Blog as a collective Intelligence tool

Collective Intelligence (CI), also known as Interactive Management, is a methodology gathering stakeholders around a given complex issue in order to develop a collective ground for thinking and working together leading to the production of an effective framework for action. One of the most common collective intelligence web tools for sharing ideas and garnering responses is a blog.

Blog

"Blog" is a shortened form of the original name, "web log". The roots of blogging can be traced back to the mid 1990’s. Who the very first blogger was is actually unclear, as the art of blogging did not really take hold until 1999. The original "weblogs" were link-driven sites with personal. , a website used by an individual, group or an organisation to document news or thoughts and which is written in the style of a journal or diary. Wikipedia defines Blog as a type of website or part of a website; they are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the Blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. Blogging has emerged as a leader, in part because it allows students the ability to interact in a more public venue, sharing their thoughts, ideas, interpretations, hopes, and fears with anyone willing to spend time looking on the internet (Martindale, 2005). The possibility of designing your own site without having to upload files via file transfer protocol (FTP), simply inserting images and text enables students themselves can have a blog for its ease of creation. According to Amoros, 2007, design characteristics of Weblogs are hypertext, dynamism, creativity and originality. Some free education blog include edublogs.

Blog and Learning

Blogs can be used to improve student writing, especially for developing skill in analysis and critique. Blog platforms allow for inclusion and display of multimedia, which may offer an advantage over paper submissions. Blogs provide a means for student response to or discussion of outside-of-class readings that are not adequately covered during class. They can be useful as a forum for group projects, or act as a collaborative authoring tool for students to develop and present a group assignment or project. Blogs can be a place where students reflect on readings, much as analog journaling was used as a pedagogical tool in the past. According to Azizinezhad & Hashemi, 2011 ‘’Blogs have an important presence on the Internet and they are known by users. Teachers know about this tool, but they barely appreciate it as an educational tool. A minority of teachers have used the web design, which can enable the use of Webquest, however, the process of designing a website is complicated, because we should upload files to servers, there are problems with links, frames, buttons and we a need to know how to use html code in some cases. Moreover, Blogs take full advantage of a website and it is really easy to design it, once we have an account, we can easily add image and text without any problem’’. Blogs are web logs that are updated on a regular basis by their author. They can contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases blogs are used as daily diaries about people’s personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be.

Blog in Higher education

Blogs have been increasingly utilized in higher education to facilitate student learning (Halic, Lee, Paulus, & Spence, 2010; Shana & Abulibdehb, 2015; Top, 2012). They allow users with no advanced programming skills to create an online space through posting, editing, and publishing articles composed of text, images, audio, video, and hyperlinks (Papastergiou, Gerodimos, & Antoniou, 2011). In blog-supported environments, learners learn to and begin to appreciate information sharing, idea exchange, and collaboration, which in turn contributes to student learning or professional development (Top, 2012; Wassell & Crouch, 2008). Blogs give you an opportunity to write content that is unique to you and your practice. While some people are uncomfortable with self-promotion, your blog gives you an occasion to interact with your visitors while promoting who you are and what you do. Today blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Newspapers incorporate blogs to their main website to offer a new channel for their writers. Individuals also created blogs to share with the world their expertise on specific topics. Wikipedia defines Blog as a type of website or part of a website; they are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the Blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. Blogging has emerged among a variety of web-based instructional possibilities as a leader, in part because it allows students the ability to interact in a more public venue, sharing their thoughts, ideas, interpretations, hopes, and fears with anyone willing to spend time looking on the internet (Martindale, 2005). The possibility of designing your own site without having to upload files via file transfer protocol (FTP), simply inserting images and text enables students themselves can have a Blogs support collaborative learning by enhancing knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, and reflective processes (Wang, 2010; Yang & Chang, 2012). For example, Wang (2010) investigated students’ perceptions of utilizing blogs as a platform for content review, data collection, and idea sharing in collaborative groups. Students perceived that blogs (a) are a useful tool to reflect and interact with classmates, and (b) enlarged the resources of learning support. Yang and Chang (2012) examined the influence of integrating blogs as supplementary tools on student learning in a traditional instructor-led class. Blogging was found to be a medium that enhances asynchronous peer interaction, reflection, and positive attitudes toward academic achievement in collaborative activities e.g for its ease of creation.

Blogs are web logs that are updated on a regular basis by their author. They can contain information related to a specific topic. They can be used as daily diaries about people’s personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. Blogs can be shaped into whatever you, the author, want them to be. Blogs give you an opportunity to write content that is unique. Blog gives you an occasion to interact with your visitors while promoting who you are and what you do. Blogs are being used for all sorts of purposes. You have companies that use blogs to communicate and interact with customers and other stake holders. Individuals creates blogs to share with the world their expertise on specific topics.

Research on blog effectiveness in learning

Much research on the effectiveness of blogging for instruction focuses on its impact on objective measures of learning (e.g., grades, quality ratings of student-produced artifacts; Papastergiou et al., 2011; Shobieri, Rashidi, Meiboudi, & Saradipour, 2014; Xie, Ke & Sharma, 2008; Xie, Ke & Sharma, 2010). While such research is important, it is also important to measure students’ perceptions of learning. First, research among college students shows that perceived usefulness of learned material is highly correlated with perceived learning (Roszkowski & Soven, 2010). When students perceive that they learned a lot, they may also be more likely to perceive that the content that they learned was useful, and in turn to apply the content when applicable. Second, perceived usefulness is critical to motivation in that it informs the value that students assign to the content to be learned (Brophy, 1999; Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Together with expectancy for success, perceived value drives student motivation (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000), and perceived value can be particularly important in driving lifelong learning (McCombs, 1991).

According to Yu-Chun Kuo, Brian R. Belland & Yu-Tung Kuo (2017), blogging self-efficacy was found to be positively correlated with perceived learning at a significant level. However, it did not significantly predict perceived learning. This may be because students had similar average blogging self-efficacy scores, which resulted in small variances among their perceived learning scores.

Necessary ingredients” for creating effective class blogs:

Sarah Lohnes, a doctoral candidate at the Teachers College of Columbia University. She cites the following “necessary ingredients” for creating effective class blogs:

Blog posts should be original, “well-crafted,” “well- informed”.
There should be] an authentic purpose for maintaining the blog.
A blog should offer a window into the author’s identity and community affiliations.
A blog should take advantage of the medium to offer a sense of immediacy and intimacy.

Example of blog:

I have created this blog; https://strategycllass.edublogs.org/. The students are expected to contribute to the blog guided by the topics for every week during the course.

References

Armstrong, J., & Hyslop-Margison, E. (2006). Collaborative learning and dialogue: Democratic learning in adult education. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 20(4), 6-15. doi:10.1002/nha3.10265

Arrindell, W. A., & van der Ende, J. (1985). An Empirical test of the utility of the observations-to-variables ratio in factor and components analysis. Applied Psychological Measurement, 9, 165 - 178. doi:10.1177/014662168500900205

Blau, I., Mor, N., & Neuthal, T. (2009). Open the windows of communication: Promoting interpersonal and group interactions using blogs in higher education. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 5, 233-246.

Brophy, J. (1999). Toward a model of the value aspects of motivation in education: Developing appreciation for particular learning domains and activities. Educational Psychologist, 34(2), 75-85. Chang, Y. J., & Chang, Y. S. (2014). Assessing peer support and usability of blogging in hybrid learning environments. Interactive Learning Environments, 22(1), 3-17. doi:10.1080/10494820.2011.619889 Cho, Y., Bang, H., Mathew, S., Bridges, S., & Watson, A. (2010, April/May). An integrative approach for conceptualizing “sense of classroom community” among college students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO.

Masoud Azizinezhad & Masoud Hashemi (2011). The Use of Blogs in Teaching and Learning Translation. Available online at www.sciencedirect.com1877-0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.159Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences pp 867 – 871

Di Leigh Hall. Best Practices in Higher Education: Blogging (English Edition) Formato Kindle. Amazon Media

Yu-Chun Kuo, Brian R. Belland and Yu-Tung Kuo (2017). Learning through Blogging: Students’ Perspectives in Collaborative Blog-Enhanced Learning Communities. Source: Journal of Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 37-50

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325650291_Collective_Intelligence_Education_Enhancing_the_Collaborative_Learning

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271563270_The_Use_of_Blogs_in_Teaching_and_Learning_Translation

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17307443

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y2K6tIk3mY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bx2ZhPgraY

https://youtu.be/-bx2ZhPgraY

https://www.jstor.org/stable/90002162?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents