HigherEdBlogCon 2006

Both presentations are by MSU people and I’ve already listened to a talk by one of them about blogs. The first one is research which I presume is meant to eventually support the second one which is about a resource site for faculty.

An empirical test of blogging in the classroom

This presentation is the prelim findings for a study on blogging in the classroom, specifically blog vs paper. It’s a very initial study but gives a few ideas for further research. It also brings up the points that are true for any new medium/technology, that students have to adjust to the new medium and this may cause adverse effects. I’d be interested in seeing the performance of the same students after 3 or 4 courses with blogs. It would also be nice to see it across more content areas. Blogs in science and blogs in humanities may be two very different things. It’s a reminder that students have been writing papers since the moment they were taught to write. There’s also the formality issue where people like me are used to writing short, incoherent shit online.

Blogs for Learning: A case study

This presentation is about the creation of a resource site for the use of blogs in the classroom as mentioned before. The first half has quite a bit of information from focus groups so there are things to take away regardless. It’s more students’ feelings which is nice. The other half is about the site and so it may be just as well to wait for the site to be up. First part was worth watching though.