Blogs and College Students

            The study “The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation” looked to examine the effects that blog implementation in the classroom could have on students’ motivation and reading performance. I took personal interest in this study as this course is my first time using a blog in a classroom setting. The study compared 2 college level developmental reading classes that used blogs with 7 that did not use blogs. At the end of the semester, it was determined that blog use did not have a significant impact on students’ reading performance. However, students’ motivation and camaraderie were greater in the groups that used blogs than the groups that did not used blogs. This may be in part due to the willingness of more reserved students to communicate on blogs more than they would communicate in a traditional classroom.

            After 8 weeks of this course, where blog use is a huge focus, I was not surprised that students’ reading performance did not improve. I personally have a distracted reading style that causes me to rarely read straight through any text. I tend to skim or skip chunks of words just because I cannot maintain my focus. This distracted reading style is the same for me regardless if I am reading physical or digital text, thus, I did not expect the students in the study to improve significantly by reading blogs. However, the fact that shy or reserved students participated more on blogs was something that caught my attention. Every class I have ever been a part of has developed an outspoken group that contributes frequently and a reserved group that rarely contributes and tends to sit near the back of the class. Based on this study, I believe that integrating blogs with traditional instruction may help bridge the gap between these two groups. I imagine that the reason camaraderie was stronger in the blog groups was because every voice was heard. In non-blog classrooms, students may never hear anything from the shy students and thus, not feel like they are connected to them in any way. Conversely, in blog classrooms, every student communicates and shares apart of themselves, which goes a long way in creating a sense of community.