AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHER EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE PEDAGOGICAL BENEFITS OF WEBLOG

K.THIYAGU TNSCHE JOURNAL 2014
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AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHER EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS
THE PEDAGOGICAL BENEFITS OF WEBLOG
K.Thiyagu,
Assistant Professor
thiyagusuri@gmail.com, surithiyagu@gmail.com,
9486812800, 8760910980
ABSTRACT
The use of ICT in teacher education programs has been gaining interest
throughout the world. This interest places pressure on faculties of education to prepare a
new generation of graduates capable of integrating a variety of technological tools into
their personal and professional lives (Starkman, Neal. 2007). Argued that enabling
teachers to make effective use of ICT as a tool for deep learning should be top priorities
for both, pre-service and in-service programs, so as to overcome the most important
challenge of the teaching profession, which is the preparation of students equipped with
the skills needed for 21st century careers. The explosion of technological growth with Web
2.0 applications has opened up new learning possibilities for educational programs and
blogs are a promising example of these new applications (Keegan and Desmond. 2002).
Weblogs are considered to be one of the best ways of combining Information
Communication Technology (ICT) with teaching and learning methodologies in a
classroom. The application of weblogs in higher education, particularly in teacher
preparation programs, has been documented very recently. Hence, the investigator
proposed the title of the study has “Teacher Educators’ Perception towards the
Pedagogical Benefits of weblog in Tirunelveli District”. The main aim of the study is to
assess the perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher
educators of Tirunelveli district. Survey method is employed for this study. The
investigator has chosen 150 teacher educators as a sample for the study in a random
sampling technique. Finally the investigator concludes; (a) Average level perception
towards pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher educators. (b) There is no
significant difference in the mean scores of teacher educators’ perception towards
pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their gender, age, subject, marital status,
years of experience and educational qualification.
Key words: ICT, pedagogy, weblog, web 2.0, Teacher Education, Teacher Educator.

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INTRODUCTION
The term blog is a contraction of "web log", which suggests that blogs were
initially conceived as online log books where the author could put their log entries, and if
they wish publish them. Blogs, like log books, are cumulative and each new entry is
appended to the previous ones (usually with the newest ones at the top). They also offer a
variety of features not found in log books. Entries can be "tagged" with appropriate key
words (or phrases) so that related items can easily be brought together (Lam, Paul, Mc
Naught and Carmel 2007). With many blog systems, the publication of individual entries
can be controlled to private, to friends / colleagues only or to the public. Most blogs also
allow the reader to post comments, and these may require moderation before they become
public (the decision being left to the owner of the blog). Blogs can be published using
"RSS" which allows readers to easily see when new postings have been made, so that they
do not have to go to each blog that they are interested in, but can see them all in a single
news reader or aggregator.
A blog is an ‘easy to use website’ where you can quickly post information and
have other people comment on that information. Weblogs provide teachers and Scholars
with the opportunity to communicate and collaborate in new and exciting ways. A blog
(short for weblog) is an interactive web page where individuals can post entries, articles,
links, and pictures, and ask others to join into conversations (Littlejohn, Allison., et al.
2009). For educators, they are a way to expand the boundaries of learning. Teachers can
post entries for Scholars, parents, and for professional development purposes. Scholars
can engage with others in their community or around the world. Work can be published to
an authentic audience. Blogs are easily adaptive into most curriculum areas. They are
relatively simple to use, can be accessed by anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection,
and content can be published online in a matter of minutes (Morice, Jenny 2002).
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
Investigation: The investigation is the process of inquiring into or following up;
research; study; inquiry, or thorough inquiry or examination;
Perception: Perception presents individual feeling or against something. In other
words the degree of feeling of favourableness or unfavourableness towards some objects,
events, person, groups, and ideas is called perception.

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Pedagogical Benefits: Pedagogy is the study on process of teaching. The term
generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction. Pedagogy is also
occasionally referred to as the correct use of instructive strategies. The investigator defines
that in teaching and learning process how weblog and weblogs are used and how to
integrate weblog during the teaching and learning process.
Weblogs: A weblog, sometimes written as web log or Weblog is a Web site that
consists of a series of entries arranged in reverse chronological order, often or periodically
updated with new information about particular topics. The information can be written by
the site owner, gleaned from other Web sites or other sources, or contributed by users.
Teacher Educators’: Those who are teaching primary and secondary teacher
education institutions are called as Teacher educators’
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
 To discover the level of Teacher Educators’ Perception of Pedagogical Benefits of
Weblog’s
 To find out the year of experiences in internet usage among the Teacher Educators.
 To find out the frequency of the Teacher Educators’ experience with internet.
 To find out the year of experiences in weblog usage among the Teacher Educators.
 To find out the frequency of the Teacher Educators’ experience with weblog.
 To find out whether there is any significant difference in the mean scores of
teacher educators’ perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with
respect to their gender, age, subject, marital status, year of experience and
educational qualification
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
The hypotheses of the present study a formulated as follows:
1. There is no significant difference in the mean scores of teacher educators’
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their
gender.
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their age.
subject of specialisation.

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marital status.
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their year
of experience.
educational qualification.
METHOD ADOPTED IN THE PRESENT STUDY
In the present study, the investigator has employed the ‘survey method’. Survey
method is a method for collecting and analyzing data, obtained from large number of
respondents representing a specific population collected through highly structured and
detailed questionnaire or other techniques (Best, J.W., 1983).
POPULATION AND SAMPLE OF THE STUDY
In this study, all the teacher educators working in college of education at various
colleges irrespective of the nature of management and other criteria but located in
Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu have been taken as the population for the study. A good
sample must be representative of the entire population for this study. Thus data have been
collected from 150 Teacher Educators using random sampling technique.
INSTRUMENT
As there is no suitable tool available for the present study, the investigator has
constructed and validated a scale to measure perception teacher educators towards
pedagogical benefits of weblogs. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, the
investigators used a self-prepared questionnaire (PPBW = Perception towards
pedagogical benefits of weblog). The investigator referred to various books and journals to
have clarity of concept and in addition to their information’s he consulted some subject
experts about the content for the development of the tool. The pedagogical benefit of
weblog’s perception tool prepared by the investigator was used for the present study. The
tool was prepared by the three point scale.

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STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES USED
Statistical techniques serve the fundamental purpose of the description and
inferential analysis (Aggarwal, Y.R, 1986). The following statistical techniques were used
in the study:
 Mean (M) and standard deviations (SD)
 Percentage analysis
 ‘t’ test for determining the significance of difference between means of two
sub-groups.
DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
The investigator personally visited the B.Ed., colleges with the permission of the
concerned head of the Institutions. The investigator prepared a letter mentioning the
purpose of the research and the institution under which the research is being carried out.
The aim of the questionnaire that has been given is to know the level of perception
towards pedagogical benefits of weblog among the teacher educators. The items in the
tool arranged in to form of a rating scale and the respondents are expected to circle or tick
their level of confidence along a scale of 1-3 for each of the weblog categorization
questionnaire. The scores were then tabulated for statistical analysis. The scores obtained
through the questionnaires along with the personal data are consolidated and tabulated on
consolidation sheet for the purpose of analysis. The data thus collected and analysed are
presented in 12 tables (1-12). Brief interpretation of table content is given after each table,
for convenience.
Table No.1
Analysis of the Sample in terms of the Length of
Experience with the Internet
Length of experience with
Internet
No. of Teacher Educators %
Below 1 year 37 24.7
1-2 years 31 20.7
2-4 years 37 24.7
4-6 years 29 19.2
6 year & above 16 10.7
Table 1 presents the analysis of sample in terms of the length of experience with
Internet. As seen, 37 Teacher Educators (24.7%) have less than one year experience with
the Internet, 31 Teacher Educators (20.7%) have 1 to 2 years of experience with the

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Internet, 37 Teacher Educators (24.7%) have 2 to 4 years of experience with the Internet;
29 Teacher Educators (19.2%) have 4 to 6 years of experience with the Internet and 16
Teacher Educators (10.7%) has 6 years and above experience with Internet.
Table No.2
Analysis of the Sample in terms of the Frequency of the Internet Use
Frequency of
Internet use
No. of Teacher Educators %
Daily 45 30.0
on alternate days 44 29.3
Once in a week 22 14.7
Once in a fortnight or so 5 3.3
Once in a month or so 27 18.0
Never 7 4.7
Table 2 provides the analysis of sample in terms of the frequency of internet use.
45 Teacher educators (30.0%) use the internet every day, 44 (29.3%) use it on alternate
days, 22 (14.7%) use once in a week, 5 (3.3%) use roughly once in a fortnight, 27
(18.0%) use once in a month and only 7 (4.7%) teacher educators use no internet at all.
Table No. 3
Analysis of the Sample in terms of the Profile on weblog
Weblog Profile No. of Teacher Educators %
Yes 40 26.7
No 110 73.3
Table 3 shows the analysis of sample in terms of the profile on weblog. It is seen
40 teacher educators (26.7%) have a profile on weblog, while 110 (73.3%) do not have
any.
Table No. 4
Analysis of the Sample in terms of Reason for neglecting weblog profile
Reason
No. of Teacher
Educators
%
I have not time for them 44 40.0
I don’t want your personal details published online 41 37.27
I don’t want to have an online presence 31 28.18
I consider them to be a waste of time 22 20.0
I don’t know about web 2.0 tools 26 23.63
I have technology phobia 14 12.72

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Table 4 reveals the result of analysis for the reasons for neglecting web 2.0 profiles
like blog and weblog. Out of 150 respondents only 40 are having a profile on weblog.
Remaining 110 have no profile on weblog. They neglect the weblog for the following
reasons: 44 (40%) have not enough time for using web 2.0 tools; 41(37.3%) don’t like to
share their personal details published online; 31(28.2%) don’t like to be online; 22 (20%)
consider web 2.0 tools to be a waste of time; 26 (23.6%) don’t know about web 2.0 tools
and 14 (12.7%) expressed a technology phobia.
The second part of the questionnaire of the survey was “Perception on the
pedagogical benefits of weblog”. The purpose of this item was to determine which Web
2.0 application is widely familiar with teacher educators. This could help to find the most
implicitly used tool(s) by them. The respondents were able to select multiple answers.
Table 5 depicts the analytical results on this.
Table No. 5
Analysis of the Sample in terms of pedagogical benefits of weblog
NO STATEMENTS
AGREE NEUTRAL DISAGREE
F % F % F %
B1 Blogging can be useful in acquiring
various kinds of knowledge and
information.
128 85.3 21 14.0 1 0.7
B2 Blog is a powerful tools to enable
scaffold learning 99 66.0 48 32.0 3 2.0
B3 Blog is an effective forums for
collaboration & discussion 106 70.7 29 19.3 15 10.0
B4 Blog is an excellent opportunities for
students to read and write. 119 79.3 26 17.3 5 3.3
B5 Blog can promote critical and
analytical thinking 101 67.3 39 26.0 10 6.7
B6 Blogs being used as brainstorming
tool 99 66.0 41 27.3 10 6.7
B7 Blogging can help me realize the
importance of it as a collective activity
in a community.
114 76.0 29 19.3 7 4.7
B8 Using a blog makes learning
independent of time and place 103 68.7 36 24.0 11 7.3

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B9 Blog fosters the learning bonds
between teachers and students 100 66.7 42 28.0 8 5.3
B10 Blogging helps teachers develop
professionally 101 67.3 42 28.0 7 4.7
B11 Blog fosters the development of
writing and research skills as well as
digital skills.
97 64.7 41 27.3 12 8.0
B12 It gives a chance to shy students to
participate with their peers and get
their voice heard.
94 62.7 51 34.0 5 3.3
B13 Blogging makes the students into
subject matter experts 92 61.3 35 23.3 23 15.3
B14 Blogging can make me communicate
with the world and can influence every
area of my life.
75 50.0 65 43.3 10 6.7
B15 Blogging can help me develop my
own expertise in some areas. 102 68.0 35 23.3 13 8.7
B16 Blogging can help me engage more
actively in my fields of interests. 78 52.0 65 43.3 7 4.7
B17 Blogging can provide me
opportunities to grow by looking back
on my own thoughts &views.
107 71.3 35 23.3 8 5.3
B18 Blogging can be useful to describe
and/or express my thoughts and views. 80 53.3 54 36.0 16 10.7
B19 Blogging can help me gain new
awareness and set up plans on the
basis of it.
96 64.0 46 30.7 8 5.3
B20 Blogging can be useful to build up
some social networks around me. 82 54.7 58 38.7 10 6.7
Table 5 gives the analysis of opinion of respondents on the perception towards the
pedagogical benefits of weblog. Most of them are having a positive opinion about each
statement of the pedagogical benefits of weblog, given in the questionnaire. It means that
most of the teacher educators maintain a positive perception on the pedagogical benefits of
weblog.

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Objective Testing
Find out the level of perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog among
the teacher educators
TABLE – 6
Level of perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog
among teacher educators
Variable
Low Medium High
No % No % No %
perception towards
the pedagogical
benefits of weblog
8 5.3 54 36 88 58.7
Out of 150 samples only 88 (58.7%) samples are having a high level: 54 (36%)
sample are having moderate level and remaining 8 (5.3%) of samples are having a low
level of perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog.
Hypotheses Testing
Null Hypothesis: 1
There is no significant difference in the mean scores of teacher educators’
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their gender.
Table No. 7
Difference in the mean scores of teacher educators’ perception towards pedagogical
benefits of weblog with respect to their gender.
Web 2.0 Gender N Mean Std df
‘t’
value
Remarks
at 5%
level
Weblog
Male 53 5 0 . 7 9 7 . 4 4
148 1.51 NS
Female 97 5 2 . 4 9 6 . 0 9
(At 5% level of significance, the table value of ‘t’ is 1.97)
Table 7 shows that the computed ‘t’ value 1.51 is less than the table value 1.97 at
0.05 level and hence it is not significant. Consequently, the null hypothesis is to be
accepted. And it can be said that there is no significant difference in the mean scores of
teacher educators’ perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to
their gender.

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Null Hypothesis: 2
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their age.
Table No. 8
benefits of Weblog with respect to their age.
Web 2.0 Age N Mean Std df
‘t’
value
Remarks
at 5%
level
Weblog
Below 35 99 5 1 . 4 1 6 . 1 4
148 1.23 NS
Above 35 51 5 2 . 8 2 7 . 4 4
their age.
Null Hypothesis: 3
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their basic subject.
Table No. 9
benefits of Weblog with respect to their subject of specialisation
Web 2.0
Basic
Subject
N Mean Std df
‘t’
value
Remarks
at 5%
level
Weblog
Arts 61 5 1 . 1 5 7 . 2 7
148 1.14 NS
science 89 5 2 . 4 0 6 . 1 4
their basic subject.

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Null Hypothesis: 4
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their marital status.
Table No. 10
benefits of Weblog with respect to their marital status.
Web 2.0
Marital
Status
N Mean Std Df
‘t’
value
Remarks
at 5%
level
Weblog
Married 89 5 2 . 5 3 6 . 7 7
148 1.42 NS
Unmarried 61 5 0 . 9 7 6 . 3 5
their marital status.
Null Hypothesis: 5
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their year of
experience.
Table No. 11
benefits of weblog with respect to their year of experience.
Web 2.0
Year of
Experience
N Mean Std Df
‘t’
value
Remarks
at 5%
level
Weblog
Below 5 97 5 1 . 8 7 6 . 0 7
148 0.06 NS
Above 5 53 5 1 . 9 4 7 . 6 1

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their year of experience.
Null Hypothesis: 6
perception towards pedagogical Benefits of Weblog with respect to their educational
qualification.
Table No. 12
benefits of weblog with respect to their educational qualification.
Web 2.0
Educational
Qualification
N Mean Std Df
‘t’
value
Remarks
at 5%
level
Weblog
Without NET/PH.D 113 5 1 . 7 5 6 . 1 3
148 0.45 NS
WITH NET / Ph.D., 37 5 2 . 3 2 8 . 0 4
their educational qualification.
DISCUSSION
The results of ‘t’ test point to the following findings in respect of different contributors
tested for their role:
Gender
The ‘t’ test result shows that, there is no significant difference in the mean scores
of perceptions towards pedagogical benefits of blog and weblog among the teacher
educators with respect to their Gender. This may be due their curiosity to know the
innovative and new things and their environments and also their keen watch about the
update & day-to-day information of new fashion of all the male and female teacher
educators.
Age
The ‘t’ test revels that there is no significant difference in the mean scores of
perceptions towards pedagogical benefits of blog and weblog among the teacher educators
with respect to their age. This may be due to the fact, that today all pupils have proper

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education in all aspects. Particularly in Tamilnadu all people were well educated and they
are aware of the importance of technological world. All the age group teacher educators
are updating their potential and eager to get the knowledge from the electronic devices.
Subject Stream
The ‘t’ test result shows that, there is no significant difference between arts and science
teacher educators in their perception towards the pedagogical benefits of weblog. This can
be attributed to the universality of technology in its applications. Both arts and science
teachers got some exposure of using computers in their school days and likely
enhancement of awareness on technological instruments. They have equal opportunity to
interact with the society through technology and develop further interest.
Marital Status
The ‘t’ test result shows that, there is no significant difference between married and
unmarried teacher educators in their perception towards the pedagogical benefits of blog
and weblog. This may be due the fact that, marital status does not affect the eagerness and
curiosity of the teachers to know about the advanced technological devices.
Year of Experience and Educational Qualification
The ‘t’ test revels that there is no significant difference between M.Ed., only
qualification and NET or Ph.D. qualification teacher educators in their perceptions
towards pedagogical benefits of weblog. Similarly the result is coinciding in the year of
experience also. It may be due the fact, that in higher education level, all the teachers are
using the computer and internet for various purposes without age norms and educational
qualification. All the teacher educators visit the website of Tamil Nadu teachers’
education university for updating useful announcements and information on educational
matters.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
This study examined teacher educator’s perceptions of pedagogical benefits of
weblog; there was no examination of factors in place to support teacher educators’
integration of technology into their courses. For example, did teacher educators participate
in any technology-based professional development; do colleges provide technological
support for open source applications, of which many Web 2.0 applications are; is the use
of Web 2.0 applications encouraged by superiors, mentors, or students? As a result, it
would be beneficial to further study factors in place to support the integration of
technology into courses, as well as the effectiveness of these support factors. Another

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interesting future research idea would be to apply the same decomposed theory of planned
behavior to understand and predict student's intentions and behavior to use Web 2.0
technologies to supplement their in-class learning. After an analysis of the student data, it
could then be compared with faculty expectations from Web 2.0 use in an attempt to
understand whether there is a gap in understanding among the teacher educators and the
faculty and whether or not the same factors influence student and faculty use. For similar
further studies can be conducted in professional college teacher educators, like teaching
profession and engineering profession etc. The present study is limited to Educational
District of Tirunelveli only. This can be conducted within a wider geographical area. This
study may be extended to a large sample taking some more variables. Owing to the
constraint of time and money only few variables and few colleges could be included for
this study.
CONCLUSIONS
In future research of weblog use, we encourage collecting data and tracking
individuals’ contributions so that research might correlate individuals’ frequency and
type(s) of weblog activity with individuals’ perceptions of the weblog’s role in supporting
collaboration and learning (Rachna Rathore 2009). In that way, the research might identify
specific profiles of use that lead to greater gains in learning. Teaching methodology will
shift from teacher-centered education to learner-centered education. Teacher’s dominance
will be replaced by the knowledge dominance (Aharony, 2011). So students now learn
through computer teacher, television teacher and internet teacher. In future, another
teacher who applies these technologies in the classrooms will replace a teacher who does
not apply these technologies. The investigation end its findings will help educational
experts, thinkers, teachers and all those who are interested in the field of education to
focus their attention on the present problems. This findings and results are not the end of
the problem, but just a beginning of the search for innovation. By applying these results,
the quality of teaching learning process will improve.

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REFERENCES
Aggarwal, Y. R. (1986), Statistical Methods, Sterling Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
Aharony, N. (2011), Web 2.0 in the Professional LIS Literature: An Exploratory
Analysis, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 43(1), 3-13.
Bassoppo-Moyo, T. C. (2006), Evaluating e-Learning: A Front-end, Process and Post
Hoc Approach, International Journal of Instructional Media, 33(1), 7-11.
Best, J. W., (1983), Research in Education, Fourth Edition, Prentice Hall of India, New
Delhi.
Dunaway, M. (2011), Web 2.0 and Critical Information Literacy, Public Services
Quarterly, 7(3), 49-157.
Keegan, L and Desmond, R. (2002), The Future of Learning: From e-Learning to m-
Learning, Information Analyses, Opinion Papers.
Lam Paul, Mc Naught and Carmel, A. (2007), Management of an e-Learning Evaluation
Project: The e3Learning Model, Journal of Interactive Learning Research,
18 (3), 365-380.
Littlejohn, S., and Allison. K.(2009), Characterizing Effective e-Learning Resources,
Computers and Education, 50 (3), 757-771.
Rachna Rathore, R. (2009), Effective teaching through e-learning, Edutracks, 6 (12), 8-10.
Starkman, N. (2007), e-Learning: Going the Distance, T.H.E. Journal, 34 (2), 18-24.
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AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHER EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTION TOWARDS THE PEDAGOGICAL BENEFITS OF WEBLOG

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