Weblogs as Academic Tools: Cases and Cautions

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Weblogs as Academic Tools Cases and Cautions

• Margaret D. Anderson
• Psychology Department
• SUNY Cortland

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Academic uses

• Pedagogy drives technology use
• tech appropriate to the task
• genuine not contrived use
• integrated into course grading
• not overly rigid assignments

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Weblogs

• weblog Jorn Barger 17 Dec 1997 (Wikipedia)
• Series of thematic entries reverse
  chronological order
• Written by one individual
• Or thematic, written by many

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My academic needs

• Not limited to class enrollment or semester
• Customize insert photos, links, video etc.
• Determine security level
• Very intuitive structure
• Word limit

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LiveJournal

• Open source
• Account levels
• Multiple languages
• Tec support
• Change in template

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1 - Traditional course

• Weekly journal assignments
• Hardcopy problems
• Web based
• Needs
• privacy
• accountability (date stamp)
• interactive (post comments)
• simple

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Model 1

• One-to-one, Two-way communication, Closed System

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Closed system of personal communication between
students and instructor using LiveJournal

• CLASS MEMBERS LIVE
  JOURNAL INTERFACE
• 
  INSTRUCTOR

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2 - Off site supervision

• Student interns
• Remote sites
• Site supervisor(s)
• Faculty supervisor
• Confidentiality
• Interactive
• Ease
• Attachments

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Model 2

• Multi-user, Two-way communication, Closed system

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Closed system of communication among student
intern, faculty and site supervisor using Live
Journal

• STUDENT INTERN
• FACULTY SUPERVISOR
• SITE SUPERVISOR
• LIVE JOURNAL

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3 - Multiple linked courses

• Individual posts
• Determine accessibility
• Personalize format
• Interactive

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Model 3

• Multi-group, Multi-individual, Two-way
  communication, Closed System

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Closed system of communication among six linked
courses
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4 - Asynchronous course

• discussion board as one element of course

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Discussion board requirements

• Instructor generated question
• Students respond to question
• Students respond to peers input
• Needs
• Ease
• Interactive
• Security level limit to class members

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Discussion software

• Shareware
• Free
• Easy to structure/maintain
• No security
• Local sys op
• WebCT
• Not free
• Not intuitive
• Sys op
• Limited to class members
• Limited to semester

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Model 4a

• Multi-group, Two-way Communication, Closed system

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Closed system of communication among class members

• CLASS MEMBERS
• INSTRUCTOR
• LJ TOPIC

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Model 4b

• Expand system
• Add other groups (classes)

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Closed system of communication among multiple
classes

• CLASS A
• CLASS B CLASS C

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Open system

• Open discussion to digital community

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Model 5

• Multi-user, Two-way Communication, Open system

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Open system of communication including multiple
classes

• CLASS A
• CLASS C
• CLASS B

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Cautions

• Determine pedagogical use
• Determine logic structure
• Select software

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Thank you!

• Questions????
• Margaret D. Anderson
• Psychology Department
• SUNY Cortland,
• NY 13045
• andersmd_at_cortland.edu

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