Using Blogging as an Assessment Tool- Wild!

I found the Boss article on “High Tech Reflection Strategies” to be very interesting. Prior to this class I never really thought about how technology could be used to make assessment more engaging and effective for both students and teachers. We already began discussing in class the possible benefits of using blogging in the classroom, but I felt that that the personal accounts in this article really accentuated the value it has an assessment tool. I have never used blogging in my classroom or seen it being used, but based on how the students and teachers speak about blogging, it seems like a really authentic way to assess what students have learned from a given task or unit.

Not only does integrating blogs in a classroom help teachers to see what students have learned, but it allows them to become independent, learning how to express themselves through writing and self-reflect on their own learning process. I also liked how a blog can act as a “digital archive” of students’ work, showing their cumulative development over time. Based on this it appears that blogging can be used as both a formative assessment, where a student can reflect after specific assignments, as well as a summative assessment, where teachers can see how students’ writing has evolved across a semester or over the course of a year.

I think that some of the other benefits of using blogging as an assessment tool are that it eliminates the pressure of traditional tests, as students feel they are just writing and are therefore do not feel anxious about being assessed. I also think this type of assessment is psychologically advantageous, as it enables students to gain practice and confidence in their writing skills, thereby building their self–esteem. In addition, I like the idea that blogging can be multi-modal, since teachers can choose to have students do a video, oral, or written post, appealing to all different learning styles.

As many advantages as blogging seems to have I do believe that teachers need to establish criteria for how students are being evaluated if they want it to be an effective assessment tool. Additionally, I feel that since writing is very subjective and does not directly test the material students are learning, I don’t think it should be used as the sole assessment of students’ learning of a given subject, but rather as a component of a larger assessment.

That being said, I think that this article has really opened my mind to how technology can be used to enhance assessment tools. Even though I would’ve never thought of blogging as a way to assess students, this article has shown how integrating this type of assessment in the classroom is not only an effective assessment tool for teachers, but academically and psychosocially beneficial for students.