BP1_2009101_Educational blogs

Although I thought I already had a pretty good handle on the educational uses for blogging, just from my own plans and ruminations, I found out even more by researching the topic! Go figure! In fact, I found a great item on Edublogs that covered the topic very well. Some of my favorites statements from the list that Anne (2007) published in her blog were:
Blogging allows students and teachers to learn from each other. Many of my "students" are nurses with many years of experience, so they often have great insights to share, and I always see comments on evaluations saying that learning from their co-workers is one of the most valuable parts of coming to class. The expansion of this benefit would be exponential if any nurse could find the exact information they were looking for because the information was available in a blog, instead of contained in a classroom.
Another thing Anne mentions in her blog is that is that blogging engages students in an active learning process. It has become so important to me over the course of my teaching career to get my participants involved in the process. Ordinarily, I do this by asking questions, and allowing the learners to ask questions. But there are some in the group that never say anything. Blogging removes that barrier. You know what everyone is thinking...in fact; everyone knows what everyone is thinking!

My intention is to begin a journal club blog. I can link to an article and post a thought question for the journal club members to respond to. This creates the kind of learning community that isn't possible when you are confined to a specific amount of time, and space. I will probably start with just a classroom group, and then expand the club to the larger hospital community. Our 5-hospital system is part of a larger group that has hospitals in several states, so if this goes well, I will offer to open it up to the entire system.

I also found a link to an article that suggested using blogs as a warm-up before an educational activity, and review after (Yih-Ruey, 2008). Having the question posted for discussion before the class allows for a deeper learning experience during class. Using the blog for review gives time for reflective learning. Perhaps they have made some connections in retrospect that were not obvious at the time, or they may even have had a patient experience that related to the content.