Blogging: a tool for nurturing ‘professional voice’?

Moira Savagem.savage@worc.ac.uk University of Worcester

Context

• Trainee primary teachers• BA QTS (ICT module)• Year 1, term 1… 136 students• One of the first modules in

September• Some mature students but mainly

straight from college or school

• New people• New environment• New course• To be a learner AND

now a teacher• New expectations• New profession• New demands…

… reflective professional practitioner- finding their ‘professional voice’

Activity aims: building on timetabled sessions• Personal journey- challenge to think beyond

themselves as a learner to being a teacher responsible for others learning!

• Build confidence (time to think before speaking, not on the spot, saying out loud, testing the waters…)

• Supportive forum of peers • Provide a real audience – public, dialogue• Regular small opportunities to voice-

– ideas about classroom implementation– Express opinions in a critical, constructive and

professional manner

• Reassurance and/or inspiration (looking at what others were writing)

• Discovering whether own ideas resonated or were discordant

• Showcase developing ICT capability by attaching assets including graphics, audio, video…sense of achievement

HOW…• 5 group gateways (136 too big

& daunting)• Compulsory but not formally

assessed (rehearsal)• Journal of learning and or

reflection over first 10 weeks• Not anonymous

(accountability for any comments made)

• Everyone had ‘view’ and ‘comment’ rights

Product or process?Small and regular steps

• Create individual blog, share to gateway

• Personalise, add photo and list 2 learning partners …

Typically at the outset:• quite descriptive• often egocentric (self…children

they will be teaching)

Embedded links and files

Student feedback: unprompted comments from the end of module feedback when asked to name 2 things they liked most about the module…

“I also liked that we had to do a blog after each lesson because now I can look back on what I did”.

“blogs- I can look back on sessions that were weeks ago and know exactly what I learnt and did”.

“the reflective responses being on a blog kept it much more organised and easier to do”.

“the use of the blog as it motivated me to record what I had done in each lesson which I may not have done otherwise”.

“…regarding blogs. I like the idea of completing them online and attaching other work. Also to view peer’s blogs”.

“having online reflective responses on PebblePad. I like the fact you can see and comment on others”.

“I found using the gateway for blogging very useful as I am not very good at using ICT and this style of reflective responses has helped to improve general ICT skills. I found my confidence increased during the module due to the fact I could assess what other students had written as it was useful to understand that I was also doing it the same way”.

observations

Unpicking the student feedback:

Chronological organisation

Preferred to paper- attaching

files and links

Tutor access

Expressing ideas and opinions-

publishing to an audience

Account of learning to look

back on

Viewing blogs of others

throughout

Lessons learnt…

Tips:• Confusion over separate ‘thoughts’ as entries for

the blogs (a few deleted the individual thoughts and then realised entries disappeared).– “Did not like the blogging, I lost my work on more

than one occasion and had to restart again”!But– “I wish it could be used throughout the course and

not only in this module”.