Blogging as a learning tool

With the increased interest in introducing digital literacy skills in the classroom as a means of preparing students for the 21^st century marketplace, our teaching and learning center has had more questions from faculty about using blogs as a teaching tool. Student blogging can be a way to achieve several learning outcomes for a course, as it has been for this class. With these last few weeks I have left at Ohio University, I have found blogging to be an effective learning tool that allows me more control over the course than all my other classes. I think posting a commentary based on the class discussion is the best way to utilize the knowledge gained in class. Blogging encourages creativity and develops vital writing skills. Blogs can be shared and this gives students more incentive to write them and to write them well. Most importantly, one can study for days for an exam and fail for a variety of reasons. But with blogging, I know what is expected of me when writing a blog.

 In a 2013 speech to the American Educational Research Association, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that much of the criticism of standardized testing is warranted. “State assessments in mathematics and English often fail to capture the full spectrum of what students know and can do,” he said. “Students, parents, and educators know there is much more to a sound education than picking the right answer on a multiple-choice question.” Standardized tests, by virtue of being multiple-choice, don't allow for students to express themselves. Standardized tests place a heavy weight on students that can lead to anxiety. Test anxiety became such a serious issue that in 2002, California state tests included instructions for teachers on what to do if a student vomits on the test. For students who have to pass a standardized test in order to advance to the next grade or to obtain a diploma, test anxiety can soar. Because anxiety can be so paralyzing, students may forget facts they had memorized or how to perform simple mathematical operations. In this way, the pressure placed on students to perform well ends up impeding the very thing standardized tests is designed to assess: how much students know. On the other hand, blogging reduces that testing anxiety. So while students are cramming for exams and not really even learning, I am stress free and gaining information and technology skills.

Professors should work to discover what it really in their student's minds, to see what all they know or don't know. Yes, our mantra of "studying for exams" has created and nourished a monster—but it's not too late to kill it. Blogging has given me the power to choose my grade, decrease stress, and give me many benefits. I just wish all my teachers would have used this approach.

References:
1.
2.