Article Note: On blogs in LIS courses as reflective tools

Citation for the article:

Hall, Hazel and Brian Davison. "Social Software as Support in Hybrid Learning Environments: The Value of the Blog as a Tool for Reflective Learning and Peer Support." Library and Information Science Research 29 (2007): 163-187.

Read via ScienceDirect.


Over time, I have discovered the value of writing as a reflection tool. Very often I use writing in my journal or one of my blogs as a way to clarify my thinking. Thus, I often find interest in articles that look a blogging as a reflective learning tool. This is that kind of article.

The authors begin by looking at the literature. They look at the claims that students who blog improve their skills in writing and debating and that blogs can support learning communities in the classroom. However, they point out that there is little empirical work to substantially prove these claims. In other words, it seems most of the claims are based on anecdotal evidence. That is what the authors are trying to find. The context is an LIS class requirement where the students have to keep a blog with entries related to the class.

The authors then take a look at blogging and LIS. They point out that there has been interest in blogging for knowledge management (166), which is something that the corporate world has picked up on. The KM element is something that has intrigued me given the potential to use a blog as a way to preserve stories and institutional memory. From keeping track of reference answers and transactions to changes in policies to common questions, a blog can be a good KM tool. Then again, for some of those things, a wiki may be useful as well, though a blog may have the advantage of simplicity in set-up. Also, as seen in the blogosphere, many libraries use blogs to provide information to their communities. We do this with our library blog, which we just implemented in the past year. As most blogs, including mine, it is still a work in progress. Also, a good number of librarians use their blogs as information management tools as well, especially the ones that put out aggregates of news and developments in the profession.

Anyways, the authors move on to look at reflective learning and how blogs and journals contribute to that. From experience, I know my journal has allowed me to look at my thinking over time. Actually I have been rereading some of my older journals, and I find it fascinating how some of my thinking and ideas have evolved over time (that's another post). Citing an article by C. Park, the authors see the blog as a successor of learning journal. I can see that to an extent, but I still keep and use my written private journal. Overall, here is why learning journals are important:

"Traditional learning journals provide learners with a mechanism for documenting their own understanding and behavior as it develops. This activity captures qualitative information about the developmental process that might otherwise be lost, which the learner can use to compare past and current behavior" (167).

Goes along with what I said. Of course, an open blog does invite more scrutiny than a private journal. In fact, that was part of the value of a closed journal in a class, that the student would feel free to write and share more since only the instructor would read it. A blog throws that in the open, but it does add the element of a community looking in and participating through responses and dialogue. So, here is the possible benefits of the community interaction:

"Giving learners access to each to each others' work exposes them to a ranged of different perspectives on the same subject matter, thus providing additional opportunities to challenge their own understanding. Allowing learners opportunities to give one another comments and feedback further enhances the possibilities around a subject area; it opens the further possibility of peer learning and peer support" (168).

Though the article looks at an LIS class, this is certainly applicable to any class that can benefit from writing and reflection as part of the learning process.

The authors looked at a total of 79 blogs written over 15 weeks. You can read the article to look at the specific assignment requirements. The authors used then content analysis to extract the data, focusing on the content of comments responding to entries; they used a coding system to determine types of responses (reflective, non-reflective, and content-free). The rationale for this is to focus on the interactive nature of the activity in order to judge reflectiveness.

Some highlights from the discussion of findings:

• "It can be seen that the deployment of blogs in this particular module created a very supportive environment for communication among the students: the largest single category of first-level comments served no other purpose than to encourage other participants" (183).
  
• "As far as reflective learning is concerned, this study has not generated evidence to match the levels of enthusiasm of previous publications which champion the value of blogs as mechanisms to boost levels of reflective learning" (184). However, the authors do point out their limitation to the comments rather than the blog posts. Yet, this lack of evidence for reflective element in the blogs could be interpreted by those who give this a casual look as a motive to question the idea of blog use in classrooms. What they did find was that a social/community element was present. I still think that blogging in the classroom setting has its value, as long as it is done in a thoughtful way and not because it is part of some 2.0 fad. Clearly the next study has to look at the blog content itself.
  

From their conclusion then:

• "From the broader perspective of LIS education, this study has demonstrated that integrating blogging into the curriculum can be evaluated and found to have a beneficial impact on students' learning, most significantly by providing a supportive environment for learning through online discussion. LIS educators may draw on this to extend blogging in the classroom beyond the current dominant practice of demonstrating the phenomenon as novel software for the dissemination of information. They may incorporate it into the curricula as a tool for enhancing the learning capabilities of students" (185).
  

The Economist on Spanish Book Market, and some thoughts

The article, dated January 17th, 2008 and entitled "Lost in Translation No More," had a couple of interesting things that caught my attention. I read literature in Spanish when I get a chance. In that regard, I mostly enjoy contemporary fiction, some classics, and a few miscellaneous things. Buying Spanish books when I was at the previous job was one of the highlights of my library career so far, and one that I sorely miss where I am at now. Anyhow, some of the highlights:

• "The market for books in Spanish is thought to be the second-largest in the world. It is the biggest for books in translation, which account for about a fifth of the 120,000 Spanish titles published each year."
  
• "And the enthusiasm at Guadalajara notwithstanding, the industry frets that readers are scarce or, sniffily, that they prefer self-help books to more elevated fiction." I have to make a remark here at the risk of coming off as a snob, but this is partially true. All one has to do is look at any Criticas catalog or the latest list on their website to see that a very large number of their selections falls in the dreaded (to some. Hey, if that's your reading taste go for it) self-help category. Now, I would not harp on Criticas if it were not for the fact that it is emerging as the place to go for librarians when it comes to guidance about Spanish book selections, especially since they pride themselves on reviewing the books in English, making it easier for librarians with no Spanish knowledge to make selections. In its defense, I will say the publication is more geared to public libraries, which have the type of demographic that would find self-help and similar more appealing. As an academic librarian, I did pick out some things out of Criticas (when they pick out literary selections, they do pick very good ones), but I knew to look into other sources as well. That I am a native Spanish speaker certainly helped; I could and often did just go directly to publisher websites for information and selections. All I am saying is that, to an extent, the article's observation is a valid one. Take it as it is presented. And by the way, this is not unique to Spanish books. English publishing I am sure decries the fall of Western Civilization every time the latest James Frey wannabe publishes yet another fake memoir.
  
• "Novelists and poets in Latin America are often prominent public intellectuals. In Mexico writers can still benefit from generous tax breaks, stipends and government appointments. 'The idea is that culture generates the nation,' says Álvaro Enrigue, a novelist." Now there is an idea, that culture generates the nation. And one that is seriously lacking in this nation.
  

The article gives a nice little overview of the book publishing industry in Spanish with a little history, just enough to give you a context. And why would you want to read this? Well, maybe you should consider the fact that a very large segment of the U.S. population reads in Spanish and probably make a pretty good market for those books as well. There is a reason after all why more libraries are expanding their Spanish books collections.

boyd on why open access is the way of the future

I wrote this before I took my short break.

danah boyd, who blogs at Apophenia, explains why she is boycotting locked-down academic journals and provides a nice list of solutions to implement open access. This is a nice simple look at the issue, when compared to a few discussions in librarianship that tend to get too technical. Only issue for me with Ms. boyd's remarks: It's going to take a lot of will on the part of scholars to make it work. Until people find the guts to actually boycott the companies that exploit the free labor of scholars for profit and until scholars have the will to actually recognize open access publications, Ms. boyd's ideas may remain nothing but a dream. So, find some willpower and make it happen.

What I've Been Up To

In terms of the blog here, I did shorten the tagline under the title. Trying a bit of a new look in that regard. I also went ahead and took the time to add labels to the posts here (tagging). It was not perfect, but every post has at least one label. From here on, I can simply label them better. Doing that did give me a bit of time to look over some of my past posts, and it has given me some things to think about and revisit. I might write about that here at some point.

I have read a few articles, and I even got another LIS book read, which I reviewed over in my GoodReads profile (you can see that profile via the widget on the sidebar). One of the things I often come across with a good number of LIS books, especially ones dealing with L2 stuff, is that I already knew most of the stuff from following the librarian blogosphere. I think any librarian who does at least a minimum of keeping up will feel about the same. I suppose you still need books for those folks who need to learn and discover what many of us already take for granted. Yet at times I wonder why publish such books which will likely start going out of date as soon as they are published. At any rate, often I do get at least an idea or two I want to explore or remember, so it is not a total loss. As long as I am learning something new or get a chance to think a bit, I am ok.

Even though we are on Spring Break, the library is still open. It is a chance for me to get some work done, catch up on some things. Not quite sure if I am totally ready, but it feels like time to get back. Anyhow, we should be back in business shortly.

Taking a break

Just see the details over in the scratch pad if interested. Be back when I feel like it I guess. Best, and keep on blogging.