Friday, December 5, 2008

Final reflection

Reflection on what creating and maintaining an education weblog

This has been my first experience with maintaining a blog as part of a class assignment, which I consider as my first education blog. Within my blog, I was able to explore aspects of virtual learning, and later, how the digital native distinction fits into information literacy standards. Through researching each topic, my blog led to developing first hand experience in web 2.0 communication skills. Overall, I feel the exercise is pertinent to my web 2.0 communication skills with my career as an instructional designer.

However, as deeper analysis reveals, blogging involves more than improving communication skills – the process is about creating personal connections with materials within“knowledge flow” maintenance of interconnected networks (Hulburt, 2008, p. 2). As I wrote my blog, I kept up to date on current information from other blogs, which was filtered through my developing framework on the topics and classmate comments. This information negotiation involved personal interpretation and presentation of the topic where I acted as a conduit for information I found on other blogs in my information network. This interaction interests me because it makes knowledge more of a negotiated and dynamic product, which I have found best explained through the learning theory of connectivism best espoused in an article by Siemens (2004).

An example of how connectivism relates to creating and maintaining a blog develops from the fact that blog subscriptions are just as important as blogging itself. Blogging involves a process of linking a connection between interrelated interpretations of a concept or issue through personal interpretations and negotiated meaning that contribute to the creation of knowledge. An education blog should then teach learners how to best represent their perspective on knowledge. Through this practice, knowledge creation makes traditional one-way written communication obsolete. Of course there are experts, but it is up to the community to negotiate information meaning.

Educational blogging raises some issues such as avoiding the “complicated way to submit an essay” trap, which demand specific, and yet, open instructions (Hulburt, 2008). Furthermore, blogging should be interactive. However, as in my case, it has been a challenge to understand that as much effort I put into my blog, very few people are actually reading and benefiting from it, making my contribution a small bud within the blogosphere network.

References

Hurlburt, S. (2008). Defining tools for a new learning space: Writing and reading class


blogs. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 4(2). Retrieved September 29, 2008 from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no2/hurlburt0608.htm

Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved


December 1, 2008 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm