Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Extending meanings of blogging in adult informal learning
Young Park, Ed.D., [email protected]
OIC Language Visual Ltd.
Gyeong Mi Heo, Ph.D., [email protected]
Romee Lee, Ph.D., [email protected]
GyeongIn Women’s College
Table of Contents
Purpose Background The Purpose of Study Research Questions Theoretical Framework Methodology Survey Questionnaire Results Discussion and Conclusion
Purpose of Study
This study defines a blog as a contemporary web-based environment that can make a difference in adult informal learning practice. Specifically, It aims to identify how blogging supports informal learning for adults.
Background
Blogs have been a social phenomenon for the last decade (Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B., 2007).
Today, more people are reading and keeping blogs. For example, as of March 2008, 184 million worldwide users have started a blog while 26.4 millions uses in US; 346 millions worldwide users read blogs while 60.3 millions in US (Winn, 2009).
They expressed positive feelings about using blogs to express themselves, to socialize, and to communicate with companies. A large majority—63.5%—of those bloggers said that they keep a personal space online, just to talk about daily life.
Background
Several studies indicate that the features of blogs are used for educational purposes, particularly for various kinds of classroom instruction (Boling, et al., 2008; Glass & Spiegelman, 2008; Haramiak, Boulton, & Irwin, 2009; Kajder & Bull, 2004; Martindale & Wiley, 2005; Quible, 2005; Ray, 2006; Wassell & Crouch, 2008).
But no many studies focus on adults’ informal learning.
Definition of Informal Learning
Adults learn in more diverse and flexible settings and may learn significantly more in incidental and spontaneous learning situations than in educational settings. Adults also learn without any direct reliance on teacher or instructors, sometimes learning through serendipity.
In a broader sense, informal learning includes everyday experiences from which we learn something (Merriam & Cafarrella, 1999).
The Purpose of Study
Informal learning is a significant form of learning among adults (Johnstone & Rivera, 1965; Tough, 1971, 1978; Livingstone, 2001)
Despite much evidence that informal learning can help adults, it is easy to underestimate how informal learning is practiced in adults’ lives. Therefore, informal learning has not yet been investigated fully due to its broad definition.
Blogging, a societal phenomena can be seen as learning activities and/or to support learning.
The relationship between informal learning and blogging should be identified accordingly.
Research Questions
What are features of using blogs and the adult bloggers’ perceptions of the blogging experiences related to learning?
What are potential uses of blogs for the learning in relation to the perspectives of adult learning processes?
What are characteristics of the blogging as the adult informal learning in distinction from the formal education?
Theoretical Framework
Mitchell and Livingstone (2002) argue that the theories of adult learning are not competing but complementary, offering different and valuable perspectives. For example, adult learning not only includes the acquisition and accumulation of information, but also embraces “making sense of our lives, transforming not just what we learn but the way we learn, and it is absorbing, imagining, intuiting, and learning informally with others” (Merriam, 2001, p. 96).
Theoretical Framework
Schugurensky defines learning in three different forms. self-directed learning refers to 'learning projects'
undertaken by individual learners. Incidental learning refers to the learning experiences
that occur when the learner may not intend to learn something.
Socialization, also called tacit learning, refers to the internalization of values, attitudes, behaviors, or skills.
Theoretical Framework
Processes and outcomes of adult informal learning
Adult informal learning takes different process and yields diverse outcomes. Adult learning process, according to Fenwick and Tennant (2004), can be grouped as four different perspectives: learning as (a) an acquisition process, (b) a reflection process, (c) a practice-based community process, and (d) an embodied co-emergent process.
Methodology
This study adopted a “mixed model research” Participants: 70 Adults bloggers in Korea, Blogging
Service: Naver (http://www.naver.com) Survey was conducted. A set of questionnaire consisting of twelve items on
a Likert scale was developed specifically to investigate bloggers’ perceptions on the usefulness of blogging for certain types of learning and designed based on the four perspectives of learning process.
Questionnaire for the relationship between blogging and learning
1. Blogs are useful to acquire knowledge and information.
2. Blogs help us develop our own expertise.
3. Blogs help us engage more actively in our interest.
4. Blogs make us experience the moments of self-reflection and self-understanding.
5. Blogs provide opportunities to reflect our own life, thoughts, and experiences.
6. Blogs are useful to describe and express our thoughts and knowledge.
7. Blogs make us build more specific action plans in relation to our own life.
8. Blogs are useful to build up social networks.
9. Blogs make us aware of the importance of people around us.
10.Blogs offer an opportunity to recognize the importance of communities.
11. All blog-related activities (e.g., contents of blogs, technical skills, human relations, and everyday life influenced by blogging) are meaningful.
12. Blogs help us create our own new expertise as well as build and share existing prior knowledge.
Results: Reasons for using Blogs
the majority of participants believe that blogging is most valuable in acquiring specific knowledge, expressing thoughts and opinions, and maintaining their interests. However, the participants were not sure of the value of blogs on other perspectives such as community-based learning and co-emergent learning processes. It implies that the blog is considered more as a personal online space in which individuals’ learning can occur as distinct from a group-based learning space, such as an online community or online discussion forum which can be created in the blogosphere, the community of blogs.
Results: Perception on the usefulness of blogging for learning
Results: Perception on the usefulness of blogging for learning
Based on their blogging experiences, forty-six respondents (65.7 %) gave positive answers on any changes in their life as below:
(a) Ways to deal with information and knowledge (23%) “I got a habit that
I searched and collected information like collecting different coins. I became sort of expert-minded on certain topics.”
(b) Personal ways of thinking (23%), “I reflect myself by sharing thoughts with other people.”(c) Self-development (40%), “I could see myself more objective while writing a blog. And I could
arrange and organize the things around myself better.” (d) Social relationships (15%), “My relationship with friends and colleagues is more extended and
deepened since I could stay in touch with them using blogs.”
Results: Positive Changes in their life
24 participants (34.3 %) reported that the blogging had no influence on ways of thinking or on their life. No matter whether they recognized any changes in their life, the majority of the participants (90.0 %) agreed that they had experienced some kinds of learning through their blogging activities.
Results: Positive Changes in their life
Results: Difference of characteristics between informal learning through blogging and formal education at schools.
Results: Difference of characteristics between informal learning through blogging and formal education at schools.
Results: Links between Informal Learning and Blogging
Discussion and Conclusions
Characteristics of blogging and informal learning are overlapped and well matched each other.
Blogging can be an meaningful vehicle/tool to support adult informal learning, namely blogging helps users active and self-regulated.
