Hind

**Prepared by Hind Sheker **
 * Use of Blogs in Higher Education - Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology **



=== ** This is a video that I would like to share on my wiki page which is not only connected from one aspect to my topic but also looking at the digital natives who are involved in today’s education process. ** ** ﻿media type="youtube" key="dGCJ46vyR9o?version=3" height="307" width="384" ** ===

** What is a blog? **  Blogs has been a buzzword since 2004. To define it in its simple form it is a web publishing/logging of text in the World Wide Web (www). However, it got more complicated when media such as graphics, audio, animation and video has been integrated within it. The blogpulse, (2010) website has indicated the number of blogs created up to the current date has reached 152,484,321  blogs. (Blogpulse website, 2010)


 * To view a live statistics of the most up-to-the-minute topics that bloggers are posting, view the blogpulse Live site. ** ** Blogpulse Live **

Blog has been defined by different researchers. Williams and Jacobs (2004) have defined blog as a “form of micro-publishing, easy to use, from any Internet connection point.” Flatley, (2005) has described blogs as a //“Web-based journal in reverse chronological order. It allows the writer to post ideas and thoughts quickly using conversational language for many to read. It allows the writer to link easily to other sites for support as well as for examples. And it provides a repository for such items. Also, both readers and writers are unrestricted to time and place.”// The four main characteristics of blogs as introduced by Nardi, Schiano, and Gumbrecht quoted in Sun (2010) include “personal editorship, hyperlinked post structure, strong archival intelligence among users” and the nature of the blogs encourage users to contribute, discuss, comment, collaborate a variety of topics.
 * State of Blogsphere in 2010 from the Technorati website. ** [[image:bloggerswww.png]]
 * Image Credit: **  Access Date : December 20th, 2010, from []


 * Video: An Introduction to Blogs. ** media type="youtube" key="NN2I1pWXjXI?version=3" height="307" width="384"

**The pedagogical use of Blogs in Education: ** Educators has raised an interest in using blogs as an educational tool to foster critical thinking, interactivity, collaboration and knowledge construction among the learners. The pedagogical perceptive of using blogs in education is based on Vygotsky’s social construction theory (1978) and Wenger community of practice approach (1999). Two types of blogs appeared for academic purposes which are libblogs (Library Blogs) and Edublogs (Educational Blogs). Blogs encourages learners to reflect on their own learning and allows them become “seekers of knowledge.” Vygotsky quoted in (Berk, 2003). It also gives encourage the learners to take responsibility for their own learning and knowledge construction. Furthermore, meaningful learning occurs when learners start interacting socially to discuss their thoughts, share opinions, and formulate new ideas in a community of practice of their interest. Du and Wagner as quoted in Sun (2010) indicated that effective use of blogs can lead to “development of individual and critical voices and prompts accountability in learning.” It will also promote “social engagement and knowledge sharing by connecting learners to contexts beyond the classroom and thus, encourages social knowledge construction.” (Sun, 2010)

**Blogs at Sharjah Colleges of Technology (SHC) ** The mission of Higher Colleges of Technology as quoted from the HCT website (2010), for its learners is dedicated to //“To the delivery of technical and professional programs of the highest quality to the students, within the context of sincere respect for all beliefs and values.//

//Graduates of the Colleges will have the linguistic ability to function effectively in an international environment, the technical skills to operate in an increasingly complex technological world, the intellectual capacity to adapt to constant change, and the leadership potential to make the fullest possible contribution to the development of the community for the good of all its people.”//

Sharjah Higher Colleges has commitment to meet the vision that was highlighted in the HCT main mission category through exposing learners with different types of learning approaches and integrating cutting-edge technologies into the education effectively in order to prepare the learners for the 21st century of creativity, interactivity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and leadership.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Blogs as journals for work placement and events: ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">Based on my research and personal experience as an ex-student at SHC, many teachers have integrated blogging into their teaching to allow students to think critically, collaborate in an interactive social learning environment where learners has posted, commented and shared information with their classmates. Personally, I have used blogging as a form to write my reflective journals about every work experience I had as a student. It helped me to think critically, respect and learn about the digital literacy ethics, collaborated with my classmates when discussing with them different concerns related to our work experiences, sharing ideas and commenting on their blogs. Furthermore, SHC students have used blogging as form of documenting their daily/weekly journals when going to different missions around the world.
 * An community event Mosaic 2010 -- Habitat Egypt Build Blog **

Habitat Egypt Build - Mosaic 2010

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Blogs as a content management system: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: justify;">This web 2.0 technology has been more than a web based journal, some of the teachers has started using blog as a content management system where they provide teaching/learning materials for their students to emphasis on the open learning approach where learners can access the materials anytime/anywhere they have Internet connection.

** Links to some of the blogs being used at the SHC: **

The Foundations Year Blog   **English level to Grammar Course**

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Useful links to blogs related to education field: **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Webloogg-ed – A blog for web-publishing and RSS feeds in Education. **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Bloggercon - A conference held at Stanford University in the US discussing the social implications and uses of technology. **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">School Blogs **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">This week in education - A blog where education issues are shared and discussed. **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Blogger - A free blog creation site. **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Wordpress - Another free blog creation site and for premium accounts. **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Wordpress Apps for Smartphones: (Click on the Image to get the App) **   **BlackBerry :** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
 * iPhone & iPad : **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> Visit WordPress Apps <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
 * To find more about other smartphones: **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">References: ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Berk,L. 2003. //Child Development.// United States of America: Pearson Education.Inc <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">BlogPulse. (2010). //BlogPulse Live.// Retrieved December 20th, 2010, from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Bodrova, E. and Leong, D, J. (1996). //Tools of the mind: the Vygotskian approach to early childhood education.// New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Common Craft. (Producer). (2007, November 29) //Blogs in Plain English// [video]. Retrieved December 20th, 2010, from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Flatley, M. E. (2005). //BLOGGING FOR ENHANCED TEACHING AND LEARNING.// Business Communication Quarterly, 68(1), 77-80. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Higher Colleges of Technology. (2010). //The HCT Model.// Retrieved December 20th, 2010, from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Oomen-Early, J., & Burke, S. (2007). //Entering the Blogosphere: Blogs as Teaching and Learning Tools in Health Education.// International Electronic Journal of Health Education, 10186-196. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> [|Sobel], <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> J. (2010). //State of the Blogosphere 2010 Introduction.// Retrieved December 20th, 2010, from [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Sun, Y. (2010). //Developing Reflective Cyber Communities in the Blogosphere: A Case Study in Taiwan Higher Education. Teaching in Higher Education,// 15(4), 369-381. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Wenger, E. (1999). //Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity.// Cambridge, U.K. ; New York, N.Y. : Cambridge University Press Wesch, M. (Producer). (2007, October 17) //A Vision of Students Today// [video]. Retrieved December 20th, 2010, from []  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Williams, J. B., & Jacobs, J. (2004). //Exploring the Use of Blogs as Learning Spaces in the Higher Education Sector.// Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.