As an educator, I am always looking for ways to foster and facilitate learning with my students. I often get ideas from colleagues, and I came across a great idea that was shared at the 2009 conference of the Association of Leadership Educators. Dr. Greg Gifford shared about his experience using blogs for critical thinking development.
It turns out that several researchers have found benefits of using blog assignments to facilitate learning. According to Fredig and Trammell (2004), there are four benefits of student blogging: (1) Students become subject-matter experts, (2) student interest in learning increases, (3) students have legitimate chances to participate, and (4) blogs provide opportunities for diverse perspectives. A review of empirical research suggests that more research is needed to confirm and verify the benefits. However, I'm convinced that blogging offers great promise as a tool for facilitating learning, so I have been incorporating it as an assignment in my classes.
I am still perfecting the reflection blog assignments for my classroom, but I am now to the point where I am comfortable sharing my experience and recommendations with others. My description of the assignment varies somewhat, depending on the course. However, I always ask the students to follow a "what?", "so what?", "now what?" format, and I give them some consistent recommendations for creating high quality blogs. For anyone that is interested, I am glad to share an example of the assignment and rubric I use with my classes. I hope others will benefit from my experience and share their ideas in return.
