Discussion of Learning through Blogs
In the opinion of McGill and Brockbank, a journal is an assemblage of ones thoughts, opinions, feelings, assumptions, judgments and might be dreams too. It can be taken as a map of a person’s learning journey. The reflective learning journals are created through the knowledge of people that is formulated after analyzing the different theories, concepts, approaches and interactions. All this is documented over a time span with the main aim to achieve and attain an insight into learning and self-awareness. The reason why this tool is more effective as it serves as a proof of the learning journey for a learner. Traditionally it was conducted by writing a book, but with changing times and advancement in the technology, blogs have successfully replaced books and this medium also have the facility to get published and show a reflection of your learning to the world. This platform provides the students of today with an opportunity to share their opinion with a wide range of people all around the globe. The practice of making students write about reflective blogs enables the students with the power and strength to learn new and different concepts and implicate it in their studies. In the observation of Thorpe, reflective learning blogs can help in improving the teaching standards of the students. Now blog learning has been made a mandatory thing in many academic courses. With the many advantage, there are also some challenges that arise in the learning process through blogs that I will highlight and explore in this assignment.
The newly formed publication of students’ blogs on the internet helps in enhancing the learning experience from each other. This also provides a deep view into the perception of different students and their take on different concepts (Abd. Majid & Wan Md Adnan, 2011). I personally like comparing my opinions of a certain theory with other students and this comparison helps in building a strong foundation for various studies. I have improved a lot with blogs and the process of reflective learning and for this purpose I would like to share my experience with some of the blogs and what I learnt from them. They are-
- Blog 1
Through this blog, I was able to compare my knowledge about the design thinking tool and what is being taught to different students. The blog shares a reflection of a student on journey mapping and brainstorming (Albarracín & Pifarré, 2018). Now, I had an opinion that brainstorming is a formal and serious discussion of finding the solution to a problem. But according to this student it is an informal and relaxed approach. This helped me in looking at brainstorming with a different perceptive which I would not have thought of, if I have not encountered with this blog. Reflective learning through blogs helps me to accept new and diverse approaches.
- Blog 2
This blog helped me to plan out how to utilize my data sources to drive information from various different techniques. This blog helped me in planning my data analysis process for one of my upcoming assignments. Also, it helped in differentiating between the primary data sources and secondary data sources (Anderson, 2010). It also informed about an interesting activity that was performed by the students in the identification of problems. Reflective learning through blogs helps me to learn new techniques and their utilization.
- Blog 3
Analysis of Reflective Learning through Blogs
This blog helped me know about the new subject that has been introduced to the students and what the teacher taught in the classroom. The different suggestions made by the teacher for assessment, discussion details and also the future assessment. I also realized that I have missed out on certain information that was conveyed by the teacher in the classroom (Arshavskaya, 2016). The reflective learning helps in identifying the faults we do in the classroom.
- Blog 4
With the help of this blog and reflective learning, I was inspired to make my learning methods more creative, that are exciting and did not follow the traditional norms. The activity that has been attempted in this blog inspires me to make my learning practice more practical and logical. This blog made me realize to improve my learning approaches and adding more realism in them, that will also help to get use of more and better learning approaches (Hourigan & Murray, 2010).
- Blog 5
This blog helps in identifying the transformation that is required and expected from the students, that is, to make their work of professional standards. The blog helped me in understanding some key aspects that have to be followed in attaining high score, by delivering better quality work (Jacobs, 2016).
- Blog 6
This blog helped me understand the professional changes that are necessary for every student to consider and to work on, during their course span. The learning through blogs helps us in recognizing the small intricate details that we are unable to identify through normal means (Jimoyiannis & Angelaina, 2012). But when we actually learn or read about them from the experiences of other students than we are able to identify our mistakes. These mistakes when rectified helps in achieving better quality work.
- Blog 7
Blogs are a presentation or expression of thoughts, feeling and recommendations that are made by people. Through this blog, I got motivated to improve my work and to forget about the mistakes that have been made by me in the past (Laverty, 2012). Blogs like these are so inspiring that they teach you the real meaning of the quote “Learn from your mistakes”.
- Blog 8
Blogs also help in knowing about the different ideas of other students from which others can take inspiration. There are times when as students, we are not able to understand the brief of an assignment and even after many attempts we still fail. The different blogs present various ideas which become the driving force for creating a better and more improved idea (McAteer & Dewhurst, 2010).
Learning through blogs is a great tool to exchange and know about the various opinions of different people on a same topic. It elaborates and expands the learning approaches of student. Personally, it has helped me in understanding the toughest topic easily with the help of innovative practices and activities that are shared by other students. The teachers’ recommendations and the important tactics to adapt for scoring high marks in the given assessments. The reflective learning helps in knowing the level of understanding which the student has received through the teacher instructions, information and lecture. All these activities help in increasing the standard of innovation in students (Minott, 2015).
But according to me, with so many advantages of innovation in reflective learning, there are some disadvantages too. Blogs many a times, builds a confusing environment for the students. Like, I would have an opinion on one topic, then another student will have another opinion on the same topic and a third person will also have a totally different opinion on the similar topic. In this variation of knowledge being exhibited, I do not clearly know which one to follow and adapt. This also requires searching a lot on the different discussed topics by different students that ultimately leads to wastage of time. For the teachers also, it gets really difficult for them to monitor all the activities of the students and devote more time to this management that does not come in their formal hours of teaching (Pifarré & Bort Albarracín, 2018).
When your work gets appreciated and acknowledged then it boost you a lot of confidence, it makes you get a surety that the work done by you is improving and you should work even harder to perform even better. But one of the darkest sides of internet, social media and blogs is the harsh ways through which people react to other people’s post, opinions and feelings (Rose, 2014). I am a sensitive person who gets easily affected by the harsh comments of other people on my post. There is an active discouragement that is practiced by students and other people, who wants to see people fall and their comments are directly aimed for it. The comments and the feedback of other students can be very harsh for students to take, especially sensitive and fragile people, resulting in consequences that can be life changing and life destroying.
For me, Moodle is a community of knowledge that is built for students is formed by the vast variety of knowledge that is exhibited by different students (Tekle Ferede Metaferia, 2012). It is an easily accessible platform for information that is open for all and also helps with the facility to make communication strong between instructor and student, also between students too. But at times, I think so Moodle is not a very strong system to cater so such a large population of students and with the increase in students the system is getting weaker. So at times, functioning on it is very time taking and frustrating. It is even more painful when I am a part of a quiz or a test, then the slow working of the system affects my work very badly.
I have experienced it many times that the focus level of mine during the traditional way of learning is more in comparison to when I am trying to learn through blogs. There is a self-discipline when I am learning through books and notes (van Wyk, 2013). This self-discipline might be less during the process of learning through blogs, as their availability is high and also the self-paced blog learning kind of make you take things lightly. I sometimes feel that when I seriously dedicate my time towards traditional learning styles, with a book it has been more beneficial for me than spending hours on blogs. And even after spending hours on blogs at times I learn nothing because I am too distracted with the different activities like comments and chats with friends that I waste all my time on nonsensical stuff instead of learning.
Through this analysis I would like to state some of my personal strengths and weaknesses in blog learning. They are-
Strengths
- I found out that my researching qualities are very good and that they help me in analyzing and comparing different approaches together, helping me gain more clarity in my studies.
- I discovered some new tactics of learning that made me identified some of my strengths like my grasping level of knowledge is very high. Also, the various different opinions of the students on the same topics, made me realize my high memory power as I would clearly remember each and every statement and comment made by my peers in my work (Xie & Sharma, 2013).
- I have easily adapted to the new learning styles that has been suggested by my instructors and also different students. This shows my strength and high resilience towards new approaches (Higgins, 2010).
Weaknesses
- I am a very sensitive person, so it is very challenging and difficult for me to handle the harsh criticism that different students post on my blogs. This discourages me and affects my work badly.
- I easily adapt to the new changes that is my strength, but what makes it my weakness is my ill-discipline behavior in conducting my things. I have experienced that my trait of not following a discipline routine has got me into major troubles many a times with incomplete works and not able to provide work at the given deadlines (Danker, Tollefson-Hall & Newman, 2015).
With the growing adaptation of blog learning and high acceptance amongst students, this tool of learning is effective and is helping the students to develop in a better manner. But with all positives there are negatives too that have to be addressed. I am enjoying this new tool of learning, but there are definitely some improvements that are needed to be made in me. For making this improvement there is a need for an action plan that will address all the weaknesses of mine and help me in dealing with them appropriately (Irudayasamy, Antonette Hankins & March, 2018).
- I am an indiscipline person and with my growing addiction to the blogs, I am losing my focus and wasting a lot of my time on worthless activity. I have to devote only a certain amount of my time on blog learning. There is a balance that has to be formed between reflective blog learning and traditional way of learning. In the opinion of Kamal, this has been stated that the there has to be a balance and students should devote their time between traditional learning and technological learning equally, as there both have their own importance in the life of students (Isakovic & McNaught, 2013).
- I have to strongly face the criticism and discouragement that is thrown in my way of learning by the other students. In the opinion of Lin and Yuan, though the blog learning is an effective tool of reflective learning, but they should be practiced with an open approach that will help in reducing the various conflicts between different opinions and feedback. I have to become indifferent to the comments that are made on my blogs because this world have people with a wide range of prospective that is should openly accept and ignored the ones that are made with the intension of jealously.
- There is one threat that will slowly transform into a weakness and that is, I have started accepting all the information that is posted by different people and then blindly following them, be it the information or the activity. I have to prioritize my selection and have to improve my selection choices. I waste a lot of my time in attempting different activities without understanding and examining them before execution. I need to get better with my selection and have to trust my knowledge and guts before selecting and following any new approaches. In the opinion of Burns and Schaefer, the weekly blogging activity that has been made a part of many academic courses has provided the students with an opportunity to publish their wrong feelings and opinions too that is creating confusion amongst the people of this technological community (Shana & Abulibdehb, 2015).
This action plan of improvement will definitely help me in controlling my weaknesses and turning them into a strength, I practice them regularly and genuinely.
Conclusion
I strongly feel that blogs as a reflective tool is very helpful in the todays growing world of competition. The blogs expose the tactics and the strategies of each student displaying their strengths and weaknesses in front of the world. Personally for me, I like picking all the good qualities of people to incorporate them in my life to get ahead in my work and be a part of continuous improvement. Blogs had helped me in learning from the students who are ahead of me in their knowledge and understanding, helping me to develop and match the understanding of excellent and intelligent students. I am a person who is usually very terrified of my teachers, but the blogs has helped me in developing a very strong bond with my teachers. Their regular suggestions and comments has helped me to improve my work and get more appreciation in return. Also, it displayed a side to me that teacher’s comments are very persuasive in nature helping me to attain bigger heights. The reflective learning through blogs is one of the best growing trend not just in the field of education but many other fields too. This a platform to express the experience and knowledge that can be helpful for many people and also the process of expressing boost the person with excitement and confidence.
References
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