Week 9

After reading “The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and
Learning Motivation” by none other than our professor and her colleague, I was impressed by the amount of research that went into the use of blogs in college level classrooms. Effective teaching needs to be based on methods founded on sound research. Based on this article, there was extensive thought and testing that was put forth in order to evaluate the use of blogs for college students. Using concrete facts and statistics is the only way to influence educators to integrate blog use in their classrooms.

Another thing that struck me about the article was the fact that this study was done on students who were in remedial reading classes. The instructors believed that using a mode of reading that the students are familiar with will increase their motivation thereby improve their reading skills. Upon reading this I was reminded of when I taught reading to first graders. The school decided to implement a remedial reading method in the mainstream classroom hoping that the struggling students will be able to catch on alongside the stronger students. Initially when I heard this I thought that using a remedial method would hold back the stronger students putting them at a disadvantage. When I began teaching however, I came to realize that regardless of the method the stronger students were able to develop and thrive. I feel that the same mindset can be applied to the use of blogging. Even though this study was conducted for struggling college students who were trying to enhance their literacy skills, blogging can be beneficial for college students of all academic levels. The cohesiveness that is created between students is a very positive aspect to blogging that does not necessarily exist in a traditional classroom. Furthermore, utilizing tools that are used in the “real world” is also helpful for students to apply their knowledge with devices that will be instrumental to them in the future.