Weblogs as Academic Tools: Cases and Cautions Margaret D. AndersonPsychology DepartmentSUNY Cortland

Academic usesPedagogy drives technology usetech appropriate to the taskgenuine not contrived useintegrated into course gradingnot overly rigid assignments

Weblogsweblog Jorn Barger 17 Dec 1997 (Wikipedia)Series of thematic entries reverse chronological orderWritten by one individualOr thematic, written by many

My academic needs:Not limited to class enrollment or semesterCustomize insert photos, links, video etc.Determine security levelVery intuitive structureWord limit

LiveJournalOpen sourceAccount levelsMultiple languages Tec supportChange in template

1 - Traditional courseWeekly journal assignmentsHardcopy problemsWeb basedNeeds:privacyaccountability (date stamp)interactive (post comments)simple

Model 1One-to-one, Two-way communication, Closed System

Closed system of personal communication between students and instructor using LiveJournal

CLASS MEMBERS LIVE JOURNAL INTERFACE

INSTRUCTOR

2 - Off site supervisionStudent internsRemote sitesSite supervisor(s)Faculty supervisorConfidentialityInteractiveEaseAttachments

Model 2Multi-user, Two-way communication, Closed system

Closed system of communication among student intern, faculty and site supervisor using Live Journal

STUDENT INTERN FACULTY SUPERVISOR

SITE SUPERVISOR

LIVE JOURNAL

3 - Multiple linked coursesIndividual postsDetermine accessibilityPersonalize formatInteractive

Model 3Multi-group, Multi-individual, Two-way communication, Closed System

Closed system of communication among six linked courses

4 - Asynchronous coursediscussion board as one element of course

Discussion board requirementsInstructor generated questionStudents respond to questionStudents respond to peers inputNeeds:EaseInteractive Security level limit to class members

Discussion softwareSharewareFree Easy to structure/maintainNo securityLocal sys opWebCTNot free Not intuitiveSys opLimited to class membersLimited to semester

Model 4aMulti-group, Two-way Communication, Closed system

Closed system of communication among class members

CLASS MEMBERS

INSTRUCTOR

LJ TOPIC

Model 4bExpand systemAdd other groups (classes)

Closed system of communication among multiple classes

CLASS A

CLASS BCLASS C

Open systemOpen discussion to digital community

Model 5Multi-user, Two-way Communication, Open system

Open system of communication including multiple classes

CLASS A

CLASS C

CLASS B

Cautions Determine pedagogical useDetermine logic structureSelect software

Thank you!Questions????

Margaret D. AndersonPsychology DepartmentSUNY Cortland,NY 13045andersmd@cortland.edu