Week 9 Assignment 1 - The Impact of Using Blogs

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Today, with so much information being available digitally, students tend to spend less time accessing traditional printed texts. This shift in reading is strongly connected to young adults’ negative reading achievement. In the article, The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation, Hsu and Wang aim to investigate whether digital texts can improve college students reading skills and learning attitudes and what role instructors play in the integration of new media in reading courses. To learn the effect of ICT’s on students’ achievement they chose to explore the use of blogs in a college developmental reading course.

The study conducted revealed that although blogs offer a rich learning environment, which allows students to collaborate effectively, showcase their work, write for a real audience and much more, there was no significant increase in students’ reading performance and learning motivation noted between the blogging and non-blogging class. However, students’ relationship with their peers and retention rate did prove to be higher in the blogging groups than that of the traditional group.

When analyzing the study, it’s important to note that the instructors participating in this study were new at integrating technology while teaching. Despite their eagerness to use blogs in their classroom, their limited knowledge in this area prevented them from using it to its utmost. Educators must know that in order for technology integration to be successful it must be supported by sound pedagogies. Teachers should see to attend professional development courses regularly, to learn about the newest updates in technology and most effective ways to improve students’ reading performances through technology. When well prepared, educators will be sure to provide their students with opportunities to practice new-literacies skills, which will prepare their students with the right skills to succeed in the twenty-first-century workforces.

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