Web Logs and Online Discussions as Tools to Promote Reflective Practice

Abstract

This article reports on the use of Web logs (“blogs”) and online discussion forums in an instructional technology course in a teacher preparation program. Key goals behind the use of these tools included exposure for students to computer-supported communication and collaboration, encouragement of reflective practice, and a better understanding of the pedagogical and learning benefits derived from integration of these technologies. Management and assessment challenges for instructors derived from the volume of writing, as well as pedagogical considerations, are noted. Some of the issues raised led to a call for improvements in the tools and for additional research in a wider variety of contexts. The lack of a “voice ” in daily professional practice is just one of many issues confronting teachers, and a factor in the usually low job satisfaction ratings contributing to the very high proportion (almost 50%) of new teachers who will abandon the profession within the first five years of practice (e.g., NBC17.com News, 2002). Part of the challenge for a teacher preparation program is how to inculcate in graduates a greater sense of the importance of their profession, how to see themselves as constructivists— producers of information and knowledge — and not “just as teachers”—objectivists— who are solely in a transmission role (Roblyer, 2003, p. 53). More significantly, teacher preparation programs must encourage our students (future teachers) to claim their professional voice and the means to be heard. The possibility and expectation that technology can be a factor to address these problems and meet these goals is evident, for

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