The weblog is a relatively recent innovation (Blood 2000) yet has achieved enormous popularity in recent years as the 'Web 2.0' (O'Reilly 2005) culture of social networking and 'editing the web' (Wesch 2007) has grown. At time of writing1 weblog indexer Technorati was tracking 112.8 million blogs. A number of pedagogical weblog projects and studies2 have in recent years explored the adaptability of the blog to the educational environment, identifying a range of benefits. My intention here is to consider whether there exists a 'best practice' for motivating students to create weblogs which will individually or collectively enrich their learning experiences.
I intend to draw on case studies and discussion surrounding pedagogical web use, with reference also to the e-portfolio, which may be used to meet a similar objective of constructing an individual narrative of learning through the linking of knowledge and experiences (Barrett and Carney 2005, McAlpine 2005, Tosh et al 2005). The main influences I have identified as instrumental in shaping the form of the weblog and the attitudes of the student towards it are:
- Extent of teacher guidance as compared to student control;
- whether the weblog activity will be used for assessment or has been provided for formative purposes;
- whether the students' weblogs will be private to the tutor, restricted to the peer group, or open to general readership.