Add the advantages and the limitations of using blogs with students in Ethiopian high schools. 

Advantages of Blogging

Accessible

Anytime and anywhere accessibility was one of the most common advantages of the blog that most of the participants reported. They found the blog accessible through their computers, laptops, iPods, and iPhones on a 24/7 basis. One participant mentioned: “One of the advantages [of the blog] was the ability to check what you need to do anytime anywhere.” Another participant elaborated on her similar experience: “I was able to work on it anytime throughout the week. It was different than other activities I have done in the past, which was cool. It is a more modern way to engage students.” Another participant mentioned: “Having the ability to discuss questions and post comments at any time throughout course was very beneficial.” Another participant noted: “You could post or reply as things occurred to you, at your own pace.” That was supported by other participants’ notes: “I can take as much time as I need”; “I could post comments / discussions at my leisure time”; and “I was able to do this on my own time.”

Alternative Source

The participants found the blogging activity to be an alternative source of getting different or easier solutions to the problems they attempted to solve. One participant noted: “I think that the blogging activity helped students find different ways to solve problems.” Another participant reported: “This [blogging activity] offered another resource to practice from.” Another participant mentioned: “If I didn’t know how to complete a problem, I could look at how other students answered it on the blog.” Another student noted: “It [blogging] was an interactive activity outside of class which allowed students to apply what they had learned and found errors or alternative solutions on others’ work.” Another participant described: “Another benefit was the different ways of solving problems which allowed me to find an easier solution. I also thought that the blog allowed me to get a better feel of the students in my class. Another benefit is if a tutor needed a reference to help a student in the class the tutor could refer to the blog to help.”

Collaborative

 The participants found the blogging activity to be a collaborative platform for effective communication with the instructor and other participants in the class. One participant commented: “It was a different way to incorporate collaboration of classmates. The feedback given from other students to my solutions was helpful to my future teaching techniques.” Another participant elaborated: “We were exposed to a variety of problems relating to Geometry. We were presented with alternative methods in solving, as well as different reasoning procedures. We were forced to think through our solving process and analyze and critique others.” Another participant noted: “The ability to interact with classmates and correct each other’s mistakes or comment on solutions was an advantage.”

Convenient

The participants found the blog to be an easy and effective tool for learning and practicing Euclidean Geometry. One participant noted: “It was very accessible; and the means of blogging was very efficient.” Another participant narrated: “It [blogging] was an interactive activity outside of class which allowed students to apply what they had learned and found errors or alternative solutions on others’ work. It was easy, accessible, and effective.” Another participant elaborated: “Students were used to the [blogging] technology and were excited when they incorporated something they were familiar and skilled with to something they were learning. This technology has so much potential and efficiency, if it utilized correctly, it can be such a useful tool.”

Enjoyable

The participants found the blogging activity to be an enjoyable learning tool. One participant commented: “I enjoyed the connection to modern media. I think it was helped to hold student-centered discussion.” S/he also noted: “Students are used to this technology and are excited when they incorporate something they are familiar and skilled with to something they are learning. This technology has so much potential and efficiency, if it utilized correctly, it can be such a useful tool.” Another participant noted: “I think it would work to the interest of most students.”

Encouraging

The participants found the blogging activity to be a means of encouraging themselves to be active participants. One participant commented: “We were forced [ourselves] to think through our solving process and analyze and critique others.” Another participant reported: “Showing us all as future educators another way to integrate technology into the classroom.” Another participant reported: “Getting a grade based on the future activity rather than just one problem enforced the advantage of learning from the activity.”

Engaging

The participants found the blogging activity to be an engaging tool for learning Euclidean Geometry. One participant commented: “It provided more examples to problems, it was engaging, because it was online I liked that the activity was continuous all the way through the semester. It was not difficult to figure out.” Another participant elaborated: “This blogging activity was great for preparing for quizzes. The questions were very similar to those we did in class and saw on the quizzes. It also allowed me to talk what topics related to education, but not necessarily Geometry.” Another participant elaborated: “We were exposed to a variety of problems relating to Geometry. We were presented with alternative methods in solving, as well as different reasoning procedures.” Another comment was concise but very notable: “It made me analyze the chapter problems more.”

Getting Feedback from Others

Getting feedback from fellow classmates’ comments and opinions on their work on the blog was impressive for the participants. One participant mentioned: “It’s very useful to have feedback from fellow classmates along with feedback from the teachers.” Another participant noted: “I think that the blogging activity … also helped students come up with ways to positively critique other student’s answer and thoughtfully reply to questions.” Another participant elaborated on his or her similar experience: “The main advantage was doing a problem and getting feedback from classmates.”

Technology Savvy

The blogging activity not only required a certain level of technology savvy from participants, it also, served to improve the level of technology savvy of many of them. One participant reported: “[With the blogging activity] I became more technology savvy.” Another participant commented: “[The blogging activity was] convenient, easy, [and] more technology savvy.”

DISADVANTAGES/LIMITATION

Difficult for New Bloggers

Some participants who did not have previous experience in blogging had difficulty starting up with the blog and writing comments. One participant noted: “Substantive comments were hard for me to do. I was never sure how to do them and I didn’t know what to write.” Another participant noted: “The discussion was hard to follow, would have been easier if the threads were separated.”

Difficult in Using Mathematics Notations

 Inserting mathematical symbols and equations was a limitation mentioned with regard to the free blog used in this study. That was noticed and considered to be a disadvantage by some participants. One participant noted: “The blog didn’t allow me to draw a diagram of the word problems in my solution. It made it difficult to articulate my ideas clearly.” Another participant noted: “Typing math equations on the blog was difficult.”

Enforcing

Working with other students in their groups and doing so in a timely manner were mentioned as one kind of enforcement or pressure to a few participants. One participant noted: “[The blogging activity] forced me to collaborate with other students in the class and solve problems together.” Another participant elaborated: “There were several students who were almost too critical of our answers. Some participants didn’t give everyone an opportunity to leave comments. I personally got tired of reading some participants’ comments on every set of problems. This made me not want to even go to the blog page.”

Monotonous

A few participants did not like the insulated nature of the blogging activity as they considered it to be a monotonous activity. One participant noted: “There was no one there to help me if I had a problem.” Another participant noted: “No interaction if you cannot figure it out, you can’t ask teacher.” Another participant noted: “I could not talk to people face to face and interact on paper.” Another participant noted: “I would rather give face to face explanations so I can see the other persons understanding or not.”

Personal Dislike

Some participants did not like the impersonal nature of the blogging activity. One participant noted: “I personally did not like this kind of learning tool.” Another participant noted: “I did not like commenting on other students work. I don’t like the impersonal nature of the blog discussions.” Another participant noted: “I did not like commenting on other students answer, because it comes across as rude. If you give an alternative answer it can be difficult to do it in a way that adds to the problem.”