The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension and Learning Motivation
In the article The Impact of Using Blogs on College Students' Reading Comprehension, the authors Hui-Yin Hsu and Shiangkwei Wang (2011) described the findings of a study where they investigated whether the use of a blogging tool would improve the reading level of students. In particular, this study aimed to find answers to the following questions: whether the reading performance of college-level developmental-reading readers was affected by the use of blogs; whether the students’ learning motivation was affected by the use of blogs; what factors affected the students’ reading performance; and what the teachers’ perception was of the integration of weblogs into their developmental reading class.
Studies have shown that college freshmen lacked the aptitude for college-level reading and writing (Hsu & Wang, 2011). In response, researchers tried to determine whether online literacies and new media had an impact on the college reading skills of young adults. Experts suggested that educators develop the multiple literacy skills of students as this would enable them to process information in a more in-depth manner. Several studies have also shown that new literacies among K-12 students and college freshmen have resulted in increased engagement and motivation among them.
Hsu and Wang’s research used Green’s 3D model as the theoretical perspective where focus was on the cultural, operational, and critical dimensions. It also made use of Leu and Kinzer’s theoretical perspective, which emphasized that the integration of new literacies into the literacy curriculum would require the implementation of new types of strategies.
For this study, the authors chose a blogging tool as the technology with which teachers could practice new literacies and with which students could collaborate with each other. This study was conducted in a 4-year university in the United States where 2 out of the 9 developmental reading course sections were asked to use a blogging tool in their reading and writing activities while the 7 did not.
In gathering the data, parts of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used and “the survey designed by Bernard, Brauer, Abrami, and Surkes” (Hsu & Wang, 2011, p. 74) was adopted. With these and the literature review as bases, the researchers formed a Likert-Scale survey that consisted of thirty-one questions that was administered at the beginning and at the end of the semester. The two teachers who participated in the blogging groups were also interviewed to determine their perception of the blogging tool’s effectiveness in class and their willingness to use it.
The SPSS software was used in analyzing the quantitative data. A sample t-test was used for determining significant differences in terms of motivation, reading performance, and retention rate between the blogging and the non-blogging group; a paired t-test was used for determining significant differences in the reading scores before and after the semester; and a Pearson correlation analysis was used for determining the factors’ relationships. On the other hand, the open-ended answers were analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s analysis model.
Results showed that the use of blogs did not give the students an advantage in terms of their reading performance and their learning motivation. However, it improved their confidence in using computers for writing. Students from the blogging group also had a higher retention rate than those from the non-blogging group and they had greater interaction than those from the latter. However, the teachers remained reluctant to integrate technology in their class curriculum due to the fear of and unfamiliarity with using technology, as well as its implications. They preferred to stick to the traditional methods of teaching.
References
Hsu, H. & Wang, S. (2011). The impact of using blogs on college students' reading
comprehension. Literacy Research Instruction, 50 (1), 68-88.
