Student’s Response to Blogging in the Online Classroom

When I switched from WebCT to blogs, I found that students responded very differently. In my first “blogged” course, the students spontaneously began conversations of their own on issues related to the content of the course, pulled in new content that interested them, and began showing up for class more engaged with the class topics. Needless to say, I was pleased. At the end of the semester I asked that first group of blogging students why they had had used the class blog so freely when students in WebCT classes had seemed reticent. What I learned shouldn’t have surprised me.
Source: Center for History and New Media, George Mason University