Anne posts some great links from the burgeoning land of blogging research which seems to be expanding steadily every day. These latest are from an online journalism group at the University of Texas. There is some good stuff here for those into the journalism angle of blogs and wikis (like me) and more general classroom teacher. Add it to some other recent articles and we might actually be getting close to a body of knowledge in terms of classroom blogging.
Unfortunately, however, very little of this research applies to the K-12 level where the rules and restrictions are dramatically different from college. And, as a friend recently wrote in an e-mail “If there was substantial evidence to prove blogs raise those [test] scores…you’d have a mad rush and EVERYONE would be taking the time to learn how to use this new medium effectively in the classroom.”
I know this sounds obvious but of course they’re not going to raise test scores.
The very concept of a ‘test’ as pretty much incongruous with the kind of informal, socials and cognitively constructed knowledgs that webpublishing can facilitate.
Rote learning, focussing on skills required to pass tests and other crappy washback driven teaching strategies help get better test results.
Blogs most certainly don’t.
And that’s what I like about them!
You’ve stirred the dreamer or maybe the devil’s advocate in me with this post, so I’ve taken a look at a State of Indiana standard and speculated about using weblogs & wikis to address it, in this post:
http://www.mchron.net/site/edublog_comments.php?id=P2760_0_13_0
James, that’s what I like about blogs too. They are subversive in that they shift the center of attention to construction of knowledge not consumption. Even more difficult for the current model to handle is the sharing of that knowledge, the transparency that blogs create. Scary stuff for most, and it’s going to take a lot of hard selling and research to get people to buy into their worth.
I think asking if weblogs increase test scores is like asking if 3-ring binders increase test scores, or xerox machines, or corkboard. They’re all very useful, and essential to some teachers’ practice, but it would be difficult to argue that using them will increase test scores.