1. Showcasing blogs as a tool
Lin Armstrong

2. What is a blog?
A web page that is like a diary on the internet.
It allows people to post their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and photos onto the internet.
Anyone can read a blog and make comments.
“unedited, published voice of the people” (Winer, 2003)
Winer, D. (2003). What makes a weblog a weblog?” Weblogs at Harvard Law. Retrieved September 5, 2006 from

3. My blog
My other blog at posperous.com

4. Tried www.blogger.com www.edublogs.com www.livejournal.com
warwickblogs.ac.uk
Blogs on moodle

5. Blogging at NWHC First year students Blended classroom experiment
co-worked with library
Blogger.com free
Module booklet alerted students to topics
No set words
No set styles
Blogger award each term

6. Why use blogs? Students said..
It sets information into my own head and helps my memory .Every thing I have blogged I have remembered.
Reflection on my findings and it gives structure to save the stuff I have seen
It has made my learning concrete
I liked doing it because I only did stuff I was interested in
It is a good way to nick a load of stuff off other people’s blog

7. Why use blogs?
I enjoy it for my own benefit it is private and I write how I speak
I like to look back and reflect how I have gone through stress and transitions. I don’t look at others.
It is good for knowledge on your own terms –dumbing it down.

8. Why use blogs? Autonomy Voices Comprehensible Input
Bridge to context of the course
Connectivity
Vygotski & the ZPD
Motivation
Communicative
Authenticity
Lived Experience

9. Problems with blogging students said…
Overwhelmingly it is time
It is an added pressure to the coursework
No one checks so there is no feedback
No instant answers like face book
Doesn’t enhance learning
Does nothing for my learning style as I don’t like to type
Privacy is a big issue for me ,I don’t know who is following me or reading what I write
The tutor can snoop on me and find I am not very accademic
Culture of tv watching not creating on computer, is not seen as leisure but is not seen as real course work either.
Lack of connectivity-feeling someone is out there

10. Zoning in on the ZPD
Learning is taking place in the Zone of Proximal Development which Vygotsky defines as:
. . . the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.
(Mind in Society, page 86 – italics mine)
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachus
Collaboration was better on other tools as these students considered the blog in terms of private voices and public voices audiences looking at you. the irony is facebook is the most open sharing of personal information.

11. Paulo Freire
I have always insisted that words used in organizing a literacy program come from the world universe of the people who are learning, expressing the actual language, their anxieties, fears, demands, dreams. Words should be laden with the meaning of the people’s existential experience, and not of the teacher’s experience.
Freire, Paulo. (1983). The importance of the act of reading. Journal of Education 165 (1): 5 – 11.
Freire, Paulo. (1983). The importance of the act of reading. Journal of Education 165 (1): 5 – 11

12. What did they blog about?
Some blogs from the class.

13. Blogging helped students

14. Students wanted blogs to continue
Yes 7
No 5

15. Reactions to blogs
I just say whatever I want, which is good.

16. Blogs:
Questions & Comments?