BLOGGING FOR REFLECTIVE LEARNINGBEST PRACTICES & WORST MISTAKES
Anand RamchandDepartment of Information Systems
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The Context - IS1103 Computing & Society
! Global ethical, social & legal vacuums around use of IT
! Objectives:
! Awareness, Sensitivity
! Exploration
! Need for reflection
FISHEYSTREAM
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Reflective Learning
! Form of deeper mental processing in learning
! Active & critical thinking, understanding
! Draws out personal experiences and assumptions
! Forces reorganization of thoughts for application & analysis
! Catalyst for sense-making
! Several forms - concept maps, essays, forums, wikis, blogs
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Blogging
! Online publishing platform
! chronological
! easily updated
! interaction via readers
! Write once, read anywhere
! web, RSS readers, aggregators
ANNIEMOLE
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Platforms5
Blog.NUS6
Why Blogging?
! Social interaction to support knowledge construction
! Ownership over thoughts and understanding
! Informality promotes engagement
! Enhance writing and communication skills
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Guidelines for Students
! Group blogging - 3 to 4 students (44 groups)
! Each student had to make 4 posts in the semester
! Group blog accounted for 10% of grade
! Comments counted toward individual participation (10%)
! Wide umbrella of topics or focused on a single domain
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Results
! 668 vs.
1200 posts & 600 comments
! Creative output
! video, audio, text
! jockeying for eyes
! Deeper insights and reflection?
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Best Practices - #1 Easy Access
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Aggregated on NetVibes
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Best Practices - #2 Grading Criteria
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Relevant - bare minimum, irrelevant posts won’t get any score.
Descriptive - description of current state of affairs
Analytical - draws a logical sound conclusion
Normative - identifies ethical principles and values being affected, evaluates effect, claims of good/bad and ethical justification
Multi-Perspective - considers different perspectives involved before making claims
Engaged - demonstrates thorough involvement
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Best Practices - #3 Use Lecture Time
! 10 minutes set aside during each lecture
! Highlight both good and bad posts
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Best Practices - #4 Student Feedback
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Other Best Practices
! #5 - Group Effort instead of Individual
! internal group improvement efforts
! #6 - Use of Checkpoints
! avoid end of term crunch
! #7 - User Identities
! essential for grading
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Worst Mistakes
! #1 - Keeping up the momentum
! Spent 12 hours a week reading and commenting - it wasn’t enough
! Heavy reliance on tutors, but hours are a problem
! Momentum is vital
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Worst Mistakes
! #2 - Blogging by instructors / tutors
! Capability constraints! Time constraints
! #3 - Discussing the legal issues
! students need to realizewho is reading their content
! awareness of NUS IT policies
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Success? Failure? Recommended?
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