Category: 01d. Research and Studies

a most commonly asked question by teachers is “what’s the difference between blogs and discussion forums?”. this article addresses this question …

Abstract
Weblogs or blogs are being heralded as the �next big thing� in education. In this article we examine the advantages and disadvantages of this form of Internet-based interaction using the Community of Inquiry model with its focus on social, cognitive and teaching presences. We conclude that blogging has distinct advantages over more common threaded discussion in its support of style, ownership and identity, and its public nature may enhance resolution phases of cognitive presence. However, its lack of safety and the current inefficiencies of linking and threading messages present greater challenges than the more familiar threaded discussion or email list. Perhaps the blog�s greatest relative advantage is for non formal and open education that takes learning beyond the traditional course.

APA-styled reference
Cameron, D., & Anderson T. (2006). Comparing weblogs to threaded discussion tools. (Online) International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, 2(11). Retrieved December 8, 2006, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Nov_06/article01.htm

found this paper via my google alert:

A study on the perception of students towards educational weblogs

Abstract (part of):
“This paper investigates student perception towards the purposes of blogging. It reports an experience of introducing blogging tasks to third year computing students, and compares their perception with students not participating in the blogging tasks. A student perception model is proposed to explain the difference in the perception due to the experience in blogging. The paper concludes that mandatory use of weblogs in a course can gradually cultivate educationally sound perceptions in students despite of the observed misuse.”
Reference APA style:
Lui, A. K., Choy, S.-O., Cheung, Y. M. Y., & Li, S. C. (2006). A study on the perception of students towards educational weblogs (online). Informatics in Education, 5(2), 233-254. Retrieved December 05, 2006, from http://www.vtex.lt/informatics_in_education/pdf/INFE087.pdf

Sharon Stoerger has put together these 2 annotated bibliographies which give good overview of articles on edublogging and podcasting in higer ed.
Gotten this link off EDUCAUSE.

This article in Meridian studys some secondary school teachers’ blogs and looks at how blogs have been used to promote these teachers’ reflection about their daily teaching experience. Read the article and you may find yourself persuaded to start blogging today 🙂
[source: Anne.D’s post]

Christopher D. Sessums shares his idea on the topic from a metaphysical and psychological perspective (based on Turkle’s article). The link goes here.