Seems it might take James a couple of weeks to dig out from his todo list, and I know how he feels. Finding the time to steal a few minutes to blog this week is going to be a challenge…teachers back today, 3,000 kids back tomorrow, new construction everywhere, Tablet PC pilot to support, new teacher in my department to supervise, in-service day coming up next week (along with a trip to Austin, TX to tour the Dell plant), board presentation the week after, final book edits the week after that, Girl Scouts tonight, horseback lessons tomorrow night, another podcast Thursday night, soccer (coaching) Friday night, camping Saturday night, grass up to my knees, oil changes, peeling paint…oy.
And yet there is so much I want to blog about: more about the Web and New Orleans, Alan asking about “Citizen Teaching”, David’s riff on Connectivism, Paul Allison’s wiki worship…let’s see…what’s gonna give?
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One of the things I’ve been really struggling with in writing this book is the dearth of statistical research surrounding the use of blogs in educational settings. I’ve seen references to a couple of studies but haven’t been able to dig up the results. I found this description of a 2004 study by Kimberly Rynearson of Tarleton State University, but never found the results:
The primary research question guiding the study is: Are weblogs a viable technology for improving students’ reading/writing achievement? The study addresses this question directly by measuring students’ performance on end-of-year measures of reading/writing achievement.
Read the entire .pdf for more detail…and please let me know if anyone has seen the outcome.
Today, Stephen Downes points to a News in Science article titled “Blogs help students think for themselves.”
Blogging is helping students to think and write more critically, says an Australian researcher, and can help draw out people who would otherwise not engage in debate.
These are the preliminary findings of PhD research by Anne Bartlett-Bragg, a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, who has been using weblogs or blogs in her own teaching since 2001.
“[The students] are thinking more critically,” she says. “They are learning to be responsible and they’re communicating outside the boundaries of the classroom and the institution, and they like that.”
A couple of caveats: no methodology is cited, and I couldn’t find any at her blog either (though I didn’t spend a whole lot of time digging.) Also, her research seems to point more to higher ed. That’s why I wish I could find the results to the previous study.
But, hey…it’s a start…