In-service teachers' experiential learning in a Weblog-based environment

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate 25 in-service teachers' experiential learning with self-created Weblogs in a professional development course. The teachers' learning process consisted of individualised and collaborative components. The teachers started by accessing the instructor's podcast on 'key concepts of a learning environment' for self-learning, followed by designing individual Weblogs for ongoing reflections and content creation linking their Weblogs to their peers' Weblogs for collaborative learning during the course. Teachers' Weblog content and reflections were analysed. In terms of individualised learning, the teachers experienced using Weblog as an ongoing reflective learning tool to document their ideas and designs of Weblogs. The teachers also experienced peer-to-peer and instructor-to-peer interactions in the collaborative learning. The key features of useful Weblogs for learning were highlighted by teachers at the end of peer critique. In addition, teachers expressed concerns about using Weblogs for their teaching in schools. Some of the teaching and learning issues include subject matter, ethics and assessment were also highlighted in this study.