Article 2012

Blogging for information management, learning, and social support during internship

Educational Technology and Society
Journal · Vol. 15 · Issue 2 · pp. 168-178
Abstract

The functions and possibilities afforded by blogging have been suggested to be relevant to learning and information management. Its increasing use in the business and education sectors is documented, but currently its use in professional education or internship is limited. The social nature of blogging appears to support the applicability of blogs to facilitate learning and communication between student interns. To contribute to the empirical evidence supporting these propositions, this study investigated the use of web logs to facilitate information management, learning, and mutual support for internship students. Undergraduate information management students (N=53) formed three cohorts who used three different blogging platforms in the course of their internships. They evaluated the use of blogs through an interview questionnaire that included close-ended rating scales and open-ended probes. The results revealed that students generally have positive perceptions on blogging as a tool to facilitate information management and mutual support. Blogs were also perceived to be useful in terms of self-reflection and communication. This study also showed that the blogging platform does not seem to have an impact on the students' perceptions on the use of the blogs, whereas the communication between students and supervisors through the blog comments needs to be improved. © International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS).

Keywords

Author Keywords

Internship communication Reflection Information Management Blogs

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
References 10 References
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Document Identifiers
  • EID 2-s2.0-84872024859
  • Language English