Weblogs – Virtual Discussion in Educational Settings

Based on a comprehensive theoretical framework [1] – in which we (Baumgartner, Bergner and Pullich suggest a typology of Content Management Systems (CMSes)) – this article explores more in detail the intrinsic functionality of weblogs from an educational perspective. I will summarize different aspects of weblogs, which are unique for weblogs and central for their discursive educational usage: • Personal micro content updated frequently • Automatic reorganization on a calendar basis (daily, monthly, yearly archiving) • TrackBack mechanism as a way of establishing a virtual discussion context • Blogrolls as a means of creating a virtual discussion group and • RSS Feeds for syndication and subscription 1 Introductory Remark As outlined in recently published works [1, 2], our research group on educational technology combines Donald Schön’s Action Theory [3,4] with the Theory of Communicative Action by Jürgen Habermas [5,6]. Our goal is to elaborate an action-communication approach and to apply it to everyday problems of eEducation. We are especially interested in providing support for teachers and learners alike for selecting necessary educational technology for their pedagogical goals. This resulted in an educationally motivated categorization scheme where Weblogs are characterized as specifically suitable for building up a virtual discussion context. Weblogs are one of the most discussed trends in business and education alike. It is clear that weblogs will have a bright future as a personal web publishing tool, but will they also invade the education and business areas? And more important: will their use mean just another tool or a radical change? In my presentation I will concentrate on the educational field, but I believe that my arguments will hold for cooperate e-Learning as well. In this article I will outline 4 important features of weblogs and characterize their features in an educational setting. 2 Micro Content and Personal Knowledge History Weblogs are defined as frequently updated websites where the entries – called posts – have a timestamp and are presented in a reverse chronological order with the most recent posts at the top of the page [7]. From a perspective where the teaching-learning relation is essentially seen as a special kind of communication, this intrinsic feature of weblogs has some educational ramifications.