Blogging in Higher Education
Martin Ebner
Hermann Maurer
Graz University of Technology

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbabylon/80620351/

Web 2.0 - only a hype?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

e-Learning 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leighblackall/64953825/

Three major components
1990 - 2007
⇨ Broadband
Accessibility
Mobile
⇨
Device Devices
⇨ Web 2.0
Usability
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Not a technical view
Learning will not easier as before,
because learning is an active cognitive
process on the part of the learner, where
knowledge and understanding is
constructed by the learner.
We have to find new didactial scenarios
how to use these applications.
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Weblog
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

TU Graz LearnLand
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

TU Graz LearnLand
• Universitywide Blogosphere
• based on ELGG (http://elgg.org)
• php / mySQL
• Various components
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Research Question
How can weblogs be used in Higher
Education?
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

The Study
• Lecture „Societal Aspects of Information
Technology“
• Aim: Students of Informatics should get an
overview how informatics influence daily
human behavior.
• Two groups – traditional versus blogging
(n=44)
• Two blog contributions each week the
whole semester
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Didactical Concept
• Distributed versus Compact
• Self-Directed versus Instructed
• Community versus Alone
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Technical Concept
• Administration Weblog
• Community Weblogs for Each Topic
• View “Feature”
• Lecturing with student contributions
Livedemo
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Discussion – the teacher‘s view
• Ease of use
• Digital immigrants – digital natives
• Amount of information
• Community feeling
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Evaluation results I
Question: Do you think that this concept is appropriate
to work with a topic for a longer time?
Answers: n=34; 34 studenst answered YES
• The concept was very expedient, because i have to
think about the topic again and again
• Yes, but i like to express once again: longer time ..
• Yes, there is a big advantage: The blog can be used
as knowledge archive …
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Evaluation results II
Question: Describe very shortly the most positive aspect
of blogging.
Answers: n=34; 34 studenst answered YES
• Reading and writing continously
• You can see permanent new stuff
• I noticed much more about a topic by using the
blogging method instead of the traditional assay
writing
• The same topic, but many different perceptions
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Evaluation results III
Question: Do you think blogging is a possibility for the
educational future?
Answers: n=34; yes = 27 (79%); no = 7 (21%)
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Evaluation results IV
Question: Please tell us the biggest point of criticism
about the blogging concept from your personal point of
view.
Answers:
• The topic of blog must be „broad“, because after some
time I found no new information anymore
• It is hard not to loose the overwie, because of the
amount of contributions
• Sometimes I recognize contributions, which were not
well researched
• Blogging once a week is stressful
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Conclusion
• Problem of Information overflow
• Blogging leads to an ongoing learning
process
• More student-centered content
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

Endstatement
Nowadays, we need to think about what
we write and not how we write. Even
more - how we start to write, reflect and
express ourselves within a worldwide
community.
Blogging in Higher Education –
Quebec 10/2007

SOCIAL LEARNING
Graz University of Technology
Martin Ebner
Hermann Maurer
Contact:
martin.ebner@tugraz.at
http://elearningblog.tugraz.at