To Blog or not to Blog: A brief introduction to the Blog and OU Blog functions in Moodle 1.9, April 3, 2009,

Andrew Han, Athabasca University

EducationalMedia Development

Athabasca University

OverviewPart I: Background to presentationPart II: Moodle 1.9 Blog BasicsPart III: Effective Blogging PracticesPart IV: The ‘Big Idea’ & Art of the

Pedagogically Possible

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Re-produced with permission of V.Baig

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Assignment 10:Maintain a blog on the Moodle site for English 177 to

document and reflect on your progress through the course. For each of the other assignments (1 - 9), post at

least one paragraph. • First post: Write a personal introduction about yourself

and your goals in taking this course.• Subsequent posts: After you have received a marked

assignment from your tutor, post a comment to your blog. This post should be at least one paragraph long. This assignment does not require academic style writing, but you should maintain a formal level of language style and use.

• For your information, the course coordinator and the tutors will maintain blogs to model the type of blogging activity and writing that is expected. Access these blogs under their names on the Moodle site.

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

• What is a blog? Contracted from the word ‘web log’; a form of online journal, usually organized as chronological series of postings

• User-based…each user has his/her own blog, non-course specific in Moodle (as we shall find out shortly)

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

• Important to remember:Whom do you wish to publish to?

Yourself, anyone on your site, anyone in the world.

Under “Blog Menu”, click “Blog Preferences” and “Number of blog entries per page”

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blog Block, “The Bad”:Cannot comment on others’ blogs!No breadcrumb leading from blog entry

back to the course for ‘site entry.’OU blog, “The Good”: Collaboration at

the activity level, specific to the course.The “Bad”: No privacy option…then OU

becomes just another kind of discussion

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

• Effective blogging practices:-Need scaffolding and clear goals-social blogging different from

blogging in a learning environment

-mistakes: blogging just for the sake of blogging, turning it into an ill-defined journal

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

• Benefits of blogging (Richardson, 2006):• ’can’ promote critical & analytic thinking;

‘can’ promote creative, intuitive and associational thinking (brainstorming tool, commenting on interlinked ideas)

• potential for increased access and exposure to quality information

• combination of solitude & social interaction

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

BIG IDEA“Pedagogical quality in e-learning”

(Dalsgaard, 2005)-Step 1: Does the pedagogy match

the technology?-Step 2: Activities-Technology…

Learning Principles…Learning TheoryWhat can we do?

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

• Open-source (Moodle) means: • Bringing together code writers, designers,

and users (instructors and students) to begin an iterative process that gradually improves the function (blogs)

Blogs in Moodle 1.9

Selected BibliographyBenefits of Blogs in Education. Retrieved March 2009 from

http://bloggingresearch.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/benefits-of-blogs-in-education/

Using Moodle, 2nd Edition. (2007). O’Reilly Media, Inc.Dalsgaard, C. (2005). Pedagogical quality in e-learning:

Designing e-learning from a learning theoretical approach. E-Learning and Education, 1 (1), Retrieved March 2009 from http://eleed.campussource.de/archive/1/78/

Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. Educause Review, 39 (5), 14-26.