New ways to communicate with students. Blogging in academic teaching.

Mihai Deac, MA, Babe-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca Ioan Hosu, PhD, Babe-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca Introduction As technology moves towards more and more integrated solutions for using the web, the telephone or the computer, there is a natural tendency to decrease the amount of time and attention people give to conventional ways of reading, studying and communicating. The development of Web 2.0, social media, e-books and phone applications for using the internet means that nowadays, the difference between an internet user and an administrator of content is virtually inexistent and also that online communication has become accessible to everybody, from anywhere, at any time. Actual dialogue, rather than reading what others publish, is now, more than ever, possible. To add to this, the fact that the web and new media are more likely to be used by members of the younger generation is also difficult to debate against. In this context, academic teaching is bound to be one of the areas where new media of all kinds would make an impact. Using it for learning and for directing students preoccupation with the internet towards online platforms where they can actually find relevant information, where they can try collaborative studying and sharing their knowledge and resources, is vital for having an interested and informed group of students. Blogging can be one of the best tools to be used in such a direction. Literature review (short version) While there has been some interest towards the use of social media and Web 2.0 within universities (Tait, 2010, offers what can be called a small textbook for using online instruments in teaching) the focus has been mainly on the way lecturers and students use social networks such as Facebook. Bosch (2009) is one of the authors to research the problem on a small group of South African students, trying to describe how student networks relate to Facebook networks of friends, as well as determining how lecturers and students communicate through Facebook. In order to achieve the research objectives, Bosch analyzed 200 profiles and had 50 interviews taken with students and teachers. The results show that students use the network in a variety of ways, some of them being more active than others. Furthermore, those who are active do not always integrate academic preoccupations within

their Facebook social contact experience. However, some of the subjects report that using the social network makes their lives easier, as checking academics on the same platform they use on a daily basis, for social reasons, turns out to be very practical. Also, using Facebook for academics enables students to help each other with learning resources, advice and administrative information, such as assignments, course venues, and time-table changes. There is also a discussion on benefits that teachers might draw from being able to contact students more efficiently, and in a more informal, comfortable environment. There is also some level of research directed towards using online videos for teaching. Al-Jarf (2011) shows the benefits of using online videos to help pre-med students stay in touch with what is being taught, and for understanding procedures in spite of language barriers. Scholarly blogging has been the focus of some innovative research, as early as the first few years after blogs were developed (Flatley, 2005, Gregg, 2006). Even though the technology had been available since the late 90s, blogs had become large-scale online instruments only a few years after the turn of the millennium. Flatley used blogs as platforms where students could work together, noticing that the teachers job was, in some concerns, much more efficient. She was able to evaluate the level of involvement in group work and discussions in a much easier way. Students used the academic blog from out-of-town, at various times of day and night, they were active, brainstormed and shared ideas. On the other hand, Gregg (2006) sees blogging as a way to invigorate academic discourse, and to encourage scholarly debate. Context and objectives for the current research As teachers at the department of Communication and Public Relations in Cluj-Napoca, we have had the chance to use various online instruments in order to reach students in the most efficient ways. There are three possibilities through which mediated teacher-student communication occurs in our case: (1) posting information and resources on the official website of the institution, which is not very time-effective since access to the server is restricted and a limited number of employees have access to it, (2) using yahoo groups, which have been the favored channels for communication by most teachers and students for the past 10 years, (3) using blogs, such as the one we have had running for the past year: blogdeseminar.wordpress.com.

The blog specified earlier (3) is established as a high profile website, currently reaching a total of almost 40,000 page views, with daily averages that span between 150 and 350 views, and a record of 806 views in one day. During the past year, we have gathered traffic data that allow us to understand the way students use the blog for their courses. The increase in use of the blog is correlated with a decrease in the use of the yahoo groups, which were considered to be somewhat ineffective due to a series of reasons, such as (a) the huge amount of unstructured information that was preventing the system from working properly, (b) the lack of discipline and rules for using the group, (c) the difficulty to properly organize and archive messages. As such, much of the information and resources concerning part of the courses was moved onto the wordpress platform. The objectives for the current study are to determine patterns of use of the academic blog by the students. More particularly, determining: -

schedules and periods of intense use the type of content that is accessed - whether administrative information (assignments, time tables) or scholarly content is preferred the purpose of use, be it for mandatory assignments or for other academic discussions the level of involvement by the users passive readers or active contributors the level of cooperation between peers whether using the blog is an alternative to yahoo groups and other channels of communication student perceptions on the efficiency of the blog as teaching instrument whether the blog can become a platform for a larger user community, reaching beyond the students from the Communication department and contributing to general scholarly debate

Methods Two research methods will be employed in order to reach this papers objectives: (1) analyzing traffic data from blogdeseminar.wordpress.com, (2) collecting qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with students from the Communication department.