Transcript File
Distance Education
Projects
Megan Mendenhall
Distance Education
ITEC 67436
Project 1
Article read: Blogging as L2 Writing: A
Case Study
From AACE Journal, 2008
Authors: K. Armstrong and O. Retterer
Participants
College Intermediate level Spanish class
Two seniors, two sophomores, and twelve
freshmen in the class
Comfortable with using the internet prior to
taking the course
Objectives
The researchers asked three questions:
“Could blogging provide an opportunity to help
students become more actively immersed in a
foreign language over the course of a
semester?”
“Would students write more using a blog than
in traditional course?”
“Would students feel more confident writing in
a foreign language because they were writing
weekly?”
(Armstrong & Retterer, 2008)
The Study
Used own blogging software
Community blog and personal blog
Community blog—shared among classmates
Not graded, 20% of grade was in participation of
the blog
A place for students to experiment using language
Personal blog—between instructor and
student
Included graded work on nine different
assignments
An e-folio where students looked back at progress
The Study Continued
Used the following to find results:
Survey
Word-counts of graded vs. not graded work
Pre and Post oral test
Looking for improvements in language usage
Results
Do students write more using the blog?
Could not be determined since there was no control
group
It seemed as though they wrote 10 times as much as
other similar courses
Did language usage improve?
Yes; verb usage improved
May not be directly related to weblog, but students
who wrote 3,000 words or more (average amount)
significantly improved verb usage
Did student comfort level increase?
100% agreed they felt more comfortable with writing
and manipulating verbs
Attitude: 85% of students either enjoyed or really
enjoyed using the blogs
Project 2
Article read: The Effect of Weblog
Integrated Writing Instruction on
Primary School Students Writing
Performance
From International Journal of Instruction,
2009
Author: O. Simsek
Participants
College writing course
70 undergraduate students
Between 18-21
Department of Primary School in Marmara
University (Istanbul, Turkey)
Experimental and Control Group
Experimental—15 males, 20 females
Control—13 males, 22 females
Objectives
The researcher asked two questions:
“Is there any difference between the writing
performance of students who received inclass writing instruction and that of those who
received the weblog integrated writing
instruction?”
“What are the perceptions of students towards
using weblog in writing performance”
(Simsek, 2009)
The Study
Simsek evaluated results with:
Quasi-experimental and survey design
Used writing performance pre/post test, student
questionnaire, interviews, and rubrics
Students given a choice of topic to write a
paragraph about for pre/post test
These were graded by two instructors trained
to use the rubrics aligned with Composition
Profile
Average writing scores were determined and
put into a computer program
The Study Continued
For student perceptions on blog usage, a
questionnaire was given with questions based
on the following areas:
Effect on writing performance
Effect on feedback and revision
Interest/motivation
Communication
Independent learning
Technology use
(Simsek, 2009)
Results
Is there a difference in writing performance
when using weblogs in a course?
5 writing objectives evaluated (content,
organization, word-choice, mechanics, and
language)
Both groups improved in all areas
Experimental group had sufficient gains in
content and organization
No significant gain in word-choice, mechanics, and
language
Possible explanation: blogs brought more
awareness of content and organization of posts
Results Continued
What are students perceptions of using
weblogs?
Students felt that blogs improved their writing
performance in all areas
Had a sense of ownership and responsibility
for their writing
Comparing the projects
Similar in three ways
Students
Both undergraduate college level, between ages
17-22, and a mixture of males/females
Objectives
Both asked questions similar to improving student
usage in language; also questioned student
attitudes on using blogs
Results
Both found increases in language usage; also
majority of students had positive feelings toward
using the blogs
My favorite
Blogging as L2 Writing: A Case Study
This article went into more detail about the
actual use of blogs throughout the course
I liked the idea of two different blogs
The community one made students feel more
relaxed, therefore they tried experimenting with the
language
The personal blog could give them instructor feed
back and served as an e-folio—great for reflecting