The Future of Software Development - Devin AI Innovative Approach.pdf
Blogging
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Introduction
What are Blogs or weblogs? Within a basic manner, there are three important terms
related to blogs: blogs itself, blogging, bloggers, and blogosphere. Blogs are Internet-based
journals. These journals are different from traditional journals in several ways by means that they
are set for publicly. By blogging, people place their ideas out in public for the world to see and
react to and are able to reflect their ideas and make them available for public effortlessly. In the
same way, others are invited to look at the blogger's thoughts and opinions on a regular basis. As
an illustration, a teacher may discuss the planning and execution of a particular lesson on her
blog. She records the steps involved and the choices of materials and strategies on a regular
basis. Readers of the blog may follow the development of the lesson as it takes place, and then
the readers will wait with some expectation to see if the lesson was a success. According to
Huffaker (2004), Blogs or weblogs are the latest development of CMC (Computer Mediated
Communication) in the form of personal web diary, filled with ideas, news, opinion and are most
often attached with audio or video files in order to make it more engaging and interesting.
Blogging is simply the activity of creating and managing blogs. Blogging also recognized
as the technology of reading and writing in the 21st century – the elevated dimension for reading
and writing in the digital world. While blogs are the material, blogger refers to the doer - people
who maintain a blog (Richardson, 2006). Because blogs are like diaries or journals they are
organized according to time. The most recent postings are at the top of the page. Often postings
refer to an earlier discussion that may be found by scrolling down or following a link to an
archive. Adding a new posting to a blog is easily accomplished with the use of specialized
software programs for maintaining blogs. Blogs often list links to other blogs. These links
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organized collectively where one particular interest might have collective links related to it. This
creates what is called as blogosphere - the collective world of blogging. Furthermore, the new
dimension offered by has enabled people around the globe to communicate and express their
mind. With blogging, reading and writing are no longer two dimensional but more to three
dimensional or hyper dimensional activities because they can be enriched and linked with more
sophisticated features such as pictures, animation/flash, audio, and video where they can
communicate and visualize the ideas in a more sophisticated way.
The idea of blogging is combining the power of self-journalism, communication and
personal publication that in such a way creates unique sense of sharing and collaborating through
reinventing writing as a dynamic, active method of communicating ideas (Richardson, 2006).
Resembling such characteristics, there are two prominent features of blogs that differentiate them
from other kinds of media: hyperactivity and interactivity. First, blogs are hyperactive. This
means that blogs can link to other Web sites. If a blogger has read an article on the Internet that
he thinks others should read, the blogger can make a comment on the article and link readers
directly to it. This allows the blogger and readers to have access to the same materials on the
Internet and enter into a discussion about them. Second, blogs are also interactive. To illustrate,
as the lesson plan is being developed readers are also allowed to make comments. The blogger
may post a decision to introduce material using a small group activity. The readers now switch
roles and become participants. They can post comments offering support or suggesting
alternative ways to handle the same material. Therefore, it is important to consider that the power
of blogging lies in words and how they are created, arranged, modified, and developed in a way
that they are able to be communicative, reflective, and collaborative.
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The dimension of blogging has changed the face of various fields such as advertising,
communication, journalism, broadcasting, and now is reaching out the area of education.
Research in education has brought up this breakthrough into education field where blogging is
used by teacher, students, administrators, or even faculty members for both educational and
administration purposes.
Concerning the use of weblogs in the educational setting, this paper is focused on themes
about how weblogs can be used in educational setting along with the notion of their effectiveness
and significant implication towards educational practices. For that reason, there will be one
research question as the main framework of this paper: what are the potentials of weblogs that
can be explored and implemented as tools for effective learning in the educational setting? To
answer such question, this paper will employ, generate, and synthesize three different
perspectives taken from two different studies and one journal article. The first study takes
blogging and its behavior and characteristics in educational setting from the perspective of the
students, while the second study takes blogging and its practices from the perspective of
preservice teachers. To cohesively enrich the discussion, one journal article is taken as a
reference in this paper in which it pinpoints the use of weblogs to promote literacy in the
classroom level. After elaborating and highlighting important points, ideas, and concept from
every study and article used as main references in this paper, the next part of this paper will be
about synthesizing all of the elaborated and highlighted ideas to answer research questions that
have been introduced earlier in the beginning part of this paper. Finally, this paper will formulate
the whole ideas into a firm and concise conclusion as the final part of the discussion.
Blogging and blogspots: an alternative format for encouraging reflective practice among
preservice teachers.
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This research focuses on the use of weblogs as a web-based journaling tool to increase
reflective practice of preservice teachers and it is clearly stated in the research purpose. As in the
introduction part, this research uses good description from the review of the literature by
introducing two different models of journaling activities – traditional and online journals - and
how they differ from each other in terms of giving students of preservice teacher the awareness
of teaching and learning dynamics in their most reflective manner. What is more, the
introduction provides a framework for the exploring further about the hypothesis in this study,
stating that “journaling enhances preservice students’ awareness of the complexity of the
teaching and learning continuum” (Stiler, 2003, p. 789). The concern of this research is also
stated concisely that fewer studies had been conducted to explore and observe more about
deeper, actions and processes of reflective activities at personal level where it is considered as
missing pieces. Therefore, the good use of review of the literature in this research functions as a
good base– finding the missing pieces as it is indicated in the level of awareness of reflective
activities conducted among preservice teachers. Moreover, this research clearly describes
parameters used to define reflective teacher:
“Examines, frames, and attempts to solve the dilemmas of classroom practice; is
aware of and questions the assumptions and values he or she brings to the
classroom; is attentive to the institutional and cultural contexts in which he or she
teaches; takes part in curriculum development and is involved in school change
efforts, and take s the responsibility for his or her own professional development”
(Stiler, 2003, p. 789 – 790).
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Mindful of these characteristics, this research explains accordingly about the advantages from
further exploration with online journal as a state of the art to reach the following prospective
goals:
“Increasing student enthusiasm in journal writing, increasing both the quality and
quantity of students output, increasing potential for teacher-mediated input, and
increasing the potential for future extensions to include the addition of links to
illustrative websites and other options offered by web-based learning” (Stiler,
2003, p. 790).
By properly presenting a correlation between parameters of reflective teacher and
experimenting the benefits of exploring online journals as a means of reflective activity to reach
prospective goals, this study builds better understanding towards its hypothesis – strengthening
its notion in this research. As in the last part of the introduction, the objectives of this study are
clearly delineated: “describing background and approach used in the initiative of this study, a
student evaluation of Blogger, an assessment of student outcomes, and suggestions on how these
experiences may benefit students and preservice educators” (Stiler, 2003, p. 790). Adding to that,
this study breaks down its part of discussion in a well-arranged manner. There are three major
divisions in this study. The first part is the discussion about the reflective teacher model. The
second part is about discovering and using weblogs and other journaling options. The third part
is about blogger as a tool for online journaling and how it is implemented for preservice teacher
training. The fourth part is about the discussion and findings of the study, mainly about using,
assessing blogger and the quality of reflection by using blogger. The last part is the conclusion,
mainly focused on the implications for preservice educators. The good organization in this
research enables the reader to have better understanding about the overall information.
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The components in the discussion of the methods and procedures about how blogger as
an online journaling tool is implemented in two classes (EDUC 302 and EDUC 214) are
comprehensibly explained as each of the class are given the same treatment and procedures: the
instructional guidance and surveys for responses. However, the use of only one table (table 1) to
describe the result of the percentage responses is less highly likely to give less elaboration and
less representation from the overall procedure conducted in this research. There could have been
one more table to present and clearly display the result from class EDUC 214 as opposed to only
the table for class EDUC 302.
Apart from that, the findings are not over-generalized by means that the findings are
reported appropriately based on their actuality as in the comparative form between each class and
they correspond to the research objectives and statement of the hypothesis. In this section as
well, the issues and problems related to the experimentation of Blogger in two classes also well -
stated in order to provide the ground for problem solving in the further research. Finally, the
conclusion enfolds the whole discussion into an appropriate way where it comes directly from
results as they relate to research purpose – describing implications and suggestions for preservice
educators related to blogging as a reflective tool to enhance student reflectivity by using Blogger
as in online journaling activity.
Characterizing the different blogging behaviors of students on an online distance learning
course
This research focuses on the importance of blogging activity that suits to the individual
needs of the students in UK Open University by adopting a learner-centered perspective and
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exploring students’ understanding of how blogs and blogging can support distance learning in
higher education. The introduction part in this research clearly states research purpose and
questions, statement of problems and also a glance to the methods of the research. The purpose
of this research is to report the important factors that students encounter when they are blogging
and discuss five distinct types of blogging behaviors developed by students on a postgraduate
online distance education course at UK Open University. There are two research questions
addressed: (1) what challenges do students face when they are trying to blog? (2) How do their
perceptions of these challenges impact upon the ways in which they use their blogs? Within this
section as well, the method is preliminary introduced to give a glance for the reader on how to
answer such questions, that is by reporting findings from interviews with 15 students enrolled on
a postgraduate online distance education at UK Open University.
There are five major parts which are well-organized: background/review of literature,
methodology, reports/findings, discussion, and conclusion. Every part consists of subtheme that
really provides further description and detailed explanation that correspond to each other. As it is
described in the background, the author uses good references for its review of the literature –
providing basic framework of understanding towards the research questions, objectives and
purposes. In this section, the author appropriately present findings from previous studies to
strengthen the notions of the statement of the problems as they are displayed in the research
questions. The findings of the previous studies are clearly stated that students are often task-
focused and outcome-oriented; that they can find it difficult to understand the rationale of
blogging, and that they may be unable to recognize how blogging could enhance pre-existing
learning activities. Therefore, it gives a strong reason for this study to be conducted as it suggests
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that “we need better understanding, from the students’ perspective, of why so many experiments
with blogs have not produced the desired results” (Kerawalla, et al, 2008, p. 2).
In the part of methodology, the procedure is very clearly stated with good reliability of
observation. Within this section, there are three subsections that explain everything more detail:
participants and their course, data collection, data analysis (analysis of the interviews and
analysis of the blog content). In the first part of the subsection, it is clearly described how this
research incorporates and implements the method used for obtaining participants and the
designated tasks required for the participants.
108 students from online distance learning course (The eLearning Professional) at
UK Open University. The ratio is 36.4% male and 63.6% female with most
between 30 and 60 years of age. Two recruitment notices were posted on the
course website for voluntarily participants of the research, 15 positive replies
from 13 females and 2 males in the UK (10), Philippines (1), Canada (1), Spain
(1), Cyprus (1), and USA (1) with mean age 47.7 years, range 29-55 years. The
mean number of participant blog posts over the whole course was 14 and the
mean number for non participant blog posts was 11 by means that the participants
were representative as a whole (Kerawalla, et al, 2008).
In data collection, it is clearly presented about how the data was collected, that is through
the observation of blog content with students’ consent and a semi-structured interview with
personalized interview schedule using a conference telephone (teleconference). In the same
fashion, there is good description of data analysis and process where the information provided in
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the section of data analysis gives a clear overview about the analysis of interview and the
analysis of the blog content. The interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed. As an
explanatory study, the research adopts a grounded theory approach which focused on the
identification of emergent themes in the data. The next step was the grouping of individual
responses from the data. From this grouping of individual responses, there are five different
characteristics of blogging behaviors identified: blogging avoidance, resource network building,
support network building, self sufficient blogging, anxious, self conscious blogging. As to
continue, the blog content was then analyzed by conducting re-analyzed version to explore the
ways in which the four groups of students addressing and revealing personal details about
themselves and their lives (Kerawalla, et al, 2008). The discussions and conclusion are clear and
come directly from the results as they relate to research questions. The findings in the discussion
also deliberately explained in correspond to what have been described in the data analysis. In this
section, the excerpts from the blogs and transcriptions from students’ interview responses are
also attached to give illustrative description in order to strengthen the inclination towards the
themes in the findings – audience, community, comments, and presentation. As a result, the
findings in this section are not over-generalized but clearly fulfill research purpose and objective
as well as answer the research questions as in the following:
Many students enjoy blogging and found it to be beneficial from both educational
and social perspectives. Blogs are used in several ways, including community
building, resource consolidation, sharing ideas, catharsis and emotional support,
or as a personal journal. Blogging can be problematic in terms of revealing their
personally perceived academic inadequacies to others. The blogging behaviors
emerged through the interaction of four main factors (audience, community,
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comments, and presentations), there are five distinct blogging behavior (blogging
avoidance, resource network building, support network building, self-sufficient
blogging, and anxious, self conscious blogging).
However, all of the results and findings are described without using tables or any numerical
representation such art charts or graphics. This research could have used tables or any numerical
representation such as charts or graphics to present the descriptive data in order to provide
stronger emphasis on the clearer grasp and readability of the data used in this research.
As the conclusion plays important role in compacting the whole points into a clear and
concise points designated to give good grasp about the whole situated ideas presented in this
research, the author has been able to provide a clear and appropriate value of the conclusion so
that the reader will be able to grasp the whole points and ideas effectively as it is described
below:
Blogging was successful as most students tried it out and devised their own (individual)
ways in which it could support their learning. Whereas the range of behaviors demonstrates the
flexibility of blogging which may pose a challenge for educators who are designing courses with
prescribed activities. Therefore, it may be appropriate to make blogging activities flexible,
voluntary or loosely prescribed to give students the opportunity to adapt blogging to meet their
own needs without leaving their required activities abandoned.
The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom
This journal article focuses on the role of weblogs or blogs and their features in the
classroom setting which places as an excellent opportunity for educators to advance literacy
through storytelling and dialogue. This journal articles has good way in organizing the contents:
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introduction, the importance of literacy, the art of storytelling, blogs in the classroom, examples
of blogs in practice, and conclusion. The exploration about blogs is enriched by providing
examples or best practices of blogs mostly in the classroom setting. The author of this articles
argued whether weblogs are excellent tool for promoting literacy, especially in the classroom
setting. This notion of argument is clearly presented in the introduction part within the
hypothesis stating that “blogs can be an important addition to educational technology initiatives
because they promote literacy through storytelling, allow collaborative learning, provide
anytime-anywhere access, and remain fungible across academic discipline” (Huffaker, 2004, p.
2). To elaborate the discussion, this article addresses two major questions: (1) Can blogs enhance
learning environments? (2) Can they be used in classroom settings? In order to answer these
questions, this article generates clear and concise procedure and process that allows the reader to
have better mapping of understanding about the whole ideas presented in the article as it is stated
in the last part of the introduction:
First it will look at the importance of literacy in children and adolescent
development. Next it will juxtapose storytelling as a catalyst for advancing
literacy. Third, it will explore ways in which blogs can be used in the classroom
for both individuals and groups. Next, it will also demonstrate some examples of
blogs used in classroom settings. The last part is the conclusion that conveys
recommendations and also future research implications (Huffaker, 2004, p. 2).
The review of the literature is comprehensive and related to both thesis
statement/purposes and research questions. Within this section, the strong notion is clearly
presented by the author stating that “blogs represent a perfect medium for literacy, equitable for
all age groups and both genders, and still provide a medium for learning programmatic skills”
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(Huffaker, 2004, p. 3). The juxtaposition about the art of storytelling is well placed as to support
the strength of blogs introduced earlier in the review of literature clearly stating that the
implementation of blogs for storytelling in educational settings is an important consideration
because it is a self-initiating and self-sustaining way to advance literacy (Huffaker, 2004).
The discussion about the importance of storytelling with blogs as a perfect medium to
develop literacy skills is sufficiently incorporated by elaborating the use of blogs in the
classroom and their examples in practice, such as writing comments, and critiques for journalism
or literature class, creating a portal for all classrooms, promoting research, reading, and writing
by using blog software, integrating blogs for teachers in documenting, reflecting, mentoring,
analyzing, and communicating. Furthermore, within the discussion, it can be noted that creativity
is significant element to online content creation (Huffaker, 2004). However, the article is less
likely to explore more detailed description about how blogs are implemented in such a way
where literacy is promoted at its best, for example, describing and explaining more about what
kind of features and how are they utilized effectively in term of developing literacy in the
classroom. Apart from that, the article is able to provide briefly summarizing the whole ideas,
accompanying by future research implications regarding language acquisition or learning
comprehension and retention by using weblogs.
Synthesis of the Studies
As it is mentioned earlier in the earlier part of this paper, the three studies used as major
references will be elaborated and synthesized with the research questions of this paper.
Accordingly, the result/findings from these three studies will be used to answer the following
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research questions that serve as framework of this paper: what are the potentials of weblogs that
can be explored and implemented as tools for effective learning in the educational setting?
To answer the question, it is important to observe the highlighted ideas from every study
that correspond to the potentials of weblogs that can be explored and implemented as tools for
effective learning in the educational setting. As the first study focuses on the use of blogs to
encourage reflective practice among preservice teachers, the potentials of weblogs that can be
explored and implemented as tools for effective learning in educational setting are related to the
prospective accounts of the depth and breadth of students reflectivity appeared to be positively
affected by the use of blogs based on a relatively high indication of blogger as a learning tool.
Therefore, as a learning tool, blogs are potentials to help students overcome the fear of writing
because once the initial fear is reduced, blogs can be further explored and implemented to
enhance student ability to reflect critically on teaching and learning and to promote journaling as
routine reflective practice (Stiler, 2003).
Different from the first study in answering research question of this paper about the
potentials of weblogs that can be explored and implemented as tools for effective learning in
educational setting, the second study focuses on the importance of blogging activity that suits to
the individual needs of the students in UK Open University by adopting a learner-centered
perspective and exploring students’ understanding of how blogs and blogging can support
distance learning in higher education. Therefore, the potentials of weblogs are explored from the
perspective of MA students in online distance learning course where they are beneficial for
community building, resource-consolidation, sharing ideas, catharsis and emotional support, or
as personal journal to meet their own learning and personal education needs based upon the
observation from students blogging behaviors (Kerawalla, et al, 2008).
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The third study is more to descriptive study about literature review and best practices
about the use of blogs to promote literacy skill. Therefore, to answer the research question in this
paper about the potentials of weblogs that can be explored and implemented as tools for effective
learning in educational setting, it explores more about the role of blogs in providing opportunity
to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue, providing linkage with an online
community to create an excellent computer mediated communication context for individual
expressions and collaborative interaction with personalized approaches to classroom
implementation and enhance the applicability of weblogs in educational setting (Huffaker, 2004).
Conclusion
By observing and exploring deeper the three studies used as references in this paper,
elaborating, and synthesizing the results/findings in every study, the research question in this
paper about the potentials of weblogs that can be explored and implemented as tools for effective
learning in educational setting can be answered thoroughly by accommodating and correlating
the discussion in every study. As every study has its own characteristics in giving various
perspective about blogs and its implications in educational setting, the answers for the research
questions in this paper is enriched by the diversity and wider variety of how blogs can be
variously applied and utilized to support learning in educational setting. Therefore, the potentials
of weblogs that can be explored and implemented as tools for effective learning in educational
setting are described at their best as in the following:
(1) Helping students overcome the fear of writing because once the initial fear is reduced,
blogs can be further explored and implemented to enhance student ability to reflect
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critically on teaching and learning and to promote journaling as routine reflective
practice (Stiler, 2003).
(2) Providing beneficial prospects for community building, resource-consolidation,
sharing ideas, catharsis and emotional support, or as personal journal to meet their
own learning and personal education needs based upon the observation from students
blogging behaviors (Kerawalla, et al, 2008).
(3) Providing opportunity to advance literacy through storytelling and dialogue,
providing linkage with an online community to create an excellent computer
mediated communication context for individual expressions and collaborative
interaction with personalized approaches to classroom implementation and enhance
the applicability of weblogs in educational setting (Huffaker, 2004).
Reflection and Overall Value of the Assignment
Completing this assignment has given me valuable opportunity to understand about the
power of research in providing framework for problem solving and reviewing issues. This has
been very important for me since I have had a chance to learn about research background,
methodology, data analysis, and findings where they are formulated in such a way to build
understanding in the most respectable manner. This assignment has given me further ideas about
what I am going to write for my thesis, serving as a practical ground to start exercising and
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experimenting in writing and building ideas, argument, and concepts as well as learning to
design research methods and data collection.
As I have explored more about blogs and their potentials that can be explored and
implemented as tools for effective learning in educational setting, I have experienced valuable
process in conducting library research in finding related articles and journals that correspond to
my research question – maximizing library research tools as ERIC, Google Search or PsyInfo to
find the best references for my papers. In the similar fashion, I have come to learn and to know
more about research terms usages that are very valuable for my further experience in conducting
research because by being familiar with at least the terms covered in research, it will be less
complicated for me to learn about research at ease. Furthermore, I have also learned how to
practice, develop and improve my analytical building and perspective in which it is very crucial
especially when it is related to observational skills.
References
Stiler, GM. (2003). Blogging and blogspots: an alternative format for encouraging reflective
practice among preservice teachers. Education, 123, 789-797.
Richardson, Will. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms.
California: Sage Publications Ltd.
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Kerawalla, L. (2008). Characterizing the different blogging behaviors of students on an online
distance learning course. Learning, Media and Technology. 33, 1-13.
Huffaker, D. (2004). The educated blogger: using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom.
First Monday, 9, 1-8.
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