, easy to read style. Journals are common tools used in most courses to encourage metacognition (cognition about cognition, or thinking about thinking). They can be limiting insofar as we are writing them for a particular audience (tutor / supervisor) and we basically tell them what they want to hear. He says that blogs are good because we write them for a general audience and therefore what we say is going to be more realistic of what we truly believe.

Hernandez quotes other journal articles throughout his article to backup his belief that blogs are a good basis for the student teachers to reflect on their own learning. For example, he says that Nicholson and Bond (2003) found "electronic discussion boards can play an integral role in the development of preservice teachers". Reflective practice is seen by Hernandez as a vital component of learning. He quotes Levin and Camp (2002) who say that "we believe that the habit of mind is so important that we must try to teach all prospective teachers how to reflect on their practice".

In his study, Hernandez found that 53 out of the 56 student teachers that he surveyed had set up a blog. While a large majority found it to be a good idea, some found the experience to be "time consuming and self-aggrandizing". Hernandez tells us that according to the National Research Council (2001), blogs can be used as a tool to measure writing ability, analytical skill and motivation. In conclusion, Hernandez restates the value of reflective journal writing and says that judging by the outputs of the students, "the tools were successful in promoting reflective writing".

Steffens' article deals with 'self-regulated learners' who learn in 'technology-enhanced learning environments' (TELE). It is the longer of the two articles and is more scientific sounding than Hernandez's.

Steffens' article deals with 'self-regulated learners' who learn in 'technology-enhanced learning environments' (TELE). It is the longer of the two articles and is more scientific sounding than Hernandez's.

Quoting Flavell, 1971, Steffens says that metacognition is the concept most akin to self-regulated learning. He also says that university education is a mix of self-regulated learning and partly teacher/instructor regulated. Two types of intervention programmes to support self-regulated learning exist: interventions without modelling and interventions with modelling. As the names suggest, one of the approaches involves a demonstration by the teacher of how to do something and the other approach doesn't involve any demonstration. Steffens says that both of these approaches have been "successful in improving students' academic achievement and self-regulatory skills in learning.

The TELEPEERS Project, which ran from 1 January 2004 until 1 January 2006 involved nine universities across Europe. The aim of the project was to identify Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs) that "seemed to have potential for supporting self-regulated learning". The outcome of the project was that cognitive apprenticeship is the ideal model that should be used to encourage self-regulated learning. This is where "learning and self-regulated strategies are first modelled by an expert who then coaches his students when they try to make use of these skills before he finally gives them the freedom to exercise them whenever they consider this to be appropriate".

Summary - Even though only two years separates these articles, so much has changed in the online world in such a short space of time that some of the findings will no doubt have changed also. Hernandez says that some of the student teachers were daunted by having to publish their thoughts to the world at large. Today, this happens every day when subscribers update their profiles on social media websites such as Facebook or Twitter with all kinds of personal information.

From what I have read in these two articles writing this blog will help me in my study for a PhD. Even though both of the authors admit that they used relatively small numbers of people in their surveys, I still believe in the potential power of blogging to help encourage reflective practice and self-regulated learning.

This is a list of what I think are the pros and cons of keeping a blog.

Pros of blogging
Get your message out there
Engage with others in your field and collaborate online
Improves quality of your writing
Builds motivation and confidence
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Cons of blogging
Distracting
Time consuming
Can lead to information overload

Journal Articles:

Hernandez-Ramos, Pedro, 'Web Logs and Online Discussions as Tools to Promote Reflective Practice', The Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 3 (2004), 1-16

Steffens, Karl, 'Self-Regulated Learning in Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments: lessons of a European peer review', European Journal of Education, 41 (2006), 353-379