GAGING STUDENTS IN REFLECTIONS WITH BLOG
Numerous strategies have been recommended for encouraging reflection, such as Socratic
questioning, journal writing, In
terpersonal Process Recall (IPR),
and reflecting teams. Journal
writing as a feature of webblog serves a number of purposes, including allowing a student to
externalize his or her reflections on experience
s and then to reframe experiences within the
current context (Pinkman, 2005)
. Writing about their experiences
may allow students to think
critically and develop keener insights into assu
mptions and beliefs that can interfere with their
judgments. It also suggested that students liked journal writing because it permitted instructors to
“monitor” students’ development and journals he
lp them form connection between concepts in
class and everyday experiences. One technology-based instantiation of journaling has emerged in
the form of tools and practices surrounding personal Webpublishing. The most common
instantiation of personal Webpublishing is a Weblog, which offers mechanisms for learners to
publish their thoughts, commentaries, and reflections in the form of individual posts on a Web
page. The individual posts are time stamped, arch
ived, and appear in reverse chronological order:
that is, the most recent posts appear on the top of the page and older posts are at the bottom of
the page. Weblogs allow for personalization and customization by individual Webloggers.
Weblogs offer a relatively convenient and easy m
echanism for students to journal their learning
processes, and if used appropriately this technology has the potential of facilitating reflective
learning. Weblogs support the ability of students to record and revisit experience, which is an
important part of reflective learning. Eastment,
D. (2005) conceptualized that reflection was a
function of distance, “they (processes of refl
ection) are preconditioned by distance” (Johnson,
2004). In Bateson’s learning theory, when there is
a direct relationship between the learner and
the object (to be learned), no reflection happens at this point. However, when there is an indirect
relationship (distance) between the learner and the to be learned, “the learner uses reflection as
one of the means in his/her learning process...ther
e is a systematic reflection on how to solve a
problem, and the learner is conscious about the fact that he/she is learning. He/she is consciously
tied to the situated conditions (in a wide sense)
and actively using what he/she has learned at
other (lower) level” (Johnson, 2004). Based on Base
son’s theory, Johnson (2004) concluded that
virtual environments are conducive to reflecti
on. Weblog environments can promote reflective
activities in learners since they lengthen the
distance between learners and the content to be
learned. However the use of Weblogs in Englis
h writing class is relatively recent and our
understanding of the impact of this technology in supporting reflection is incomplete.
CONCLUSION
This literature shows that bl
ogs are a very versatile communication medium for using