Blogging study

I need to conduct a study that (hopefully) demonstrates the advantages of student and teacher blogs, and other online learning. At the commencement of the 12 month period students will complete an online survey with responses ranked from 1 - 7. I would like help with developing some good questions to include in the survey. At the end of 12 months I hope to be able to have a measure of the learning that has taken place. If anyone has any good ideas for questions they would be very much appreciated.

Tags: blogs, survey

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on December 16, 2007 at 3:24pm

First Choice--Get the author of the books to join in. Second choice--an English prof at a local college or owner of a popular bookstore.

I'd suggest he start small with only a few kids that want to do it. Have you seen Students 2.0---pretty amazing high school blog started with just a few kids.

Final suggest--let the bloggers opt out of other assignments.

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Permalink Reply by Brian on December 16, 2007 at 3:54pm

Thanks--I've scheduled a meeting in my office with my colleagues at the conference table: we're throwing around ideas for the state conference, and I'll bring this blog up as an idea. I keep hitting a snag with how to convince my teachers to not focus solely on test drill and kill and get hung up on the a/b/c/d or f/g/h/j way of teaching.

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on December 16, 2007 at 5:15pm

I'm in a heated discussion at Mrs Bluebird's blog on this exact issue.

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Permalink Reply by Alice Mercer on December 16, 2007 at 9:07am

Jeff Felix (a doctoral candidate and superintendent in San Diego County) recently published a study that I was part of here:

http://suptfelix.blogspot.com/

I was sent a full PDF and summary from him. The link that David Warlick published here: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2007/12/10/various-blog-things/ didn't seem to work: http://site.aace.org/

but I'm happy to send you the pdfs, and you could probably contact Mr. Felix directly.

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Permalink Reply by Christen Jacobs on December 16, 2007 at 9:56pm

Thanks so much for these links. Its exactly what I'm looking for - someone who has researched this and found results.

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Permalink Reply by gordon brune on December 17, 2007 at 6:49pm

Alice
I read about this on David's site, too. Can you send it along to me?
Gordon

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Permalink Reply by kHUSHBOO on December 16, 2007 at 10:02pm

Hi

I think the first obvious question should be asking the kids post the survey the difference between blogging and penning down an article.

How has use of technology made writing an article an easy and effective task?

When you pen down an article it is difficult to find multiple opinion at one go but when you write a blog instantly you can have multiple opinion. Hence you can check for the consistency of the article. So you can frame some question on the merits of blog over the paper writing.

Let me know if i am right. I am new to blogging but then trust me it is a great tool of communication. Especially for the kids i believe they can be taught language through use of the blog.

Regards

Khushboo
http://www.inhomeacademy.com

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Permalink Reply by Christen Jacobs on December 17, 2007 at 3:48am

Thanks - you're right. Its not just a wider audience but an opportunity to test an idea and see a range of reactions. Good point.

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Permalink Reply by gordon brune on December 17, 2007 at 6:53pm

I was hoping to do this this year, too. One question that comes to my mind is "Who reads your writing?" I would think most students would say "my teacher." I would think bloggers would say "the world." I think this question underscores the sense of audience bloggers have for their writing, which, I think, is a prerequisite for writing improvement.

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Permalink Reply by Christen Jacobs on December 19, 2007 at 5:49pm

Yes, thanks. That is looking like one of the biggest advantages, and at the same time, the biggest problem for nervous schools and parents with limited understanding of the process and the technology. My students will be blogging anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Christen Jacobs on December 19, 2007 at 5:55pm

Thanks for some excellent points. My school administration wants me to go through our portal and I can certainly see the advantages. Unfortunately it just doesn't have the cool look of some of the public sites, and isn't as easy for students to use either. Either way, your questions are very pertinent. Thanks so much for the feedback.

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Permalink Reply by Christen Jacobs on December 20, 2007 at 5:48pm

Its called Learning Point. I honestly don't know much about it, but it can be accessed from home or school, and it allows discussions wikis bulletins etc. I am in Australia, and it may well have been developed by someone here. Our school website takes you to it but you won't be able to log on. I'm expecting my students (year 6) to be more interested in the decorations but I don't mind being wrong.