Article Review: Blogging in Higher Education

            The second article was a summarization of the study of graduate students at the Open University in the UK. It studied 15 students who were taking an e-learning course for their Masters degree. This course did not focus on blogging though it set them up to use a blog for whatever purpose they chose. As the select group of students embarked on a blogging assignment their activities were recorded and categorized to better explain the use of blogging in an educational environment.

The results of the study were somewhat as expected, a significant portion of the students (4) wrote and contributed only as much as made necessary by the outline of the project. Some embraced the chance to use the blogging activity as a learning experience and others found a way to use the project for personal gain while staying within the parameters of the assignment. The results of the study were relatively simple, some people embraced the opportunity and others saw it merely as another classroom assignment. As with most learning tools, the students use of and ability to learn from blogging came down to the underlying work ethic and drive of the student.

Kerawalla, L., Minocha, S., Kirkup, G., and Conole, G. (2009). An empirically grounded framework to guide blogging in higher education. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25, 31-42. Doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2729.2008.00286.x