Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, I'm Rhonda Spells Fentry, Executive Director of eLearning Services, here at Prince George's
Community College.
Welcome to the eLearning video panel discussion Blackboard Blogs and Journals.
Before we begin the panel discussion, let's explore blog and journals.
The word blog originally came from the term web log
A blog is a web publication created by a person to share ideas, opinions, and news on the
internet
A distinctive feature of a blog is the ability for others to publicly read and respond to
posts,
such as news articles or pundit commentary. In addition to its popularity on the internet
blogs are a very popular tool to facilitate course communication online.
The Blackboard blog has become a popular alternative to the discussion board features
and journals have provided faculty with a way to manage and grade student journal reflections
online.
On our panel today, we will talk with faculty using blogs
and journals to hear how they have implemented these tools in their courses.
Joining me today is Jeanette Gerrity Gomez, Associate Professor in the ESL department.
Welcome, Professor Gerrity Gomez.
Hi Rhonda.
How are you?
Iím good.
Good. Lets talk about how you are using blogs in your courses.
Well, I have been using blogs for several semesters.
I use it mainly in a reading class that I teach, and I have students read articles,
then I post questions and we have discussions that happen outside of the classroom.
Oh, great, and were you previously using the Discussion Board?
We were I was using the discussion board, and itís been several years,
actually, since I have sort of abandoned that because I find that students
are much more willing to have a conversation on a blog. Itís much easier to read.
I found that I was even having trouble keeping up with the amount of clicking
that you need to do on the discussion board to find peopleís responses,
and people were responding in different places, and it got very complicated.
So a blog has really made it much easier for students and for me to view what people are
saying.
And can you talk a little bit about why thatís easier?
How is the blog structured differently than the discussion board?
The blog is you know, you have your initial post,
and then you can have comments and then you can have comments,
and then people can create their own postings,
so it ís really nice because Blackboard captures all that for you as the professor.
You can see where people have commented.
You can see where people have created a new post.
And they can also bring things in like a video.
They can put in a link, and things like that, which is really nice.
The other thing that I really like about using blogs is that,
people who are very quiet in the classroom about discussions
about certain topics might really open up online.
You get to know each other on a very different level.
Studentsóthey really bring that into the classroom.
They have really animated discussions about what theyíve written on their blogs.
What you've described really aligns with what weíve heard from other faculty,
because one of the drawbacks or potential drawbacks of the Discussion Board
is that it really doesn't emulate other things on the internet,
with the point and click and having to click to open a response.
It wasnít working for me as a faculty to make it easy,
you want to make it something that students are going to be using.
They are familiar with the word ìblogî at this point.
Even older student who, you know, might for the first time be back in the classroom
they have heard the word blog.
They know about it, and I think they get
at least my students that they are working on a blog and posting.
You also just have this really nice ability to comment to grade
these are really nice features that Blackboard has for us.
Do you grade your blog?
I do. I don't always grade comments,
so I ask students to make a posting themselves and then I'll grade that.
But, yeah, it's really nice because itís just on the side,
and I'll click you know,
I have a rubric that Iíve created and then it goes directly into the grade book.
So itís really seamless, and itís very transparent.
The students can see what Iím commenting on and what I think.
Right. Great. Do you use blogs in any other way?
I do use blogs also Iíve had them for students in groups where they do note-taking.
Every student is assigned a day that they need to take notes.
Then they post them up there. People can commentóand they do.
I think you got that wrong or You need to add this
I can give commentary and they can use it for a final exam review.
Oh great.
These are, you know, two different ways, but ways that have been very vibrant for me.
And it sounds like it really keeps the students engaged with the course material as well as
Right.
Let me tell you what I think is really great is that they're writing.
there is a level of comfort that they develop as the semester goes by.
They might get a little more casual, and you can rein that in.
But the critical thinking thatís going on in the middle of the night
thatís the great thing, you see who are your night owls and who is your early bird.
So you can control it, you can say the blog entries need to be in by a certain time.
Right. So, briefly, do you have any lessons learned
you would like to share with faculty maybe considering Blackboard blogs?
You do need to take into account that you have to read them,
and that students want a response. Not to every single comment.
Right.
But they want to know that you have read it.
You donít have to do that online.
You can simply do that in your classroom then.
If you meet them face to face, you can say,
Iíve read your comment and this is what I think,
so that they know youíre actually reading it and it's not going into a void.
Right. Great.
And I think another suggestion would be to grade them, because
because if you donít grade, then sometimes students arenít going to participate, right?
Right. Okay, so now that weíve talked about blogs,
I want to spend a couple moments on another variation of the blog,
as you know, which is the Blackboard journal.
In Blackboard, journals are essentially private blogs.
So one way to think of a journal is as an online diary.
Due to the private nature of journals,
they are not as popular on the open internet,
but have become very popular as educational tools.
Journals are most commonly used as a self-reflective tool for students
to post opinions and ideas about the course content
to which only the student and faculty member are able to view and respond.
So, Professor Gerrity Gomez, how are you using journals?
Well, I had been using reading response journals for years in my classes,
and it became really challenging when you have several sections
where I'm literally carrying around 60 to 80 different composition notebooks.
So you have previously been doing your journals in comp books, hard copy
Absolutely. And thatís really challenging, just physically.
So it's very nice to take that and put that online.
It's a private
it's basically a private blog that the students are going to write and you can respond to
them.
What I use it for, is when they are doing longer readings
they are reading a bookóand you can have a conversation about
more personal items that theyíre not sharing with the entire class.
Right, and another benefit or something interesting about journals
is that it actually lets you see student progression over the course of a semester.
Absolutely. And you can choose to grade at certain points,
you know, you can say I'm going to grade every time or after a collection,
so you know it's good you can make this choices with Blackboard.
So what is the reaction to the online journals?
I mean, it's definitely
again it's something that students are seeming to become more willing to use.
They respond. They like that you are responding.
Your response is much more immediate than me collecting these books
and then it takes me a week and you know,
it is that I'm not doing my job, but it does take a lot of time.
So that doesn't go away necessarily with using the Blackboard journal,
but as soon as I do it for that student, it's there.
They have my feedback. They know what I think.
They know if they need to work on it more. So itís much more instant.
And do you grade the journals as well?
Absolutely. That keeps students on their toes.
Itís amazing students who again are very quiet
in the classroom might have a lot to say, and they're just private.
Great.
So a journal works well for them.
Good.
So as we wrap up talking about blogs and journals,
do you have any lessons learned,
any advice you would give to a faculty member considering journals?
I think you know, it's a wonderful way to develop a rapport with your students.
I guess you could not grade them, you know, if you wanted to just have a way
to talk about the class in a private manner with students,
but it's also just giving you that opportunity to ask students to think critically.
Great, okay, well thank you very much for your insight into how that you're using blogs
and journals.
This will be very beneficial to our faculty
I certainly hope so.
so thank you so much.
Thank you for joining us on today's session of Blackboard blogs and journals.
If you're interested in using blogs and journals in your Blackboard course,
contact eLearning Services at 301-322-0463 or email us at elearning@pgcc.edu.
Thank you!