Using Blogs
What is a Blog?
A blog is a form of online diary.What does it do?
It offers a means for students to collect, collate and reflect on their learning and daily work practices.It may offer a way of providing innovative assessment methods that promote critical thinking e.g. using blog entries (i.e. diary data) for double loop reflection and meta-analysis.
It offers a great degree of flexibility for the individual learner. They may access and contribute to their blog at any given time. And have complete control over their content, style and design.
They may also comment and participate in many of their peer’s blogs creating a rich community of shared knowledge.
Where do I get access and or /support?
IT Services' virtual learning environment Blackboard provides a blogging tool.Visit http://www.ucd.ie/itservices/teachinglearningit/ for further information regarding available tools and supported services.
Visit http://www.blackboard.com/quicktutorials/quicktutorials.htm for video tutorials and support information on a range of Blackboard products (please note not all products are supported by the current UCD installation).
You may also wish to use the Google blog application ‘Blogger’ – this enables the end user complete creative control.
How do I use it in my teaching?
Many individual academics use personal blogs to promote their research and teaching profiles.Blogs are being used as collaborative spaces for discussing, formulating and managing research thesis.
Many students are encouraged to use a blog as their reflective diary to enable them to identify their learning needs/gaps as they progress through a particular module.
Postgraduates are using blogs as a means to collect qualitative data on field trips. Entries are posted from the standpoint of an end user of a particular service and then as a professional assessing the standards. This role-play enables a rich vein of data to be collected in a single trip.
