Nursing students’ experiences on blogging in the classroom: Linking between ethics and pedagogy

Abstract

This paper reports students' perspectives on using blogging in an undergraduate nursing classroom. Blogging refers to a series of entries with limited word count. Several anecdotal reports focus on the potential advantages (e.g., increasing students' writing, reflecting, collaborating, participation and critical thinking skills) of blogging in education. Yet limited reports discuss its challenges. We argue that in order to better understand the use of blogging in the classroom we need to look more closely at students' values, beliefs and expectations. Thus, to better understand teaching and learning and evaluate blogging we used Gesler's theory of therapeutic landscape. Students' retrospective accounts revealed two overarching themes: students' experiences and students' responses to blogging. Despite the fact that students experienced and valued blogging in their everyday lives, their responses to in-class blogging were not always positive.

Flexible learning design in curriculum delivery promotes student engagement and develops metacognitive learners: An integrated review

“…These findings correlate with those delineated by Wilson and Ganley (2014) in their pilot study of 21 graduate nursing students. Contrarily, Epstein and Ray (2014), in their evaluation of student retrospective accounts regarding class blogging, highlighted the discontent of some students with the use of this tool, due to the creation of a difficult learning environment.…”

“…However, according to the literature sources evaluated for compiling this review (Epstein and Ray, 2014;Goldman et al, 2008;Halic et al, 2010;Hudson, 2014;Lyons and Evans, 2013;Moeller et al, 2010;Morley, 2012;Stephens and Hennefer, 2013;Wilson and Ganley, 2014), there are various modalities that this flexible learning design can utilise for delivery. In a randomised trial of 237 medical undergraduate students, Moeller et al (2010) compared the effect various combinations of wiki, chat and interactive diagnostic context (IDC) had on blended problem based learning, group processes and learner satisfaction.…”

“…Web-based evaluation survey UG nursing students (n = 70) Another web-based tool with prolific and often controversial references in the literature (Epstein and Ray, 2014;Goldman et al, 2008;Halic et al, 2010;Wilson and Ganley, 2014) is the blog. An anonymous poll survey conducted by Goldman et al (2008) of postgraduate public health students (n = 60) who utilised seminar blogs demonstrated their efficacy in providing greater opportunity for engagement.…”

Using Blogs as a Strategy to Enhance Students’ Participation and Learning in a Research Methods Course

“…Further, there are no publishable studies examining the incorporation of blogging in research methods coursework. However, other disciplines have examined the use of blogs in other courses such as health education (Goldman, Cohen & Sheahan, 2008;Oomen-Early and Burke, 2007); language arts (Ajay, 2015; Beach, 2012); writing (Lee, 2010;McGrail & Davis, 2011); nursing (Epstein & Ray, 2014); history and music (Sheldrake & Watkin, 2013;Stewart, Reid & Stewart;2014). Some studies have noted that blogging has merit for further exploration and testing (Goldman et al, 2008;Kerawalla, Minocha, Kirkup & Conole 2009).…”