Module 1: Blogging and Collaborative Learning

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(Alam, 2019)

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As the use of technology continues to grow rapidly, the need for Web 2.0 tools that are beneficial to both educators and learners becomes increasingly in demand. It is important to be able to utilize diverse ways to incorporate technology in learning environments to remain engaging and effective.  

Luo (2015) notes that as Web 2.0 tools increasingly penetrate our daily lives, instructors have considered incorporating the tools into their academic courses. This has led to the use of collaboration between educator-to-educator and peer-to-peer to transition beyond verbal communication and into technological connections. That is where websites and social blogging take a stronger role.  

Blogging Web 2.0 tools, such as blog websites such as Wix, and social media, like Twitter and Facebook, have allowed learners to collaborate with peers. This goes beyond learners in the standard K-12 classroom. Higher education, both online and in-person, as well as educators learning to expand their craft, can utilize blogs to share resources and communicate with others in similar fields.  

Social media blogging, like Twitter, allows educators to create microlearning environments that can allow learners to express themselves and ideas through shorter texts and summaries (Luo, 2015, p. 239). This helps the learner to develop an understanding of communication through comprehensive, brief abstracts and the desire to use social media within the learning environment.  

Beyond a microlearning environment, blogs help create a social constructivist learning environment. According to Kadir and Tasir (2020), by allowing learners to learn through social interactions (although many may believe that social media is counterproductive to social interactions) learners grow through cognitive development. When learners become bloggers within the learning environment to write their own reflections and reviews and comment on their peers’ blogging content, social constructivist learning environments develop new, technology-based, student-centered learning experiences. 

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Resources

Abdul Kadir, N. I., & Tasir, Z. (2020). Students’ Perceptions and Information-Sharing

Patterns in Learning Authoring System Course through Blogging. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (IJET), 15(19), 187. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v15i19.10950

Alam, S. (2019). What is a blog? Quora. https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-blog-1

Luo, T. (2015). Tweeting and Blogging: Moving towards Education 2.0. International Journal on E-Learning, 14(2), 235–258.