We will use a blog as a reflective journal of your journey through this class. Your posts should reflect upon lessons you have learned from this experience, share your perspectives and opinions about emerging technologies, and comment on your views for applying these technologies in teaching and learning.
Purpose
Blogging serves the following purposes:
- Communicates your thoughts about the course material between yourself and instructors, and among your peers.
- Provides regular feedback between you and the instructors to help match your expectations.
- Serves as a platform for synthesis of new knowledge and ideas.
- Helps to develop critical thinking.
- Helps to elicit topics of interest, challenging topics that need improvement, etc.
- Helps to clarify troublesome concepts.
Quality blog posts
How do I write a good blog post? A good post is personal, reflective, and substantive. Additionally, your reader must be understand clearly what you have written. If it is provocative or controversial, references should be provided to substantiate your thoughts.
Steve Wheeler (2010), an associate professor at Plymouth University (U.K.), states that the following factors contribute to a good post:
- Good "snappy" titles.
- Good content.
- Controversial content.
- Images to illustrate your views and inform your readers.
- Hyperlinks that take readers deeper into the topic or discussion.
- Humor, word play, or even satire to strengthen your post and entertain your readers.
Here are some guiding questions to think about when writing your post:
- What new technology and concepts did I learn this week?
- What excited me about the week’s activities? Why?
- Which of the week’s activities helped me to understand emerging technologies better? Why?
- Which of the week’s activities was least useful to me? Why?
- How can the week's activities be strengthened?
- What new insights and problem solving strategies did I realize during discussions or while working with others?
- What would I like to learn more about? Why?
| Category | Exceeds target | Meets target | Inadequate |
| Submission | Prior to deadline | At deadline | Late |
| Substance | Substantive, complete | Somewhat substantive, missing items | Too brief and incomplete |
| Understanding | Extremely clear, easy to understand | Clear, understandable | Confusing, not clear |
| Reflective | Responds extremely well to guiding questions | Adequately reflective | Not reflective, off-topic |
| Relevancy | Extremely relevant to weekly topics | Relevant | Irrelevant |
Grading:
Max. points = Exceeds target in ALL categories
90% of points = Exceeds target in 4 categories, meets target in one category.
80% of points = Meets ALL targets.
70% of points = Fails to meet ALL targets.
Readings
Freedman, Terry. (28 Dec 2012). 7 Reasons educators should blog. Retrieved from http://www.ictineducation.org/home-page/2012/12/28/7-reasons-educators-should-blog.html
Wheeler, Steve. (12 May 2010). What makes a good blog post. Retrieved from http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/what-makes-good-blogpost.html
Wheeler, Steve. (5 Jul 2011). Seven reasons teachers should blog. Retrieved from http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/seven-reasons-teachers-should-blog.html
Acknowledgement
Dr. Wayne Iwaoka, Associate Professor, Department of Human Nutrition, Food & Animal Sciences, CTAHR, University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
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