First Article for Lit. Review

Literature Review

Article 1

Poling, C. (2005) Blog on: building communication and collaboration among staff and
students Learning and leading with technology 32.6, 12-15. Retrieved 23 July
2007 from ERIC database.

I. Title: Blog On: Building Communication and Collaboration among Staff and Students

II. Author: Catherine Poling

III. Author’s Purpose for Writing: She explains three different types of logs that are useful in a school setting: classroom, collaborative, and staff development logs.

IV. What are the points made in the review of the literature? Do they support the need for the study?

Students learn effectively by blogging if it is used wisely in the classroom. Students can respond to each other in a safe environment and often learn from each other in the process.
She also studied how teachers can benefit from blogging by sharing lesson plans and ideas. She found teachers shared more by blogging than they did face to face.

V. Author’s Inquiry Question: How does blogging affect affect collaborative learning among teachers and students?

VI.
A. Author’s methodology: She tracked which blogs were most effective for the school environment through her own experience as a teacher, principal, and facilitator of different online communities.
B. Students and teachers
C. Over what length of time? A year
D. What data is being collected? Students improvements and frequency in writing; teacher’s frequency in collaborating online through blogging

VII. How the author collected information: She collected data from the school she worked at as an assistant principal.

VIII. What the author discovered: Which blog are appropriate for classroom use and which are not

Summary: Poling found that classroom and collaborative blogging are the most effective use of the medium for public school students. She found students write longer and more frequently if allowed to blog rather than the traditional paper/pencil method. She also found teachers more willing to share teaching strategies via a blog rather than face to face.