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 * __University of West Georgia__**
 * Course: ABED6107**
 * Instructor: S. Hazari**
 * Group Members:**


 * 1) Amanda Elliott **
 * 2) Lindsay Hart **

__** Article Reference **__** : ** Ellison, N. B., & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122.

__**Summary**__: The article focuses on the pedagogical use of blogging in the classroom. Specifically, the authors examine the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating blogging into writing assignments. A survey was conducted to evaluate students’ opinions of using blogs with their writing assignments. The survey examined the helpfulness of blogging versus a written assignment and of reading others’ comments on their blog versus reading another student’s blog. The authors conclude the article with tips on how to more easily implement weblogging into the classroom.

__**Author's Findings**__: The 21st century student spends an average of six and a half hours a day using technology. Since technology is an enormous part of their lives, it only makes sense for teachers to incorporate it into the learning process. Blogs are online sites where users can post discussion topics and allow others to comment on their discussions. Ellison and Wu (2008) found that blogging is an interactive method that encourages student-to-student learning and engagement, not just student-to-instructor. The survey conducted concluded that students felt the blogging with comments assignment was more effective than the standard writing assignment that was turned into the instructor for a grade. The students appreciated the option of having others view and comment on their work. Furthermore, the authors found that reading other students’ blogs was more helpful than reading the comments from their own blog. Reading others’ blogs gave the student a different perspective of the topic.

The students also enjoyed having a new method of writing and expressing their thoughts. They found that blogging was convenient and unique. In addition, students expressed how they liked interacting with their classmates since many times they cannot do this in a normal classroom setting or with a hand written paper.

The authors did find some disadvantages or dislikes from the students about blogging. For example, many students cited how they didn’t feel comfortable disagreeing or critiquing someone’s blog. In addition, some students had technical problems that made blogging inconvenient for them. Also, several students felt that they did not take their blogging as seriously as they would have a hand written paper.

Overall, the authors found that the students were very excited about blogging. They did find, however, that students would like more instruction on how to critique others’ blogs and be offered more technical advice. Furthermore, the students felt they learned the most through reading others’ blogs.

__**Critique/Analysis**__: We found this article to have been very well written. We feel that the authors were effective in showing the importance of blogging in the classroom. The purpose of this article was provide advantages and disadvantages of blogging in the classroom and also the feedback that students gave to blogging in the classroom. This article illustrated that many students love blogging in the classroom and many students hate blogging in the classroom. However, the authors did provide examples from both students that love and hate blogging. The authors also gave the responses to a survey that was given to students on blogging. This information was beneficial for the reader to know because it gave numbers to support their research.

One point that we feel the authors could have focused more on would be the benefits of blogging to the teachers. The authors successfully portrayed the benefits of blogging to students but did not give the benefits of blogging to teachers. Why do teachers like to give blogging assignments to students? What skills does blogging hone in on? What is the benefit to blogging over writing a traditional paper to teachers? These are just a few questions that the authors could have answered from a teacher’s perspective. Many students would like to know why they are blogging and what the main purpose is. We feel that if the authors included a section in their research on a teacher’s perspective of blogging, it would have been beneficial to not only the readers but also the students involved in the research.

We agree with many things that the authors stated in this research. For example, we agree that one of the main benefits in blogging is that students can reflect on what they are writing and thinking as they write and think it (Richardson, 2004). We agree with the authors that blogging is a much more creative avenue than simply writing a paper. Students can reflect and let their writing flow more when they are blogging versus writing a paper. We also agree with the research that blogging is more appropriate in some classrooms rather than others. Blogging would be great in a research classroom but probably not as beneficial in an algebra classroom. Teachers need to consider the pros and cons of blogging before they implement it into their classrooms.

For the most part, we agreed with the authors and their findings on blogging. However, there was one point that we disagreed. We disagreed with the authors giving extra credit to students that completed the survey about their blogs. We feel that by doing this, the students’ feedback was bias because they were just doing it for extra credit and not because they wanted to state their opinions. Many students will say something for extra credit but the true feedback comes from those that want to voice their opinions, extra credit or not. We feel that the authors would have gotten more honest feedback if they had not given extra credit for it.

Overall, we feel that this article was very well written and that the research put into it by the authors was detailed and accurate. We also enjoyed this article because it gave us insight into the purposes of many of the lessons performed in this class. This article showed us the “proof beyond the pudding” so to speak. It opened our eyes into why we blog and why we teach our students to blog. Blogging is a creative outlet that many students prefer when writing and it was advantageous to read an article that has proven the benefits of blogging in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px;">__**References**__: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Ellison, N. B., & Wu, Y. (2008). Blogging in the classroom: A preliminary exploration of student attitudes and impact on comprehension, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 17(1), 99-122.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 14px;">Richardson, W. (2004). Metablognition. //Weblog-Ed.// Retrieved November 12, 2006 from []