Research on Edublogging for K-12 Teachers

I have conducted a study on teachers in the United States who are using blogging as an instructional practice. It is my intention to make this research available to as many educators as possible so that they may be encouraged to use this practice with their students. The study shows that teachers perceive a significant increase in student learning through motivation for assignments and through deeper thought processes. Students seem to enjoy the connectiveness of their work to other subjects and to each other. This collaboration encourages a deeper relationship with their peers and with the teacher. Other studies have shown these relationships produce more student learning especially in minorities and students of low socioeconomic backgrounds. It also seems that teachers see the benefits of this practice. They have increased their use of blogging year after year, which seems to show they feel blogging has great relevance as a classroom tool.

This study has been peer reviewed by professionals at the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education organization. The full paper will be published and I will be presenting the work to fellow educators in March at their International Conference in Las Vegas. I have also been asked to present the findings at the TechEd International Conference & Exposition in April in Ontario, CA.

I would like to get this study into the hands of as many educators as possible. I have attached a summary of the study to this discussion. The full study may be found at http://www.suptfelix.blogspot.com. It is my hope that this study will be useful to everyone who is proclaiming the benefits of 21st century learning. I believe this study should be made available to all Web 2.0 educators, and I encourage you to make that happen.

Tags: blogging, collaboration, constructivism, edublogging

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Permalink Reply by gordon brune on December 30, 2007 at 7:10am

Thanks so much, Jeff!

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Permalink Reply by Bill Gaskins on December 30, 2007 at 6:04pm

Thanks Jeff... I read your summary! What a great report! I am new to blogging and trying to learn all I can about blogging in the classroom. I like the fact of collaborating and writing. I just recently had a discussion with a group of teachers about how teachers show value to student writing. I think blogging and the art of writing comments takes student learning to a new level. Thanks for sharing
Bill

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on December 30, 2007 at 6:40pm

Here is a blogging funny...our class blog has been pretty quiet over the holidays but I decided to check in today and respond to the students who had blogged. Here's what I saw--Sophie (4th grade) blogged about Jamie Spear's pregnancy at 16 and was sure she was going to have a deformed child Alex (6th grade--OCD, Aspherger's Anxiety Disorder) blogged about the Water Cycle! Something for everyone.

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Permalink Reply by kolson on January 2, 2008 at 1:21pm

Added this to my reading list for the near future, can't wait to dig in!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on January 4, 2008 at 12:38pm

It is really fun, you can see our class blog here--http://areallydifferentplace.org I've blogged on my own blog several times about getting started, you can read those posts here if you are interested. http://anotsodifferentplace.blogspot.com Good Luck, N.

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Permalink Reply by Lorna Costantini on January 4, 2008 at 3:39pm

HI Jeff I am new to Classroom 2.0 and I have to tell you how excited I am to see your research. Blogging is such a new concept that too many shy away from the powerful capabilities of online collaboration. I have been advocating for the use of collaboration tools in Ontario since 2001 and there are still many barriers for teachers, students and parents to overcome before blogging will be accepted as an sound teaching practice. Your research is timely and it provides an excellent platform to further encourage administrators and school boards to develop effective practices for the use of blogging. You have validated my observation as I am actively working on using Web 2.0 tools to connect parents to the classroom. I will be citing your work in my blogs www.classroomblogging,com and www.parents.ourschool.ca.
Thank you for taking the lead on this work.

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Permalink Reply by Lorna Costantini on January 9, 2008 at 6:08pm

I found this article wiredkids thought it might be of interest. It is a 1996 project Do you have any other research that demonstrates this kind of success?

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Permalink Reply by Gerald Ardito on January 9, 2008 at 6:24pm

Jeff,

I really appreciate both your study and your willingness to make your work so freely available.

I have been using a class blog with my middle school science students for the past two years and have been really impressed with the impact on their literacy and engagement. In particular I have found reflection-type assignments to be the most productive for both me and the students. I have been able to use them to extend discussions beyond the classroom. This is especially helpful for students who need longer processing time.

Lastly, I am currently a doctoral student and will be researching the role of various Web 2.0 technologies on supporting students' owning their own learning.

Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on January 9, 2008 at 6:30pm

I loved your blog, the kids' reflections were impressive.

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Permalink Reply by Lucas Fox on January 13, 2008 at 12:16pm

Greetings Jeff,

I was given a link to here from one of my topics in which I'm actually working on a research paper on blogging. Thanks for getting this out, and i can't wait to read more of your research!

Cheers,

Luke

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Irish on January 13, 2008 at 6:58pm

Thank you I have downloaded it and added it to my collectin of white papers

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Permalink Reply by Gerald Ardito on January 13, 2008 at 7:11pm

I really appreciate your doing this study and making it available for all us to to benefit from. I just blogged about your work:
http://teachingownership.blogspot.com/2008/01/study-on-blogging.html

I am currently a doctoral student working on studying how various technology tools help students visualize science concepts. I have found blogging to be incredibly valuable to my middle school students and really appreciate your work validating my anecdotal evidence.