Blogging

Assignment Type: Blogs

In fact, a blog is an online diary or communication tool, where a person or group regularly adds new entries, in order to share information, ideas and/or opinions with others. Readers can respond with their typed comments. Technically it’s a website, but you don’t need any special skills to use it. Editing a blog is as easy as editing a regular document.

Why use it?

Blogs are a format that allows students to reflect on their knowledge, further strengthen their knowledge, and demonstrate their unique understanding to others. Blog posts are qualitatively different from journals or formal academic papers. They allow students to communicate in a way that is personally meaningful to them and is consistent with the “content creation” aspect of current digital culture. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that students put more effort into preparing work to share with a broader audience than instructors do.

Blogs are easy to set up in any Blackboard course, providing a place for individual or groups of students to post written content in the class. Each content entry in a blog is a standalone item that is automatically labeled with its author and date and time. The term blog comes from the “web log” aspect of how it works. In practice, it is common for a series of posts to revolve around a common topic. Blogs in a Blackboard course are only available to members of that course.

How to use

Blogs may be suitable for assignments or projects that require students to share relatively small amounts of content, such as an idea, a targeted list of facts, a brief summary, or a set of recommended resources. Blogs can be set up for individual writers or groups of writers, including the entire class. Decide whether you want it for the entire class or just selected students. B. Specific groups can read blogs.

Blackboard’s Journal tool is suitable for more personal, reflective journaling, while the Blog tool can be used for tasks with content suitable for “public” viewing. The online nature and common format of blog posts (one or two short paragraphs) allows students to practice written communication in a way unique to the digital age. Students often enjoy and move when sharing their reflections, even when they know their writing will be read by others. Instructions for blog assignments might include similar prompts for discussion forums or a requirement for each student to read and comment on a certain number of other students’ posts.

Blogs can also be used for asynchronous discussions. Students may be assigned to provide “points” and “counterpoints” to an issue, either individually (without assigning any side to the issue) or as members of a team. The order in which students make their contributions can be determined in advance. In a team situation, this can be left up to each team (following the tradition of high school debate competitions), or students can simply be instructed to write a certain number of posts, with the posts in series. Have independent “maneuvers” and twists and turns. In any case, the blog format makes it easy for all students in the class to follow the flow of a series of conversations as two sides of an issue are debated.

Considerations

When some students hear “Web 2.0” terms such as “blog” and “website,” they worry that their current technical knowledge is not sufficient to complete the assigned tasks. But rest assured that students do not need any special skills to work with blogs. There is virtually no learning curve to using this tool, but the digital communication skills students gain through blogging are vital and expected in many 21st century careers.

Teaching and Assessing with Blogs

Any type of content that requires thinking, critical analysis, and integration with other knowledge is suitable for blog assignments. Blogs provide an opportunity to expand students’ writing and communication skills on a new platform. They can also be used as a means of stating or defending a position, organizing and presenting a set of information, and providing examples of real-world content. A sense of community develops among students who engage in blogging by reading what their peers have written, sharing their own insights, and commenting on each other’s ideas.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels: Example Learning Objectives

Blogging tasks can be designed to assess the achievement of learning outcomes at each level of the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Below are some example objectives at different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Students can demonstrate by creating and including pictures, diagrams, illustrations, and multimedia in their blog posts.

Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy: Example Learning Objectives

Blog tasks can be designed to assess the achievement of learning outcomes at any level of the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Below are some examples of objectives at different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Students can demonstrate by creating and including pictures, diagrams, illustrations, and multimedia in their blog posts.

Knowledge: Define key terms related to natural selection in your own words.

Comprehension: Describe the personality traits of the protagonist in a story and identify actions or behaviors that demonstrate those traits.

Application: Explain how the four basic laws of supply and demand work, with concrete examples of each law.

Analyze: Differentiate between two approaches to business valuation:

Evaluation: Criticize the research methods used in the study described in the assigned journal article.

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