Blog Project: Research Question & Literature Review

Research Question: How does blogging as a technology and a pedagogical process aid in the writing process of specific groups of college-level freshmen composition students?

Literature Review

Through my research on blog technology and the use of blogging in the classroom, I found a number of articles which provided statistical information and background about blogs and blogging as well as some suggested writing activities involving blogging. Although these resources were helpful in understanding the changing face of blogs and how blogs are being employed in academic settings, most of the current literature is directed towards K-12 teachers and not college instructors. This, in my opinion, leaves a huge gap in the Web 2.0 technology and education knowledge base which needs to be addressed. My hope is that by designing and implementing a composition activity intended for a college-level group of students, I will be able, in at least a small way, to begin filling the knowledge gap I have discovered. I have created a list of the articles I found to be most helpful in my research in the comments section of this post.

Blog Project: Rationale

As I have studied the different forms of digital communication currently available, I have come to believe that blogging allows for a more academic conversation than instant messaging, chat rooms, or discussion forums. One of my UAA peers told me that he believed forums were the way to go when presenting a topic for discussion and argument because “blogs are personal journals that are just used by you.” Although blogs were and are still considered by some to be personal, online journals, the realm of the blog has become much more academic and political in the past few years. Also, while discussion forums are often used to present arguments and pursue discussion, the formats of these forums make following and reviewing threads cumbersome. In addition, my fairly extensive personal experience with discussion forums has shown me that attempting to return to a discussion and find previously mentioned information in the threads is much more difficult than reviewing a blog entry where the search capability allows the reader to search for key terms or phrases. It is my belief that blogging will provide a unique opportunity for my students to improve their writing process, expand their computer skills, and gain a deeper understanding of the highly digital world they will be making their living in after entering (or reentering) the global work force. Therefore, it makes logical sense to use blogging in an entry level college composition course.

Blog Project: Focus Groups

For this project, I will be focusing on two groups of students I have identified as having unique challenges as they undertake their first college composition course. The first group, older students either returning to or entering college for the first time after years in the local work force, often enter the college with a deep sense of trepidation about using the computer. These students need a higher degree of exposure to both computers and Web 2.0 offerings. I have a personal degree of knowledge and compassion for this group of students as I am one of those students who returned to college after a 20+ year absence during which I worked in the U.S. work force and raised my family.

The second group, students whose first language is not English or who were raised in a home where English was not the primary spoken language, struggle with barriers and gaps in their movement between their spoken languages and written English. These students who are often identified as ELL, ESL, or Generation 1.5 students, are all quite capable of expressing themselves verbally in any of their languages, but lack the ability to clearly present their thoughts in written texts. These same students are often very comfortable with the use of computers and the internet which they view as a less intense, more user-friendly atmosphere than the standard classroom.

Blog Project: Purpose

The second generation of internet-based services which concentrate on social networking sites such as wikis, blogs, and instant messaging, Web 2.0 could very well be the wave of the future of college composition courses. During the course of this semester, I have studies various forms of digital literacies using different types of Web 2.0 technology and the use of these technologies in college coursework. As I have worked with students and their writing process over the past two years, both as an instructor and a writing center tutor, I have discovered a disturbing lack of balance in the understanding of composition instruction for certain groups of students. At UAA, our student body consists of students entering college directly out of high school, older adults entering or returning to college after many years of employment in the U.S. work force, students who come from a multitude of racial and cultural backgrounds, students from foreign-exchange programs, recent U.S. immigrants, senior citizens, single parents, married couples, high-school teenagers seeking early college credit, students who are home-schooled, students from public schooling. . . – the list goes on and on. In the 2008 Annual Survey of Colleges, the average UAA degree-seeking undergraduate student age was 28.8 years; this age is based on the average of 16,547 full-time and part-time students who have claimed a degree-seeking status and does not include those students attending for refresher courses or general interest (Rice, 2008). One of my areas of deepest frustration as an instructor is finding ways to assist my struggling students as they strive to understand the complexities of the English language and the writing process. This is where, in my opinion, some of the Web 2.0 offerings come into play. Today’s digital world requires a strong working knowledge of computer software for document creation, mathematical calculations, and research. Yet, these programs that are suppose to be “helpful” can create incredible exasperation for a student who has not had extensive exposure to the necessary software programs and internet functions. Add to this the missing understanding of currently used documentation styles, language barriers, or learning difficulties and you have the makings of a struggling, disgruntled, and, too often, failing student. The purpose for this project is to incorporate at least one part of Web 2.0’s networking tools, in this case, blogging, into my freshmen composition course to assess if using this type of networking tool encourages writing and enables increased success for struggling students.

Testing the Waters

So, I'm sitting here with a student & we're discussing how to write blog posts. Figured I'd go into my blog & show her how its done.

Figuring It All Out

Well, I introduced blogs & blogging last week in class. Instead of having my students write me a weekly letter, I had them got to blogger.com & create a blog, then post their blog address & a quick note about their semester research topic in their post on discussion board. Pretty much everyone did it -- those that didn't benefited from Erika V.'s blog set-up instructions. Thank God for Erika & the ease of blogger.com!!

One of the things that came up in class this week was questions on what a blog is -- in comparison to using our discussion board or emailing. . . We had a wonderful discussion about Web. 2.0 technology & most of my students were really excited about this opportunity. Of course, as anticipated, I had one student in my morning class who wasn't really hot on the idea of submitting his stuff into the "void" of the internet but once I explained our process, he seemed to be okay with everything.

An older student in my afternoon class asked me how to post a blog -- I hadn't thought of that one as a need (don't know why), so I quickly put up my blog on screen & showed students how to create a blog entry. I've already found it very interesting to see how excited my students are to try this format of discussion. Although a number of my younger students have blogs on their myspace accounts, few if any have ever looked at a more academic blog. So, their weekly letter assignment this week is to look at one (or more) reputable sources such as cnn, abc, nbc, cbs, fox & review some of the blog entries made about a current topic. I first thought about having them seek out an article & blog relevant to their topic but decided to leave the choice up to them. I did, however, encourage them to look towards their research topic in order to give them even more information about what people are thing about their subject matter.

I handed out a slightly altered version of my argument essay assignment sheet to help them begin to prepare their minds for setting up & presenting their arguments on their blogs. So, what's left? Plenty!!

1) How do I get their reference pages linked to their blogs so that people can reference the sources they site?
2) Do I really need to worry about citations in this venue?
3) How am I ever going to get my few "taildraggers" to work on their stuff a little each day or so which will help them formulate ideas & post blog entries that are overwhelming them or their reading public?

I'm sure there is more that I'm missing but for now that's all I can think of. I'm meeting with my professor tomorrow to discuss this project &, with any luck, get some more direction on what I'm doing. I still have no clue what theoretical point I'm coming from here so I have to figure that out also! My two greatest fears are not being able to properly present this to my students & having them more frustrated then reinforced AND running out of time!

Playing with HTML

So, we're sitting in my digital literacies class talking about blogs & blogging. One of my classmates is talking about setting up a blog & how to use different HTML codes to make your blog posting pretty, interesting, etc. Now, I have to figure out how to play with this -- so much to take in!!

Ok, I'm going to go try some of this HTML stuff. In the meantime, for anyone interested in working with HTML, Erika found a great website all about using HTML == http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

Check it out!