Use of blogging for reflective learning in higher education
What is a blog?
The blog is generally understood to be an Internet site which essentially takes the form of a logbook or a private diary grouping together a series of articles usually presented in anti-chronological order (ie from the most recent to the oldest). Each post added to the blog usually consists of text, images, videos, sound recordings or hyperlinks. However, what makes an Internet newspaper a blog is the possibility that it offers readers to comment on the author's posts on the Internet page.
From the blog's interest :- Writing and publishing what the pupil is doing makes it possible to " keep a record of his reasoning, document the stages of a process or a long project ". The blog allows a " large-scale discussion by publishing its reflections and its achievements in the public square ", it thus helps the students to adopt a reflective attitude on their learning, on their practices. It is a tool that can promote metacognition. The blog can therefore be interesting for the student, but also for the teacher, either for himself (reflective approach on his practice), or on the refined knowledge of his students that he can see through their writings. .
Teacher blogs are now commonplace. The tool can be used more or less dynamically, it serves as a showcase on the Internet. Teachers must ask themselves the question of opening the blog without restriction, or on the contrary of restricting access to the blog to students only, depending on the objectives of the project. Hence the interest of digital platforms specially dedicated to educational use.
The student may use a blog for several reasons. In addition to the uses mentioned above, it can be used as a learning portfolio, as an internship notebook, as a trace of the progress made or for other purposes, most of which surely remain to be invented. . He will have to ask himself the question of whether to make this portfolio public or not, and for what reasons. In any case, formalizing your thoughts in writing has positive consequences for learning. A study by Ducate and Lomicka (2008: " Adventures in the blogosphere: from blog reader to blog writers ») Is quoted, which shows the particular interest that the blog can take in a language class, in particular by encouraging the visit of other blogs of different cultures, and by creating links between blogs.
Controversies
Other questions revolve around this issue. We must address what digital identity is, we must be aware of the traces we leave on the Internet, we must dissociate the blog from the assessment, we must accept that all students do not have the same approach , nor do they have the same interest in exposing themselves in this way.
The benefits of blogging are highlighted in this article, but some are questionable. Jean Paul Moiraud believes on his blog that this tool responds to a " dilation of educational space and time " with a multiplication of actors (we are moving away from the dual relationship
between the teacher and the teacher). He also questions the relevance of the non-validation (evaluation) of the content of the blog, addresses the question of educational scripting and regrets that the legal aspect linked to the posting of various documents (copyright) is not mentioned. , image rights, quotation rights, etc.)
I end this article with a final quote from it: " Blogs can burst classroom walls and create a community of learning and learners that can quickly become particularly rich and motivating. , even if some students allow themselves a few less relevant and more personal posts. "