Blogging: a tool for nurturing ‘professional voice’?
Moira [email protected] 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”.