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Application of Blogs to Support Reflective Learning Journals

Les Pang

Graduate School of Management and Technology

Published: May-June 2009

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-strategies

What are Reflective Learning Journals?

A reflective journal is a piece of writing that allows students to record thoughts and insights about their own learning experience. This journal encourages students to review and consolidate learning, evaluate performance, and plan future learning based on past learning experience. Students become capable of taking charge of their own learning, and they eventually develop into independent lifelong learners.

Here is an example of one posting in a reflective journal. Note the boldfaced text where information can be valuable as feedback to the instructor:

Watched a video entitled "Interviewing Do's and Don'ts" in class today. I was amazed at what the data showed in terms of how few people really follow the basic principles of interviewing. Like other students in the class, I didn't know that 9 out of 10 people are not prepared properly when they go for a job interview. This certainly gives the person who does prepare well a definite competitive advantage by being in the 10 percent who are prepared. The book "Sweaty Palms" that Dr. Seilheimer referred to sounds interesting. I think I'll ask him if I can take a look at it.

Although the people in the video seemed corny and camp it did illustrate the basic sequence of events that take place in interviews and humorously pointed out some of the important do's and don'ts of interviewing. I see more value now than I did at the beginning of class for the assignment to interview a working professional to get a few tips on how to compete for jobs in their field. The class discussion was very lively today. I think the subject challenged some of our deep fears about rejection and it made many of us a little uncomfortable. I enjoyed class though and I think I will keep some of the ideas Dr. Seilheimer put out on how to confront, accept and manage fear in mind as I prepare for interviews someday. (Seilheimer, n.d.)

Traditionally, a reflective learning journal was documented on paper—typically in a bound notebook. This notebook would be turned in at the end of the semester for the instructor to review. 

What are Blogs?

A blog, the contraction of the term "weblog," is a type of Web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts arranged in reverse chronological order. Blogs (along with wikis, social networks, collaborative tagging, AJAX, RSS feeds and XML) are Web 2.0 tools—those technologies which let users publish, collaborate, and share information and content over the Internet (O'Reilly, 2005; Graham, 2005). Popular blog publishing sites include Blogger, WordPress, Blog.com, and LiveJournal. These sites serve as hosts to a variety of different types of blogs.

Blogs can contain many different types of content, including:  

• Commentary/news
• Ideas
• Photos
• Poetry
• Mini-essays
• Project updates
• Fiction
• Media
• Education

Blogs are often a creative outlet for many individuals and serve as a means to reflect on their lives.

Using Blogs as Reflective Learning Journals

Blogs can enhance the educational experience of students who use them as reflective learning journals. Because of a blog's presence on the Web, global reach is achieved. A blog is typically text based but can be enhanced by including graphics and videos, links, and formatting via templates.

For the past few semesters, I asked students in my ITEC 610 Information Technology Foundations class to use the Blogger hosting site to create their own personal blogs for various assignments. For the first week of class, students were given the assignment of building the blog (which, incidentally, is easier than building a Web page) and introducing themselves as a blog posting. During subsequent weeks, students submitted weekly class reflections in their blogs in which they addressed the following three questions:

1. What did you learn in the preceding week? (Not a list of facts, but rather, what can you take from the lesson, what has value to you?)
2. How do you connect what you learned this week with your personal experience or what you already knew?
3. How could/would you apply your new knowledge?

In the final week, students were asked to look back on entire semester, provide an overall reflection of the class, and share their outlook for the future.

Excerpts from Student Learning Journals 

Blogs created by ITEC 610 students can be found at: 

• Mike's Grey Matter (http://mikesgreymatter.blogspot.com/)
• CSMN601 Blog (http://ingudam-csmn601.blogspot.com/)
• Dettegirl Blog (http://dettegirl01.blogspot.com/)
• Desha's Weekly Journal CSMN 601 (http://daebutler-csmn601.blogspot.com) 

The table below identifies some common student emotions and associated excerpts from past student reflective journals.

Initial Class Anxiety:

"So here we are just a few days from the start of class! This should be very interesting since I have not been back to school since graduating 11 years ago :-0 "Enlightenment: "The reading for the course has been interesting - making me see things in a different light or maybe because my grey matter has not been exercised enough lately." 

Relief:

"Whewwwwwww!!!! Session entries complete, and my research paper submitted - only one hurdle left: The Final!!!! Wow, is it just me or did the last discussion questions make us recount all that we covered this term? ;-) IT'S OFFICIALLY FESTIVUS!!!" 

Enjoyment:

"I enjoyed the discussions about teleworking and got to impart my knowlege about compliance management - thanks to my SOX research -into my reply posting :-P "

Stimulation:

"It was interesting seeing what everyone had to say about standards and outsourcing. The outsourcing question was one of the best discussions we had as a class so far - just my humble opinion :-) 

Appreciation:

"The DB chapter was interesting - it has been a long time since I have touched upon DBs. I understand it a lot better now than before. It has also given me a better appreciation for the design and implementation of websites such as Zillow." 

Excitement:

"Finally the much awaited end of semester is coming. The course went really fast with the very exciting well planned group project, research paper and weekly discussion conference, mini project and blog, not to forget the weekly news buzzing around." 

Preferences:

"The best thing I liked about this course is the active interaction and participation of the class keeping all of us up to date of assignment due deadline and helping us to deliver on time and not missing any assignments. Also the topics chosen stimulated in thinking and analyzing usage and application of technology in real life and organization, making the assignment very interesting." 

Thankfulness:

"Thanks to Professor Leslie and all my class mates for the wonderful interactive learning experience this semester . Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007." 

Course Anxiety and Relief:

"This week was really hectic with too many course related activities happening. I had to give exam for the other course (Program and Project Management) and complete the assignment for this course. Not to mention, I hadn't anticipated the unplanned happy hour and parties at work place. This made me realize that I need to add more buffer time in my plan for such unexpected last minute plans. All in all, everything went on quite well :)"

Interest:

"The discussion for this week was interesting, especially the discussion on delaying IT investments to cut costs. The thread on the critique on Nicholas Carr's article "IT Doesn't Matter" was really interesting to read with many of my classmate commenting bluntly." 

Students also had full access to the instructor's blog. Below are some reflections and associated excerpts from the instructor's reflective journals:  

Surprise:

"I was surprised at the backlash against social networking sites. A handful of students found it novel, fun and interesting however most saw it as a total waste of time and/or a serious security vulnerability. Although I respect the latter's opinion, I must say that these sites have gained tremondous popularity during the last few years and they are being accepted into the corporate environment." LinkedIn is one such site that is widely used among business professionals.  

Pleased:

"Again, a nice healthy discussions in our conferences! I love them! Nothing better to get opinions out because in the real world you need to have open conversations when an issue appears. There is no pat answer to problems. It is dangerous to have a knee-jerk reaction to a problem. We need to think things through!  

Clarification:

"I am sure students now understand why we academics do not like students to cite Wikipedia as a reference. As part of the mini-project, many of the student edited the SDLC article. During the course of Monday evening when student were feverishly entering revisions to the article, it was vandalized twice in a single night! It shows how easy it is to change the content. It is also very easy to insert unreliable information and opinions. In your research papers, expect a deduction if you cite Wikipedia." 

Concern:

"We are heading closer and closer to the final! I sense perhaps that some students are running out of gas? A few students did not complete the Session 12 mini-projects and I am a bit concerned. Please e-mail me if you have personal issues and/or conflicts so we can work things out!" 

Disappointment:

"I realized that a handful of students found the Session 8 mini-project assignment (come up with a unique e-business) to be very frustrating. (Now, who egged and tepeed my house?) Although most of you were up for the challenge, some folks did not even attempt an idea or gave up after the first try. In a way, this challenging assignment was like your midterm exam. As mentioned before, imagination is more important than knowledge."

Advantages and Disadvantages 

Blogs have several advantages: 

• Blogs provide an opportunity for an instructor to gain rapport with the students and understand their needs and backgrounds. 
• Blogs allow for monitoring of student progress so that the instructor can step in if the student is falling behind. A blog provides for continuous student feedback as opposed to waiting until the end of the semester for student feedback—which may be too late for corrective action.
• The instructor can identify issues and challenges faced by students by reading about their experiences with the assignments in their blogs.
• For an information technology course, students can learn and understand about a blog itself—both the concept and the technology.
• Students modify their behavior in reaction to the content contained in the instructor's blog.

While blogs have great potential, they do have some drawbacks associated with them:

• Getting buy-in from the students on the concept may not be easy. Some students may not understand the purpose and value of reflective journals.
• Some students are technically challenged and may experience difficulty in creating and maintaining a blog.
• Certain students do a minimal effort because of other priorities or interest.
• Some students get carried away with their blogs and include non-academic related writings, videos, graphics, and other objects.
• Instructors may find it difficult to grade blogs; these journals are very subjective to grading unless precise rubrics are defined.
• Instructors may find that it takes excessive time to read and respond to all of the student blogs.
• The contents of the student blogs may include disputes with other students, politically sensitive information, personal data, and other sensitive information.
• The instructor may find that adding a weekly blogging assignment is difficult if the course already has a full slate of requirements.

Lessons Learned 

Here is a list of lessons learned based on my experience with blogs: 

• The instructor should maintain a blog to share his/her own reflection of the course. Students read and respond to the instructor's blog, often in a positive manner. The instructor blog can also be used to reinforce key learning concepts.
• Create an index of instructor and student blogs to improve accessibility. I personally believe in the philosophy of allowing students to view each other's blogs.
• Require weekly blog postings and have the instructor assess them and provide feedback via the blog's "post comment" feature.
• Establish minimum requirements regarding structure, length, what to include, and what not to include.
• Emphasize the need to add visual elements and allow creativity and fun.

Conclusions 

Blogs offer an effective way for a student to express his or herself individually and maintain a one-to-one relationship with his or her instructor.  This important vehicle for self expression allows one to have closure and reflection after each lesson and at the end of each course.

What's next for blogs and reflective learning? One possibility is a combination of Web 2.0 technologies that will take them to the next level. A potential combination could be to create a class blog contained in a wiki. This would be an opportunity for the entire class to work together to summarize the key points at the end of teaching session. Another idea would be to have a weekly course evaluation in a wiki-blog to gain class consensus on feedback to the instructor. Still another idea is to incorporate the concept of social networking into a blog and wiki to expand the number of people involved beyond the classroom.

Other considerations include audio- or video-based reflective learning journals using podcast technologies such as PodOMatic and iTunes. One can globally share video blogs consisting of reflective learning journals using YouTube, Google Video, or other video sharing sites.

In conclusion, a blog-based journal enhances the learning experience of an online student by reinforcing key ideas and concepts and allows one to make connections with the real world. The value of this reflective learning tool should not be underestimated.   

References

Graham, P. (2005). Web 2.0 Retrieved on March 1, 2009 from http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html.

O'Reilly, T. (2005) What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Retrieved March 1, 2009, from http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html.

Seilheimer, J. (n.d.). Reflective learning journal. Retrieved March 1, 2009, from http://csm.colostate-pueblo.edu/biology/jack/371journal.html.