Educational Blogs Research Articles

Creating a Virtual Journal Club: A Community of Practice Using Multiple Social Media Strategies

RIP OUT Creating a Virtual Journal Club: A Community of Practice Using Multiple Social Media Strategies Michelle Lin, MD (@M_Lin) Jonathan Sherbino, MD, MEd (@sherbino) The Challenge Rip Out Action Items Health professions educators should: A journal club provides an opportunity to critically appraise the medical literature and apply it to clinical practice. Traditional, in-person journal clubs face challenges of scheduling participants and facilitators, recruiting local experts, and having a limited, local impact. What Is Known Journal clubs may help develop communities of practice involving ‘‘groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.’’ 1 With the advent of modern digital technologies, online medical-related journal clubs are increasing: partici- pation can be synchronous or asynchronous, experts can be recruited from a global pool, and discussions are digitally archived for broader dissemination. In addition, these journal clubs may disseminate educa- tional innovations and interventions to a wider audience for further study, and they provide rapid feedback to authors regarding similar work occurring elsewhere. These online discourses, however, typically incorporate a single social media strategy, such as Twitter-based journal clubs (#UroJC, 2 #NephJC, http://www.nephjc.com). In an age where we view, engage, and learn from multiple digital streams, a virtual journal club requires a multimodal social media strategy to optimize reach and engagement. In January 2015, a virtual medical education journal club called ‘‘JGME- ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education’’ was piloted as a joint collaboration between the Journal of Graduate Medical Education and Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM, an education blog with 1.2 million page views per year). 3 This Rip Out describes how to move from hosting an online, single DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-15-00070.1 Editor’s Note: The online version of this article contains the framework used for the blog post featuring the JGME/ALiEM Hot Topics in Medical Education journal club. 1. Incorporate multiple social media strategies when devel- oping a virtual journal club. 2. Ensure that facilitators are familiar with different social media platforms, including blogs, Twitter, and Google Hangouts on Air videoconferencing. 3. Identify the core team, which consists of at least 4 individuals with unique roles and responsibilities: a primary facilitator, a secondary facilitator/social media expert, a featured author, and an expert discussant. 4. Prepare, host, and conclude the virtual journal club in a 5- stage approach: preparation, promotion, journal club launch, livestream video discussion, and curated dissemination. 5. Use web analytics to trend use and reach as indirect measures of success and impact. platform to a virtual, multimodal journal club by using a blog platform as the central repository of information to house blog comments, embedded Twitter comments, and embedded Google Hangouts on Air video discussions. How You Can Start TODAY 1. Technology platform setup a. Create a (or join an existing) blog. b. Ensure that each facilitator has a Twitter account. c. Create a free YouTube channel to host the livestreamed Google Hangouts on Air video- conference. 2. Build the core team: A minimum of 4 core team members are needed to host a virtual journal club. a. Primary facilitator across the platforms (blog, Twitter, videoconference) b. Secondary facilitator and expert in social media platforms c. Author from the featured journal club pub- lication, to participate in the videoconference discussion d. Topic expert to participate in the videocon- ference discussion Journal of Graduate Medical Education, September 2015

The Effectiveness of an Educational Blog for the Instructional Technology Course in Developing Knowledge Achievement, Deep Learning Style and the Degree of Acceptance of the Educational Blog among Al-Aqsa University Female Students

The Effectiveness of an Educational Blog for the Instructional Technology Course in Developing Knowledge Achievement, Deep Learning Style and the Degree of Acceptance of the Educational Blog among Al-Aqsa University Female Students

BLOG EDUCACIONAL E O ENSINO DAS DANÇAS FOLCLÓRICAS NAS AULAS DE EDUCAÇÃO FÍSICA: APROXIMAÇÕES A PARTIR DO CURRÍCULO DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

O objetivo deste estudo foi elaborar e avaliar um material didático complementar ao currículo de Educação Física do Estado de São Paulo sob a forma de blog educacional de danças folclóricas. Desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa qualitativa organizada em três etapas: análise documental do currículo em relação à dança, produção do blog e avaliação por professores. O blog foi apontado como ferramenta de formação continuada possibilitando acesso rápido e reunião de diversas mídias em um mesmo espaço virtual. Contudo, identificaram-se limitações no emprego dessa ferramenta com relação à organização dos conhecimentos da dança, à estrutura escolar e às condições do trabalho docente.

Usos específicos de los blogs como herramienta educativa

In this paper we present some of the options that can offer the educational blogs to support the teaching and learning process. From the point of view of the faculty as from the view of student blogs its offer big opportunities that allow conjugate the space of expression and the relationship with the global environment expressed in terms of Internet. The contents and hyperlinks, the relations between users and networks, are created between the participants of the blog community arise in this way as a complex space to support growth in the independent and relevant learning for students and teachers. Blogs work as literacy activity and as developing critical independently.

The use of a group blog to actively support learning activities

Despite the widespread use of blogs in higher education, there remains a lack of knowledge and consensus about the use and value of blogging in higher education, particularly when used for long periods. This article investigates the use of a group blog to assist traditional teaching activities and foster collaborative learning through the development of a sense of community. It describes how the blog project was implemented and the experiences of administrators and students in using the blog providing insights to educators. To assess students’ experience, a survey was administered to a sample of 135 undergraduate and graduate students. The results show that students find blogging a useful learning tool and that blogs can effectively be used to support learning activities for longer than one semester based on the blog visitors’ statistics and feedback. However, its capacity to build and sustain a sense of community was not as strong as expected. Students were more positive about the use of the blog as an information and promotional tool to share marketing news and information and publicize the degree, rather than for community building. Findings suggest that although the majority of students thought the system was helpful for sharing discipline-related knowledge and information, they are reluctant to participate in a regular and active way by posting – a resistance that applies also to teachers. Nevertheless, the findings also indicate that students’ participation levels can be successfully increased by means of the grading system.

Los blogs como entornos virtuales de enseñanza y aprendizaje en Educación Superior

En la actualidad, existe un interés pedagógico por transformar las tecnologías de la información y comunicación en tecnologías para el aprendizaje y el conocimiento. En este trabajo se presentan una serie de contribuciones didácticas asociadas al uso de blogs en la Educación Superior a partir de una experiencia de innovación educativa por proyectos llevada a cabo por un grupo de profesores universitarios entre los años 2009 y 2013. Tanto el profesorado como el alumnado participante en las asignaturas donde se ha puesto en práctica el edublog, lo verifican como un recurso útil para conformar entornos virtuales de enseñanza y aprendizaje gracias a las múltiples potencialidades que ofrece. Entre ellas se destacan: facilitar el acceso al conocimiento, promover una participación más activa y reflexiva en la construcción de los aprendizajes, amplificar la experiencia social del aprendizaje, proporcionar evidencias sobre el progreso de los estudiantes que ayuden a reorientar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje y estimular el juicio crítico. No obstante, también se identifican problemas relacionados con la participación de los estudiantes y con la gestión de los edublogs por parte del profesorado.

Методические рекомендации по использованию учебного блога в процессе обучения студентов

Методические рекомендации по использованию учебного блога в процессе обучения студентов

Designing Educational Blogs Effect on the Student's Knowledge Acquisition in the Secondary Stage: Case Study of KSA Schools

This research aims to identify the effect of the difference between blogs in design and form on the student knowledge acquisition process in the High stage in Bisha governorate in KSA. Two designs were chosen from blogs designs; one depends upon the hypertext while the other depends upon the super graphics. The following supposition was tested: There is no statistical difference (α = 0.05) between the degrees average of first experimental student group (who depend upon the hypertext) and the degrees average of second experimental student group (who depend upon the super graphics) to test the students’ knowledge acquisition in Mathematics. The scientific approach proposed for achieving these research goals depends upon the experimental design approach (Pre-experimental measurement- After experimental measurement) for two experimental student groups; the first group depends upon study by using blogs designed by hypertext while the other one study by using blogs designed by super graphics. The research sample consists of 48 students appointed from Prince Sultan High School. Such sample was divided into two experimental groups; the first group studied textually while the other studied graphically. The unit of Engineering Diaries (Reflection- Displacement- Rotation) was chosen from the mathematics curriculum for the first secondary stage to perform the study effect test. The researcher designed knowledge test of the unit of Engineering Diaries in the mathematics curriculum as measuring instrument. Knowledge test was performed on both groups before and after the experiment.

Communicative Competence Development for Future Teachers

The main scientific focus of the paper is the new pedagogical knowledge about the educational activities content and organization for the development of future teachers’ communicative competence, together with the new aspects of educational communication, implemented in the modern information environment. The paper describes the approach to students’ communicative competence development based on the use of educational blogs. During the research students solved professional pedagogical problems, described and discussed their experience in blogs. For each of the problem solved, students had a specially developed activity algorithm. The algorithm structure described teachers’ and students’ actions, additional electronic resources, stages of monitoring activities, terms of effectiveness, as well as extracurricular activities assessment scale.

Examining the Blogging Habits of Agricultural Leadership Students: Understanding Motivation, Use, and Self-efficacy

Blogging is a form of social media and student engagement is at the center of blogging. The benefits of blogging include ease in making writing easier to share, encouraging students to write outside of the classroom, and supporting group collaboration. The findings suggest students are more passive in their blogging experiences, as the data found students generally read blogs more than they wrote blogs. The unified theory on the acceptance and use of technology and self-efficacy were used as the framework for the study. This study sought to explore agricultural leadership students’ motivations for blogging in writing intensive courses. Effort expectancy, performance expectancy, and behavioral intention were significantly correlated with self-efficacy. Teacher training could be used to increase awareness among educators about the benefits of blogging. Educators must be able to convey the benefits of educational blogging in terms of its ease and benefit in order to encourage student acceptance. Improved preparation of agricultural leadership instructors to include blogging in writing intensive courses may improve student engagement and learning, and increase our academic discipline’s knowledge of approaches that influence the practice of technology diffusion.

Portuguese

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199746 Blogs are used for communication and interaction among people, and have been used in the educational context as a resource and pedagogical strategy, or as a reflective portfolio and collaboration space, in the informal continuing education of teachers. This study aims to describe how blogs are being used in the teaching context, and the impacts of their use. To this end, we carried out a survey of theses and dissertations on this topic, published in the past ten years, in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), Brazil, using the descriptors 'blog', 'blogs', 'blogue' and 'blogues'. We selected the theses and dissertations that dealt with the use of blogs in the educational context both in their utilization as educational resources and as tools in the training of teachers. In order to select these theses and dissertations, the abstracts were read, selected, and then the full paper was analyzed. Three theses and 12 dissertations were selected. They were categorized according to the area of knowledge in which they were produced, year of publication, focus of the research, and impact in the educational context. The results show that the papers were produced mainly in the area of education, and that 40% of them were published in 2011. These studies present different focuses, which may be classified into (i) analysis of blogs, (ii) application for teaching, and (iii) teacher training. These studies show that the impacts of the use of blogs in education are positive, because they help in the process of teaching and learning, but they can be negative if teachers do not change their attitude. Keywords: Blogs, Education, Pedagogical practice.

As danças folclóricas no currículo de Educação Física do estado de São Paulo: a elaboração de um blog

The aim of this study was to propose the use of ICT through an educational blog on learning the dances covered in the physical education curriculum of the state of São Paulo. The results showed this tool as a dynamic and interactive platform that may constitute a bank of knowledge aids in the work of the teacher in relation to this content.

As danças folclóricas no currículo de Educação Física do estado de São Paulo: a elaboração de um blog

The aim of this study was to propose the use of ICT through an educational blog on learning the dances covered in the physical education curriculum of the state of Sao Paulo. The results showed this tool as a dynamic and interactive platform that may constitute a bank of knowledge aids in the work of the teacher in relation to this content.

Using Blogs in the Marketing and Advertising Classroom: Exploratory Insights and Recommendations for Future Use

The use of blogs in business and higher education is increasing, yet little is written about using blogs in marketing or advertising education. The authors review the literature about using blogs in higher education and explain their benefits and pedagogical importance for marketing, advertising, business and journalism/mass communications classes. An author's pedagogical experiences with using blogs in an e-Marketing course and with a study abroad program are described and the qualitative feedback from the student participants is reviewed. In general, students enjoyed their blogging experience, felt that they had improved their skills and recommended the tool's continued use. The authors' recommendations for using blogs in the marketing, advertising, business or journalism/ mass communications classroom and suggestions for further research are also presented.

Blogs: A Resource of Online Interactions to Develop Stance-taking

Blogs, which are shared online journals that can provide commentary on different subjects and allow users to reflect, share opinions and discuss various topics, help the bloggers build social relations with their readers and other blogger and give them an opportunity to be involved in public discussions. They allow anyone's voice to be heard and resist hierarchical modes of information, dissemination and communication. Certainly, blogs include the kind of vocabulary, and structure based on which authors can develop their own position, stance and self-presentation. This kind of representation is called stance-taking. When writers show their stances they signal a relation to others. This is a way of presenting one's own contribution to a position. The purpose of this study would be the analysis and the identification of stance-taking in blogs. The focus of the study, therefore, would be on those frequently used vocabulary in the blogs that mark stance of the writers and on the analysis of these markers in context. This study has implications for EFL learners and non-native writers to get familiar with the patterns of effective writing in academic setting in general and in educational blogs in particular.

Tumbling Political Theory

Blogging in the classroom is not a new idea, but my students have tended to view the blogging assignment negatively, as a homework assignment that simply needed to be done each week and then forgotten until the next time they were required to visit the blog. With that in mind, I decided to employ a very different method of educational blogging – using the Tumblr platform – in which each student would take ownership of his or her own blog and which would make the best possible use of social networking technology to boost interaction among the students and engagement with the course material.

Reading and writing about literature on the Internet. Two innovative experiences with blogs in higher education

This paper describes two innovative experiences with ICT in teacher training by means of the development of two blogs about children’s and young adults’ literature. The study of both activities shows the usefulness of blogs in higher education and their contribution to the linguistic and literary training of future teachers. The results show that the creation of a literature blog enhances communicative skills in a digital environment, enlarges the students’ literary competence, improves the future teachers’ didactic training, increases the participants’ motivation and encourages independent learning and shared knowledge building by means of peer interaction.

Users' perceptions of blog functions: educational vs personal use

Purpose – This paper aims to understand how users' perceptions of the different functions of blogs vary in educational use and personal use, and further to explore whether experience with blogs has an influence on differences in perceptions of blog functions. Design/methodology/approach – To empirically determine whether the blog functions were suitable for educational and personal use, a blog system with numerous functions was constructed for users to evaluate. In total, 48 college students were recruited to participate in the study. The participants navigated this system and then filled in a questionnaire to give their opinions on the functions of both educational blogs and personal blogs. Findings – The findings of this study indicate that of the 26 blog functions, perceptions of 20 of the functions differed significantly between educational and personal use. Moreover, the results showed that only two blog functions, backup and traffic source, were influenced by both blog experience and blog usage. Originality/value – This study distinguishes itself from the previous studies on blogging systems in its specific focus on functionality with detailed evaluation under different purposes of contexts. Practical suggestions are accordingly made for practitioners to choose when and which functions to use under different circumstances to enhance the interaction and information exchange between users in the field practice of educational blogging.

The Scholarly Merit of Social Media Use Among Clinical Faculty.

Background: Social media (SoMe) platforms such as blogs, Twitter, and Facebook are increasingly becoming incorporated into education and scientific communities. In fields such as emergency medicine, clinicians have established communication channels through SoMe to engage in academic and clinical discussions for the purposes of professional growth. While the use of SoMe as an educational tool within the classroom has been previously described, its use as a professional tool has not been adequately investigated. Objective: To assess the perception of SoMe as an academic tool among deans of accredited health care professional schools in the United States. Methods: An electronic cross-sectional survey was distributed to deans of accredited medical, nursing, and pharmacy schools across the United States to assess the knowledge of SoMe, attitudes toward academic merit, and challenges to incorporating SoMe into scholarly activity. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: Of 188 responses (response rate = 22%), 162 (86%) agreed publication in a peer-reviewed journal ranked highest in academic merit, followed by publishing in medical Web sites (157, 84%), publication in a university-based newsletter (147, 78%), and personal medical education blog (150, 80%). Fifty-one (31%) of respondents stated that volume of viewership would improve academic merit, while 85 (52%) believed a peer-review process would improve academic merit. Conclusion: Although professional SoMe activities should not replace traditional publications, the result of this study suggest establishing a peer-review process to improve validity of such activities.

Blogs in pre-service teacher education: exploring the participation issue

Web 2.0 technologies characterised by user participation and sharing have been used increasingly in academic environments. In such learning environments, it is critical to engage learners as active participants rather than passive consumers of online content. The present study attempts to conceptualise the participation issue central to blogs through examining the factors that hinder student teachers from writing academic blogs and exchanging comments. It presents two cases of implementing academic blogging where participation levels varied. Adopting an exploratory case study approach, the study identified multiple inhibiting factors in individual, social, pedagogical, and technological dimensions. Through highlighting a number of critical issues and pitfalls for educators, the study can enhance the exploitation of the pedagogical potential of blogs and increase user engagement in the process.