I have been asked to reflect upon the following questions: "What value is there in having students blog on a regular basis. How can you have students develop a blog to be used as an electronic portfolio?"
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Personally, I do agree that reflection is necessary for students to develop an in depth understanding of curriculum and of learning in general. Writing about their ideas has additionally helped me have a more in depth discussion with students on what they're doing in class in order to be successful (studying techniques, homework assignments on time, etc.), as well how their confidence level lies going into or coming out of a quiz or test.
While this is extremely powerful, I do not see myself being able to use reflective writing, at least from a feedback and grading standpoint, as an efficient and effective tool. I believe the amount of time necessary to read and provide feedback on a large number of student blogs would be difficult to reach.
As far as students using a blog as an electronic portfolio, I believe there are a number of other online applications where students would be able to store portfolio information in a much more efficient manner. I believe the idea of an electronic portfolio is a good one, just not in blog format.
I agree that blogging might not be the best way of having an electronic portfolio. Maybe blogging could be used as a reflection for labs?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the time involved and reading and providing feedback on their reflections is a little prohibitive, but at least their words will be more legible than if they wrote in a paper journal. Perhaps a wiki would work better, where they could respond to each other's comments. Or a discussion board.
ReplyDeleteA good point that assessing blogs could be time prohibitive in that effort spent assessing a blog could serve students better elsewhere. Perhaps students could assess each other constructively through blogging if the right rubric were employed, which leads us back to a teacher spending time assessing mastery against the rubric. Still, it is a powerful collaboration medium.
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