A digital diary is very much the same as a traditional hand written diary. It differs however from a blog due to the chronological order and the interactivity with viewers ( Rosen 2006 ). A digital diary is not interactive, readers are passive and do not partake in a dialogue with the author. Digital diaries are also often personal and not publically available.
Published in Chapter:
Building Interaction Online: Reflective Blog Journals to link University Learning to Real World Practice
Arianne J. Rourke (University of New South Wales, Australia) and Annabelle Lewer-Fletcher (University of New South Wales, Australia)
Copyright: © 2016
|Pages: 27
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-9582-5.ch005
Abstract
In higher education in recent years the educational value of blog journals for facilitating student engagement, reflection and learning has been emphasized (Chu, Kwan, & Warning, 2012; Ellison & Wu, 2008; Richardson, 2005; Yang, 2009). According to Williams and Jacobs (2004), blogs are seen as a ‘transformative educational tool', which assists in the development of ‘reflective and critical thinking skills' (Joshi & Chugh, 2009). This chapter critically analyzes the reflective and collaborative value of two different systems of blog journaling used by postgraduate student to reflect on their arts industry internships. Firstly Blogger (https://www.blogger.com), used between 2008 and 2012 and secondly, journal blogging in the Learning Management System (LMS) of Moodle (2014) are critiqued in terms their ability to promote student engagement, reflection, connection and collaboration. There is particular emphasis on how recent blog journals (2014) reflect how students' confidence, awareness and understandings evolve as they develop professional expertise.