What Students Like and Dislike about Blogs: A Two …93 New Horizons in Education. Vol. 61, No.2, May 2013 Wing Sum CHEUNG National Institute of Education, Singapore Gina ONG May Yuen

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New Horizons in Education. Vol. 61, No.2, May 2013

Wing Sum CHEUNG National Institute of Education, Singapore

Gina ONG May Yuen Ai Tong School, Singapore

What Students Like and Dislike about Blogs: A Two-Case Study

Abstract Background: Blogs are gaining popularity in education as they foster students’ reflections. Many scholars have examined the use of blogs for reflections but very few studies have been carried out at the primary school level. Aims: This study explored what students liked and the challenges they faced in using blogs in a primary school context. Method: A two-case case study approach was adopted and data were collected through online reflections, triangulated with data from face-to-face interviews. Each case study was analysed individually before a cross-case comparison was carried out. Results and Conclusion: Findings surfaced reasons for students’ blogging. Such reasons include: having more interesting ideas or experiences to share; having more online resources; learning the language; maintaining cordial relationships; having more time for reflections; and voicing comments without speaking up in class. Keywords: blogs, reflections, primary school

學生對網路博客的好惡之雙案例研究

摘要背景：博客作為培養學生反思能力的科技手段，在教育界獲得極大普及。許多學者都對博客的反思功用進行

了研究，但對它在小學教育中的運用研究甚少。

目的：本課題著眼于瞭解在小學階段學生使用博客的喜好及面對的挑戰。

方法：本課題採用雙案例研究方法，利用網上回饋並結合面談資料採集資料。先進行個別案例分析，再進行

不同案例比較。

結果及總結：找出學生使用博客的表層原因：獲取更多有趣的想法和經驗分享；獲取更多網上資源；學習語

言；更好地維持朋友情誼；能有更多時間進行反思；可以在課堂之外發表看法。

關鍵詞：博客、反思、小學

王美雲新加坡愛同學校

張榮森新加坡國立教育學院

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Gina ONG May Yuen Wing Sum CHEUNG

Introduction Blogs are increasingly used in education, as shown by the 400 thousand educational blogs (or

edublogs) hosted by Edublogs in 2009 (Downes,

2009). There were 1,272,806 edublogs hosted by

Edublogs as of May 15, 2012 (Edublogs, 2012)

and the number was 1,699,721 as of May 3, 2013

(Edublogs, 2013). That is a 33.5 per cent increase in

the number of edublogs in slightly less than a year.

For example, many scholars have carried out studies

on the use of blogs in educational contexts in recent

years.

Blogs have been used to promote literacy in

terms of reading and writing (Banister, 2008; Cole,

2011; Huffaker, 2005a, 2005b; Todras-Whitehill,

2005). Sharma (2010) mentioned that blogs emerged

as the most possible alternative to engage students

in writing and reflection. Through blogging, students

are able to carry out reflections by thinking about

their responses and revisiting their experiences after

they have written them. In addition to refining the

learning process, reflection also promotes higher

level learning such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation

and clear thinking. The affordance of blogs in

allowing students to comment on their peers’ postings

also provides opportunities for feedback (Ferdig &

Trammell, 2004).

An understanding of what students liked about

blogs and the challenges or problems they faced in

using blogs would enable teachers to have a better

understanding of how they could use blogs as a

tool to encourage students’ reflections both in and

beyond the classroom. Teachers could design lessons

involving the use of blogs to enthuse their students

to carry out reflections or participate in peer reviews,

which would also involve reflections. They could

provide support for their students prior to blogging

through understanding the possible challenges or

problems they faced in blogging. They would thus

be able to gain some insights into the reasons their

students are blogging.

Research Questions In this study, we explored what students’ liked

about blogs and the challenges they faced in using

blogs. Specifically, the research questions are:

• What do students like in using blogs?

• What challenges or problems do students

face in using blogs?

Literature Review Blogs are personal online journals (Godwin-

Jones, 2003), regularly updated with new posts and

arranged in a reverse chronological order (Herring,

Scheidt, Bonus, and Wright, 2004; Paquet, 2003;

Vogel & Goans, 2005; Ward, 2004; Williams &

Jacobs, 2004). Blog entries are postings published by

either the owner or visitors of a blog. As a popular

platform for sharing of ideas through posting and

exchanging of views, blogs are increasingly used in

the educational context in the last decade (Downes,

2009; Edublogs, 2012, Edublogs, 2013; Sim & Hew,

2010; Xie & Sharma, 2004; Zeng & Harris, 2005).

With the most recent post published at the top

of the blog, the posts are time stamped and arranged

in reverse chronological order (Herring et al., 2004;

Paquet, 2003; Vogel & Goans, 2005; Ward, 2004;

Williams & Jacobs, 2004). Paquet (2003) mentioned

that this characteristic of blogs creates an expectation

of updates that attracts readers to re-visit the site

on a regular basis. Blogs are easy to use as they

do not require the users to have any programming

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knowledge in order to post an entry online (Huffaker,

2005; Zawilinski, 2009). They also allow students to

access their blogs and those of their peers, anytime

and anywhere, and this facilitates peer reviews

(Cottle, n.d.) Blogs also promote social constructivist

learning as they enable users to exchange ideas and

experiences (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004). Through

interactions and online collaboration (Godwin-

Jones, 2003; Hiler, 2002), blogs promote knowledge

sharing, reflection and debate (Hiler, 2002).

Cottle (n.d.) mentioned that blogs allow students

to receive comments from other schools’ students.

Knowing that their blogs are read by others beyond

their classroom, students will be motivated to give

their best work when they showcase their projects

online (Ray, 2006). Downes (2009) suggested

that students are able to assume leadership roles

at different times during their learning journeys in

expressing their views. Blogging can thus be seen as a

form of channelling and transplanting the contents of

the individual’s mind directly into text (Reed, 2005).

As students articulate their thoughts, they are able to

find gaps in their own learning (Downes, 2009). Most

of the times, students are blogging about topics that

are important to them, which in turn increases their

interest in learning (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004). As

an expression of their thoughts, blogs are authentic

(Downes, 2009) and they allow students to have

ownership of their own learning while receiving

feedback from others. Students can utilize blogs as a

knowledge log (Brescia & Miller, 2006) and record

learning journeys (Dickey, 2004). Blogs are also used

for enhancing experiential learning through reflective

journaling (Anderson, 2010).

Blogs foster students’ reflections (Ballantyne

& Packer, 1995; Bartlett-Bragg, 2003; Boud, 2001;

Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985; Burns, Dimock, &

Martinez, 2000; Chretien, Goldman, & Faselis, 2008;

Ferdig & Roehler, 2003; Ferdig & Trammell, 2004;

Garmon, 2001; Hiler, 2002; Jasper, 1999; Krajcik,

Blumenfeld, Marx, & Soloway, 1994; Li, 2007;

Namwar & Rastgoo, 2008; Newman, Johnson, Webb,

& Cochrane, 1997; Olson, 1994; Puntambekar, 2006;

Reed, 2005; Sharma, 2010; Sharma & Xie, 2008;

Zeng and Harris, 2005). According to Harkness,

Porter and Hettich (2011), reflection enables students

to compare the way by which they find answers to

those undertaken by others. Dewey was the first who

wrote about the idea of reflection in education and he

defined reflection as “active, persistent and careful

consideration of any belief or supposed form of

knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it

and the further conclusion to which it tends” (Dewey,

1933, p. 9). Since then, many scholars had carried out

studies involving the use of reflections in education

and in recent years, through the use of blogs to

promote reflections.

Sharma (2010) mentioned that blogs emerged

as the most feasible alternative to engage students

in writing and reflection. Blogging is simply writing

in a digital format. Writing requires a higher level

of cognitive involvement compared to reading or

viewing (Li, 2007). The very process of writing

encourages reflection which helps promote higher

level learning such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation

as well as clear and precise thinking (Newman et

al., 1997; Puntambekar, 2006). As teachers, we need

to set aside time and space for our students to carry

out reflections so as to enable them to reflect on

their thoughts, views and experiences. Osika (2009)

mentioned that the use of reflections is one effective

method to positively impact the students’ learning

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process. According to Xie and Sharma (2004),

reflection enables students to revisit their experiences

after having recorded them, for the purpose of

refining their learning processes.

Hramiak, Boulton, and Irwin (2009) found that

blogs are a useful tool for recording of reflections by

trainee teachers in their development as professional

teachers. Burns et al., (2000) mentioned that for

reflections to be effective, writing should be ongoing,

for instance, a 10-minute free or guided writing

activity at the beginning of the class and written in a

small notebook. However, it is often a challenge to

set aside time in the classroom for students to carry

out reflections in their journal writing books on a

regular basis as the teacher often faces time constraint

to do so while trying to cover the syllabus.

Since many students these days have access to

the Internet after school hours, it is a viable option

for teachers to explore the use of blogs to engage

students in their learning through reflections. The

use of such tools supports reflective thinking among

students as they are “unrestricted by spatial or

temporal classroom boundaries (Sharma, 2010, p.

128). Yenika-Agbaw (2010) opined that cyberspace

can become an alternative classroom and she has

observed that her students were able to reflect deeply

on the issues being discussed and choose their words

carefully. Andrusyszyn and Davie (1997); and Lin,

Hmelo, Kinzer, and Secules (1999) claimed that new

technologies offer novel methods of encouraging

reflective thinking among students. According to

Ellison and Wu (2008); and Ferdig and Trammell

(2004), people are motivated to use blogs because

they are new to them. In other words, blogs – a

relatively new technology – are able to arouse

students’ interest in posting their views.

The ease of use and access to blogs, together

with the benefits of blogging suggest that teachers

could explore the use of blogs especially in out-of-

class teaching and learning. Wang and Hsua (2008)

found that some teachers use blogs to expand in-

class discussions and gain insights into the thoughts

of students who are very quiet during class (Greer &

Reed, 2008) as those who do not usually participate

in class tend to self-disclose more in blogs (Harper,

2005). The benefits of blogging also enable students

in higher education to experience several positive

learning experiences. Very few studies have been

carried out at the primary school level. Of the articles

included in the literature review, only two articles,

Cowan (2008) and (Cole, 2011), described students’

use of blogs in a primary school context. The two

articles seemed to suggest that the teachers were

using blogs for their students to carry out reflections

through the activities they had asked their students to

participate in. We could infer that the students would

need to carry out reflections in order to provide

‘insightful and thoughtful’ comments (Cowan,

2008) or write novels (Cole, 2011). In this study, we

explored the use of blogs in a primary school context

involving participants of ages 9 to 11 after they have

participated in blogs for six months.

Methodology The key purpose of this study is to gain an in

depth understanding of a situation (Merriam, 2001) –

students’ use of blogs in a password protected online

learning environment – rather than to generate grand

predictions. In order to explore what students liked

about blogs and the challenges they faced in using

blogs, the case study method – which investigates

a phenomenon within its real-life context – was

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adopted. According to Yin (2006, p.112), “The case

study method is best applied when research addresses

descriptive or explanatory questions and aims to

produce a first-hand understanding of people and

events”.

Case studies tend to be selective, focusing

on one or two issues that are fundamental to

understanding the system being examined (Tellis,

1997). The “what” questions like that formulated for

this study are a justifiable rationale for conducting

an exploratory study as the objective is “to develop

pertinent hypotheses and propositions for further

inquiry” (Yin, 2009, p.9). We used a two cases

study design approach to strengthen the findings of

our study (Yin, 2006). Convenience sampling was

used to select the two cases, each from a different

school. Both schools are single session. They are

also co-educational which means that there are both

male and female students in their enrolment. Both

cases comprise students from Primary 4 (Year 4)

classes. Case 1 was a class from a Special Assistance

Plan (SAP) School. SAP schools are established to

preserve the traditions of the old Chinese medium

schools, and to nurture students who are proficient in

both English and Chinese languages. These schools

offer only Chinese as its Mother Tongue language.

Case 2 was a class from a non-SAP school. Each case

study was analysed individually before a cross-case

comparison was done.

Participants were students whose parents had

given them consent to take part in the study. They

were chosen for this study as they had accessed their

schools’ learning portals; searched for information

online and used the word processor to organize their

writing and reflections before. Given the students’

familiarity in using the computer and the Internet, it

was thus easy for them to accept the affordance of

blogs (Carter, Westbrook, & Thompkins, 1999). In

other words, to move onto blogging would be within

the zone of proximal development of the learners

(Carter et al., 1999) as these students were at an age

where they are able to understand or relate to the

affordances of using blogs.

An online survey was conducted and the two

cases were found to be highly similar in terms of their

profiles. Both were Primary 4 classes and comprised

more boys than girls. Approximately three-fifth of

the participants in both Case 1 and Case 2 are boys.

Findings from the online survey showed that in both

cases, all students had access to the Internet from

home and they were using the Internet regularly

outside school hours which facilitated them in posting

their reflections through blogs. In terms of frequency

of Internet access and duration of Internet usage, they

were also very similar. Majority of the students, or

41.4 per cent of Case 1 students and 60.0 per cent of

Case 2 students, accessed the Internet a few times

a week. More than half of the students, or 58.6 per

cent of Case 1 students and 57.5 per cent of Case 2

students, accessed the Internet for one to two hours

each time.

The students differed in terms of their main

language used in school and at home. In school, most

of the students from both cases, or 89.7 per cent of

Case 1 students and 72.4 per cent of Case 2 students,

conversed mainly in English language. At home,

while 72.4 per cent of Case 1 students conversed

mainly in English language, only 20.0 per cent of

Case 2 students are doing so. Thirteen of the students

from Case 2 who took part in the online survey (i.e.,

32.5 per cent) were from foreign countries namely,

China, Myanmar and the Philippines, where their

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Mother Tongue is not the English language. For the

remaining local students, most of their parents were

more conversant in their Mother Tongue, namely,

Mandarin, Malay or Tamil. The school environment

was one place where most of the Case 2 students

could hone their English language skills like reading,

speaking and writing.

An English language (EL) websi te was

developed for Primary school students in Singapore

to be immersed in the target language by providing

them opportunities for sharing of ideas and reflections

through blogs. Students were given freedom in

how they would access the website and post their

reflections through blogs. A blogging tool that

was customized with guiding questions and a

threaded discussion function made it easier for

students to post and follow through comments.

Such encouragement of peer-to-peer networking

and buddy learning, made possible through

threaded discussions, was what made threaded

discussions the mainstay of Web courses in most

disciplines (Godwin-Jones, 2003). A brief description

of the guiding questions used in eliciting students’

reflections is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1

Sections within the Website with Blogs and Their AffordancesSections with the blog application

Guiding questions for reflections

‘Stories’ ● Questions can be general or context specific.

● General question is “What do you learn at the end of the story?”

● For a story about neighbourliness, the context specific questions are

“Discuss with your parents or grandparents to find out how neighbours

interact with one another in the past. How different is it now?” and

“What are some gestures that promote good neighbourliness? Share your

observations with us.”

‘Experiences’ ● Provide a brief summary of an event (e.g., learning journey, school-

based event like Children’s Day Celebrations or personal event like

birthday party).

● Share your personal comments.

‘Book Club’ ● Provide a brief summary of a book.

● Share your personal comments.

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Over a period of six months, the teachers of both

classes conducted an introductory lesson to get their

students familiar with the website. They were given

a list of activities which served as a guide on sections

where the students could post their reflections. For

the subsequent two lessons, the teachers brought their

students to the computer lab and encouraged them

to post their reflections after reading some of the

online stories (Case 1 and Case 2); blog about their

experiences after they had gone on a learning journey

(Case 1); or submit their book reviews (Case 2).

Outside of these specific lessons, students were free

to read and post comments anytime since they could

access the website from home. Their responses to the

questions were voluntary, so were their responses to

their friends’ postings. Participation on the website

was at the students’ discretion as teachers were not

required to monitor their postings.

Results At the end of six months, an online survey was

administered to the two classes to find out about

students’ profile and their personal reflections about

blogging. In order to find out the students’ personal

opinions on the questions posed, no prompts were

provided to the two open-ended questions shown in

Table 2. Student participants remained anonymous

throughout the study. In order to ensure that they

were not influenced by their peers in their responses,

they were not allowed any form of discussion.

Table 2

Main Categories from Coding of Students’ Online Reflections Research questions Open-ended questions for

students’ reflections Categories

What do students like about blogs?

What do you like about blogs?

● Read comments ● Post comments● Read and post comments ● Share or learn ideas and views● Share feelings and experiences● Fun and interesting● Convenience or ease of use

What challenges or problems do students face in using blogs?

W h a t c h a l l e n g e s o r problems do you face in using blogs?

● Difficulty in spelling of words ● Lack of ideas to share/ requires much thinking● Slowness in typing/ errors in typing● Technical issues (e.g. lag in uploading)● Fear of negative/ irrelevant comments● Lack of familiarity in blog application● Difficulty in searching for friends' comments

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Using the constant-comparative method

espoused by Lincoln and Guba (1985), the coding

scheme was not predetermined but emerged

inductively through an analysis of the data collected

from the online reflections. A grounded theory

approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) was adopted

for the analysis of the online reflections data where

coding was done to classify the online reflections into

the categories as shown in Table 2. Based on these

categories and from literature review, further questions

were drawn up for face-to-face interviews with

participants. The face-to-face interviews were more like

guided conversations rather than structured queries (Yin,

2009). That is, although a consistent line of inquiry was

pursued, the actual questions in this interview were not

followed rigidly (Rubin & Rubin, 1995). Depending on

the responses from the participants, the questions might

be paraphrased or asked in a sequence not laid out as

shown in Appendix A. For instance, the researcher put

forth questions to satisfy the need of the line of inquiry

while simultaneously weaving in “friendly” or “non-

threatening” questions in the open-ended interviews

(Yin, 2009).

Participants were required to substantiate their

responses to any of the semi-structured interview

questions. In any instance, they were required to

substantiate their positive (i.e., “Yes”) or negative

(i.e., “No”) responses with elaboration and the

researcher decides on the subsequent questions to

pose, until a consistent line of inquiry was pursued.

This is to allow the researcher to gather a more in

depth understanding of the research question. The

researcher also carried out member checking to

ensure validity of the data by checking for accuracy

and allowing for additional inputs by the participants

(Ratcliff, 2002). The interview responses were

collated and coded according to the categories

derived from the coding of online reflections as

shown in Table 2. Interview responses were collected

to substantiate and/or triangulate students’ online

reflections and provide a more in depth understanding

of both the research questions.

Findings from the online reflections showed that

students in both cases liked to use blogs within the

website as it allowed them to read comments; post

comments; as well as read and post comments (see

Table 3 for a comparison). Students also mentioned

the reasons for their online participation in reading

and/or posting of comments. The main reasons that

surfaced during the online reflections were sharing

or learning ideas and views; or sharing feelings and

experiences.

Table 3

Cross-case Comparison of What Students Liked about Blogs (Online Reflections)

CategoriesCase 1 (n=29) Case 2 (n=40)

Number of Comments % Responses Number of Comments % Responses

Research Question 1: What students liked about blogs?What they like:

Read comments 7 24.1 7 17.5Post comments 7 24.1 14 35.0Read and post comments 14 48.3 14 35.0

Why they like:

Share or learn ideas and views 23 79.3 9 22.5Share feelings and experiences 8 27.6 19 47.5Fun and interesting 4 13.8 8 20.0

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A few students mentioned that they faced certain

challenges or problems in using blogs as summarized

in Table 4. However, they did not elaborate on what

these challenges or problems were. The interview

responses indicated that majority of the students did

not see these as issues that affected them in their online

participation. They had ways of coping with the more

frequently quoted challenges some of the students faced.

Table 4

Cross-case Comparison of Challenges Students Faced in Using Blogs (Online Reflections)

CategoriesCase 1 (n=29) Case 2 (n=40)

Number of Comments

% Responses

Number of Comments

% Responses

Research Question 2: What challenges or problemsdo students face in using blogs?Difficulty in spelling of words/ expression 5 17.2 6 15.0Lack of ideas to share/ requires much thinking 4 13.8 5 12.5Slowness in typing/ errors in typing 2 6.9 1 2.5Technical issues (e.g. lag in uploading) 5 17.2 8 20.0Fear of negative/ irrelevant comments 6 20.7 5 12.5

Discussion Students in both cases had the freedom to

choose how they would like to participate in blogs,

be it reading and/or posting comments. Overall,

findings from both cases suggested that students were

receptive towards reflections through blogging.

Most of the students shared that they were

encouraged to read others’ views and reflections after

they had read a story; learn about others’ feelings

and experiences; post their comments on others’

reflections for encouragement or clarifications;

submit book reviews with reflections; and check if

others share the same viewpoints as them. Similarly

to Xie and Sharma (2004), the social interaction

among peers was what prompted many to revisit the

website to check out new postings. Students were also

communicating or connecting with their friends when

they shared ideas or experiences online. Blogging

for interaction or communication is one of the six

major uses of blogs Sim and Hew (2010) found from

reviewing 24 empirical research articles on the use

of blogs in higher education settings. Similar to what

other scholars had found from their studies, students

from both cases were blogging as they could interact

with their peers (Li, 2007; Sharma & Xie, 2008;

Trammell, Tarkowski, Hofmokl, & Sapp, 2006). With

reference to Table 3, a higher percentage of students

in Case 1 (i.e., 48.3 percent) were reading and

posting comments as compared to that in Case 2 (i.e.,

35.0 percent). More students from Case 1 were also

reading comments (i.e., 24.1 percent) as compared

to that in Case 2 (i.e., 17.5 percent). Conversely, a

higher percentage of students in Case 2 (i.e., 35.0

percent) were posting comments compared to that in

Case 1 (i.e., 24.1 percent). The underlying reasons for

their participation in blogs would provide a more in

depth understanding of how the two cases differed in

terms of their background.

Case 1 students were more academically driven

although they were not from the top class. They

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could be driven by their school’s focus on academic

achievement, given that it is one of the top primary

schools in Singapore. In Case 1, more students (i.e.,

79.3 percent) were blogging to share or learn ideas

and views than those in Case 2 (i.e., 22.5 percent).

Interview responses from Case 1 showed that

students shared ideas and views primarily to learn

new phrases; construct sentences; and generate ideas

for writing, just to name a few. Several students were

even posting comments to point out the language

errors in their friends’ online postings, provided that

their friends were receptive. Otherwise they would

not post any comments for fear of offending their friends. Generally, Case 1 students have a higher need

for competence (Glasser, 1990; Sullo, 2007) as they

were constantly striving to do well in their studies.

In Case 2, more students (i.e., 47.5 percent) liked

to post comments and share feelings and experiences

than those in Case 1 (i.e., 27.6 percent). We could

infer that Case 2 students were interacting more with

their peers to share feelings and experiences and to

them, getting connected with their friends was very

important. There were no international students in

Case 1 but 32.5 percent of the students in Case 2 were

international students. It is reasonable to believe that

international students value friendships in a foreign

land. Case 2 students hardly pointed out any mistakes

made by their friends online but appreciated the

experiences that their friends shared. For instance, the

learning journeys, overseas holidays or book reviews

posted by their friends. This suggested that Case 2

students had a higher need for belonging (Glasser,

1990; Sullo, 2007) as compared to Case 1 students

who had a higher need for competence (Glasser,

1990, Sullo, 2007).

With regard to the difficulty in spelling certain

words, most of the students had ways of coping with

it and the findings were consistent in both Case 1

and Case 2 (refer to Table 5). Generally the students

were IT savvy and were very familiar with using

online dictionaries. Majority of the students would

check online dictionaries when they were reading or

posting comments or if they did not have a dictionary

with them. A few students would ask someone like

their teacher, friend, parent or an older sibling for

help. Some of the students would use another word

or a simpler word if they could not get any help in

spelling the word. Only one student from Case 2

mentioned using spell check. All four ways of coping

with difficulty in spelling enabled students to improve

on their usage of words, which directly contributed to

their learning of the language.

Table 5

Cross-case Comparison of Ways of Coping with Difficulty in Spelling (Face-to-Face Interviews) Case 1 (n=29) Case 2 (n=36)

Ways of Coping No. of Comments

% Responses No. of Comments

% Responses

Check (online) dictionary 21 72.4 31 86.1Ask someone 9 31.0 15 41.7Use another/ simpler words 7 24.1 4 11.1Use spell check N.A. N.A. 1 2.8

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It was consistent in both cases that only a

handful of students from each case felt that they

lacked ideas to share or that blogging required much

thinking. Majority of the students did not face this

problem as they were blogging from home and had

more time to reflect on their responses before posting

them online. When students had more time for

reflections, they felt that their responses were more

sensible and meaningful; and even appreciated by

others. Therefore, they felt competent in presenting

their points of view. Over time, this built up the

students’ confidence as they experienced success in

expressing themselves. According to Erikson (1963,

1968), this stage is vital in the development of self-

confidence and when the children experience success,

they also experience a sense of competence.

Technical issues that students mentioned in

their online reflections were those that had taken

place with concurrent logins from the whole class.

Furthermore, 80 percent of the website content was

Flash-based and the limited bandwidth in the school

would mean that students would face technical issues

like the content taking a long time to download and

the lag in uploading of image files. Reading and

posting of comments through a Rich Text Editor

in each of the various sections in the website did

not pose any problem. Majority of the students did

not face any technical issue as they participated in

blogs from home most, if not all, of the time and

the number of concurrent logins was not as many,

compared to a class of students accessing the website

from the computer laboratory at the same time.

One other challenge that a handful of students in

both cases mentioned in their online reflections was

the fear of negative or irrelevant comments as they

were concerned about how their friends perceived

their comments. All the students in this study were

from ages 9 to 11, with a strong need for belonging

as they would rather not post any comments than

to post anything that would offend their friends. In

line with what Glasser (1990, 1998) mentioned, the

need for belonging or connectedness prompted the

students to develop relationships and cooperate with

others. Through social interactions, children begin

to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments

and abilities (Erikson, 1963, 1968).

For the others who chose to post comments,

majority of them felt more at ease in using blogs

to do so as they enabled them more time to think

about their responses and they could voice their

comments without speaking up in class, which could

be quite daunting for them. Through the face-to-face

interviews, it was found that having more time for

reflections and being able to voice comments without

speaking up in class were also the reasons students

were using blogs to share their views. For students

who mentioned that they needed more time to think

about their response, posting of comments enabled

them to do so as they did not need to think on their

feet. For them, having sufficient time to think about

a response would enable them feel competent as they

felt that impromptu responses were not good enough.

Students in this age group needed to look and feel

good.

The students could also revisit their postings

to make revision after reflecting on them. Once

someone had responded to their postings, they would

have more time to reflect on their responses before

posting a reply to the comment. All these enabled

the students to feel competent in their views as they

thought that having more time to think through would

give more meaningful and sensible responses. This is

104


consistent with Yenika-Agbaw (2010) where students

were found to reflect deeply on the issues on hand

and posted only carefully written responses. They

also felt a sense of acceptance when others read and

agreed with their comments. Through reading and

posting of comments, the students began to develop

a sense of pride in their abilities to form their own

viewpoints.

The revision of postings and the reflection process showed that students wanted to improve on

their postings to make them better, which seemed to

suggest that they were trying to achieve a sense of

mastery. According to Erikson (1963, 1968), the key

developmental challenge during the industry versus

inferiority stage (ages 6 to 12) is mastery motivation.

Similarly, the students in this study wanted to post

comments on their own and strive to improve on

their comments in an online environment where they

interacted with their peers.

Apart from sharing or learning of ideas and views; and sharing of feelings or experiences,

students also found blogging fun and interesting.

Findings from both cases suggested that students

were deriving enjoyment from posting comments

to share ideas or experiences. According to Glasser

(1990), fun is the genetic payoff for learning and

every time the students learn something new, they

are having fun. The fun (Glasser, 1990) or enjoyment

in learning (Sullo, 2007) was what kept students

curious enough to revisit the website to check out

new postings or read their friends’ comments on their

postings. Similar to what Xie and Sharma (2004)

found in their study, students liked blogs because they

thought blogs were fun and interesting.

Conclusion The two cases were very similar in terms of what

the students liked about blogs and the challenges they

faced in using blogs. Most of the students did not face

any challenges in using blogs. A possible reason as to

why students cited various challenges to using blogs

when they were doing the online reflections is that it

was a compulsory question on the online survey form

and they could not submit their form without typing a

response to both questions. This was gathered during

the administration of the online survey in a computer

laboratory where many students asked if they could

skip that question if they did not face any challenges

in using blogs.

Students in both cases liked blogs because

they perceived blogs as fun and interesting; liked to

interact with peers online; had the freedom of voicing

or sharing their comments without speaking up in

class; and had more time for reflections which they

felt had helped them in providing more sensible and

competent responses. Quite a number of students in

both cases would reflect on their responses before

deciding whether to post the comments for fear of

offending their friends online. They would prefer

not to post any comments than to post comments

perceived as negative or irrelevant.

While students in both cases enjoy interacting

with their peers, Case 1 students were interacting

more to share ideas and views as compared to Case 2

students who were interacting more to share feelings

and experiences. Be it sharing of ideas, views,

feelings or experiences, students in both cases were

carrying out reflections before they posted their

comments. Students were able to refine their learning

processes when they revisited their postings to find

out what others had commented on their postings;

105


learn how others put forth their thoughts; and shared

their point of view where clarifications were needed

(Xie and Sharma, 2004).

The findings seemed to suggest that when

students were blogging, they were actually engaging

in some form of reflections and through the

process, they were subconsciously meeting one or

more of their psychological needs like belonging;

competence; freedom; and fun (Glasser, 1990, 1998).

In this study, the need for competence appeared to be

the most prevalent amongst all needs and according

to Erikson (1963, 1968), students participating in this

study (ages 9 to 11) belonged to the elementary and

middle school years, known as the industry versus

inferiority stage (ages 6 to 12), where they would

strive for competence.

The website provided a rather structured type of

blogging. While the blog application was threaded,

students could not pose their own questions at the

end of each story as they could only respond to one

of the three questions posed by the webmaster. Future

studies could consider allowing students to pose their

own questions to allow for different topics of interest

for discussions (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004). Students

would be able to refine their learning process further

if they could seek comments from their peers on

common topics of interest. Further studies could

consider the use of a class blog where students

could post their own stories for peer reviews (Cottle,

n.d.; Downes, 2009) which might in turn increase

their literacy skills (Cole, 2011; Huffaker, 2005b).

Future studies could also be carried out to find out

how students could provide effective feedback in

their peer reviews through blogs and not those that

appeared pleasant to others.

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Authors

Gina ONG May Yuen, Senior Teacher (Learning

Technologies)

Ai Tong School, Singapore

[[email protected]]

Dr. CHEUNG Wing Sum, National Institute of

Education

Nanyang Technological University

[[email protected]]

Funding source of the article: Self-funded

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Received: 11.4.13, accept 30.4.13, revised 5.5.13

Appendix A: List of Questions for Face-to-face Interviews Research Questions Open-ended

questions for students’ reflections

Possible Questions for Interviews (not asked in the order listed below)

What do students like about blogs?

What do you like about blogs?

● If given a choice, would you post comments online?

Why?

● Do you enjoy reading blogs of students from other

classes or schools? Why do you say so?

● Would you comment on your classmates’ blogs? Why?

● Would you comment on blogs posted by students from

other classes or schools? Why?

● Do you think blogs help you in learning the English

language? Why do you think so?

● Do you think your English language, especially writing,

has improved ever since you have started to blog? Why?

● Do you prefer to read what others, including your

teacher, have commented on your blogs? Why?

● Does posting comments through blogs help you

overcome the fear of speaking up in class? Why? Please

elaborate.

What challenges or problems do students face in using blogs?

What challenges or p rob lems do you face in using blogs?

● Do you think blogging takes up a lot of your time?

Why?

● Do you find it difficult to express your views in blogs?

Why?

● Do you feel that you need to think carefully what you

want to write in your blogs? Why?

● Do you think you tend to put in more effort in your

writing if it is published online than it is not? Why?

● If you face any difficulties in trying to spell any words

you want to use, what do you do?

● What would you do if you do not agree with someone’s

comments online?

7.

Documents

What Students Like and Dislike about Blogs: A Two …93 New Horizons in Education. Vol. 61, No.2, May 2013 Wing Sum CHEUNG National Institute of Education, Singapore Gina ONG May Yuen