Conclusions and future directions
This study extended the Web 2.0 application of blogging to appreciative blogging.
Appreciative blogging advanced the preparation of prospective school administrators
by using an AI theoretical research perspective to assist them in discovering inherent
strengths and successful leadership experiences. Appreciative blogging also generated
positive outcomes at several different levels: adult student learners in this study tapped
into positive, highpoint experiences to discover they already possessed the capacity for
leadership. These prospective educational administrators’ helped to create a learning
community buttressed by mutual respect and increased levels of social capital. They
recognized that differences in appearance, gender, race, and ethnicity evaporated as
their shared appreciative blogging posts expanded the common ground graduate
students typically share.
Appreciative blogging played a part in balancing traditional forms of critical
inquiry commonly experienced by these students in other class settings by providing
them with an alternative perspective. Applications of appreciative blogging provided
an opportunity for students to gain experience in building communities of practice
based on the re-discovery of strengths and the powerful use of mutual affirmation. In
doing so, students discovered they have a history of successful leadership experiences.
They also discovered that their successful leadership experiences afforded
opportunities to apply new knowledge to create new theory about learning and
leading in the digital age in educational settings.
The students imagined new possibilities for Web 2.0 applications: using
appreciative blogs in the school setting to build social capital among students and
teachers; using appreciative blogging to create exemplars among faculty as mentors;
and using appreciative blogging to move from deficit thinking to hope-filled thinking.
The use of social software facilitated the connection of student-to-student, student to
instructor, and generated higher levels of trust – essential to social capital