learning in the open: faculty and student perspectives of blogging to support reflective practice

Sarah Southall & Jeff NugentVirginia Commonwealth University

Lilly Conference on College and University TeachingWashington, D.C.

2-5 June 2011

Session Overview

• Outcomes

• Initial perspectives

• Teaching vignettes

• Concluding comments

Outcomes

• Discuss +/- of teaching and learning on the open web

• Identify web-based tools to support critical reflection

• Describe practices of an emerging participatory culture

What challenges and opportunities do you see for teaching and learning on the open web?

Teaching Vignettes

EDUC 450 – Principles of Instruction & Curriculum in Elementary Education

• Partnership course

• Web Tools

• Teacher Identity themes include:• Personal identity• Situated identity• Professional identity

Vignette

• Personal identity examples:

• “Everyone says that Partnership is the hardest semester of your college career, and that is definitely right so far. There is a lot of work, not difficult, but takes a large amount of time, and then we basically have a job at the same time. It is hard to keep up with yourself and friends when all of this is going on.

• “My first few weeks have been stressful, getting into a set schedule, getting to know my cooperating class, and balancing time between homework and friends.”

Vignette

• Situated identity examples:

• “I have been in the classroom for four weeks now! I have most of the students’ names memorized and they really seem to notice.”

• “My kindergartners have made so much progress. When I first started, many of them could not write a single letter and had [few] word concepts. Now they can write sentences and have very few mistakes.”

Vignette

• Professional identity examples:

• “I have learned that caring is one of the most important things when it comes to teaching children. The SOLs are very important , but if you don’t care about what you are teaching and the students, then you are setting yourself and your students up for failure.”

• “I have taught/lead multiple lessons in my classroom, and the students are responding to me really well. I am surprised at myself for not getting nervous when teaching them, and being confident presenting material and implementing the classroom rules .”

Concluding CommentsOpportunities:

• Provides space for reflection and dialog.• Allows for active engagement within an open framework.• What is the long-term impact of blog use in teacher education?

Challenges:

• Notion of privacy vs. openness on the web. • Technological and Reflective abilities vary. • In a face-to-face course, where does this fit within the overall course

framework?

GRAD 602 – Teaching, Learning and Technology in Higher Education

• Part of Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program

•General interest in ways future faculty engage in new media environments

• Learning Journal (blog) functioned as space for reflection & dialogue

• Build community of practice & networked conversations

Concluding Comments• Students initially harbor hesitation about publishing their

ideas on the open web.• Students find that participation in new media

environments is very time consuming.• Writing on the open web becomes more valuable to

students as they experience enhanced learning.• Blogging on the open web provides future faculty with

the chance to “try on” new publishing opportunities.• Few students saw the practice of academic blogging as

a scholarly activity.

Q & A