Reflection on Blogging

 

http://hostingkartinok.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B3.jpg

If you would asked me a few years ago, my opinion of blogs, I would have said that I have no idea what you are talking about, not to mention their use in education. However, last year, in an attempt to improve my English, I came across a couple of sites where the main method of teaching was to publish any story or any text of your own, which will later be edited by native speakers. Blogging is becoming more and more popular tool of teaching and learning, because it is convenient way of interaction mainly based on the text exchange among a large group of people trying to help each other (Lai & Chen, 2011; Warschauer, 1997; Warschauer, 2010). 

 http://www.cyberalert.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Blog-Comments.jpg

In the beginning of the semester, when we were assigned to write 10 blogs and 20 comments, I thought it would be easy. And then, after two or three weeks without any idea what to post, I realized the difficulty of that task. Last semester there was a range of task that could help us to develop our skills, and now we are free to choose our style and format until we are in education sphere. Last semester we were given feedbacks to see what our mistakes are and to improve the writing accordingly, and now we can use our peers’ comments, if any. Last semester we learned academic writing, and now it is just writing. This semester I feel myself more confident as a writer, however, blogging is not my favorite type of assignment.

It was hard for me to choose the topic of blogs and then to find some information and to write, and I am not the only person to have difficulties. 31 Master students agreed that it is difficult for them to find appropriate blog theme and 30 spend more time on preparing one blog rather then writing one academic essay (Montgomery, 2015); and now I am confused about blogs’ applicability for Master students. However, it was interesting for me to share my personal experience with people and to tell something about myself not only to my friends, but to every graduate student of our school.

             

                        https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/p/2/005/096/06a/1a96caf.jpg

Despite all the challenges of blogging I enjoyed that experience and I feel myself less nervous when posting or commenting. Blogs for me now not just someone’s thoughts, ideas and experience, but the way to educate students to be more advanced in writing.

References:

Lai, H-M., & Chen, C-P. (2011). Factors influencing secondary school teachers’ adoption of teaching blogs. Computers & Education, 56, 948-960.

Montgomery, D. P. (2015). [Blogging and Academic Writing]. Unpublished raw data. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/PX8wv7

Warschauer, M. (1997). Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 470-481.

Warschauer, M. (2010). Invited commentary: New tools for teaching writing. Language Learning & Technology, 14(1), 3-8.

 

Lai, H-M., & Chen, C-P. (2011). Factors influencing secondary school teachers’ adoption of teaching blogs. Computers & Education, 56, 948-960.

Montgomery, D. P. (2015). [Blogging and Academic Writing]. Unpublished raw data. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/PX8wv7

Warschauer, M. (1997). Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning: Theory and Practice. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 470-481.

Warschauer, M. (2010). Invited commentary: New tools for teaching writing. Language Learning & Technology, 14(1), 3-8.