LEE, Wing Yi Celina (Faculty of Education The University of Hong Kong) CHAN, Chun Ho Randolph CHAN, Kim To LEUNG, Chun Kit (Faculty of Education, The University of Cambridge) CHU, Samuel Kai Wah (Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong) http://citers2013.cite.hku.hk/en/paper_594.htm --------------------------- Author(s) bear(s) the responsibility in case of any infringement of the Intellectual Property Rights of third parties. --------------------------- CITE was notified by the author(s) that if the presentation slides contain any personal particulars, records and personal data (as defined in the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance) such as names, email addresses, photos of students, etc, the author(s) have/has obtained the corresponding person's consent.

1. The Application of
Blogs and
Facebook in
Scaffolding the
Internship Learning
Process
CHAN, Randolph Chun Ho
Faculty of Education,
The University of Hong Kong

2. Outline
 Literature reviews
 Educational use of Blogging and Facebook
 Research methods
 Finding and Discussion
 Behavioral difference between blogs and
Facebook
 Perception of using blogs/Facebook for learning
 Learning experience through blogs/Facebook

3. Literature reviews
 Social media technologies have become widely
employed in higher education (Maloney, 2007).
 Compared with conventional learning, social
media-supported learning encourages information
sharing between learners and facilitate the
exchange of ideas outside the classroom (Barczyk &
Duncan, 2011).
 Blogs and Facebook are two of the most commonly
used social media applications for educational
purposes (Blood, 2002; Churchill, 2009; Selwyn, 2009).

4. Blog
 A blog or “web log” is a web-based
application that allows users to publish
content online (Cardus, 2006; Churchill,
2007).
 The content of blog entries ranges from
personal diaries, expressions of opinion, to
sharing of knowledge and resources
(Burgess, 2006; Carter, 2008).

5. Blogging and Learning
 Blog environments have been found to
encourage feedback by means of
comments (Chu, Kwan, & Warning, 2012;
Ellison & Wu, 2008).
 It helped facilitate knowledge sharing
among students, and built up a social
context for collaborative learning (Chu &
Kennedy, 2011).

6. Facebook
 Facebook has been considered as the
most commonly used social networking
site (Wiley & Sisson, 2006).
 It is an online social platform that allows
users to connect and interact with their
„friends‟.

7. Facebook and Learning
 Facebook could enhance social integration
and promote positive learning outcomes as a
result of peer interaction (Selwyn, 2009;
McEwan, 2011).
 It could support communications between
learners who face common dilemmas, by
allowing them to connect with each other
through online networks (Selwyn, 2009).

8. Research Gaps
 The educational use of the two social
media tools has been increasingly
recognized, as evident in recent research.
 However, a well-structured comparison
between blog and Facebook in
scaffolding students learning is scarce.

9. Research Questions
 What are the students‟ perceptions of the
learning processes with the use of blogs
and Facebook?
 How do blogs and Facebook differ in
scaffolding students‟ cognitive, reflective,
social-collaborative, and affective
engagements during internship?

10. RESEARCH METHODS
Mixed-method approach

11. Participants
 The participants consist of two groups of students
(n=73) from the Bachelor of Information
Management (BScIM) program at the University of
Hong Kong.
Group 1: Blogs (e.g.
Xanga, Blogger, etc.)
•The first group of
participants (n=53)
comprise of three
cohorts of students who
enrolled in the years of
2006 (n=16), 2007 (n=16)
and 2008 (n=21).
Group 2: Facebook
•The second group of
participants (n=20) who
were admitted in the
year of 2010, used
Facebook when they
undertook their
internship.

12. Data collection
 The participants had to response to a set of
structured and open-ended questions over
the phone.
 evaluate the effectiveness of blogs/Facebook
as an online learning platform
 describe how they used blogs/Facebook for
the internship learning

13. Data collection
 The blog entries, Facebook posts and
comments were extracted from the online
blogging system and Facebook in the end
of each internship period for qualitative
content analysis.

14. Blog and Facebook

15. Qualitative coding framework
•Positive emotions
•Negative emotions
•Affect and support
•Providing questions
•Providing feedback
•Knowledge
•Experience
•Information sharing
•Knowledge
construction
•Problem solving
Cognitive Reflective
Affective
Social-
collaborative

16. FINDINGS & DISCUSSION
Students‟ behavior, perception and experience of
using blog/Facebook for internship learning

17. Behavioral difference between
blog and Facebook users - 1
Blogging/posting behaviors
Blog users
(n=53)
Facebook
users
(n=20)
Sig. Mann–
Whitney
Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
Writing one‟s own blog/post 3.21 (0.79) 2.70 (0.73) 0.02*
Reading classmates‟
blogs/posts
3.04 (0.96) 2.85 (0.81) 0.38
Notes: Participants answered according to a scale of 1-5: 1-„Once a month
or less‟, 2-„Once every two weeks‟, 3-„1-2 times a week‟, 4-„3-6 times a week‟,
and 5-„Once every day or more‟.
*statistically significant at p < 0.05.

18. Behavioral difference between
blog and Facebook users - 2
Notes: Participants answered according to a scale of 1-5: 1-„Once a month
or less‟, 2-„Once every two weeks‟, 3-„1-2 times a week‟, 4-„3-6 times a week‟,
and 5-„Once every day or more‟.
* statistically significant at p < 0.05.
Commenting behaviors
Blog users
(n=53)
Facebook
users
(n=20)
Sig. Mann–
Whitney
Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
Receiving comments from
classmates
1.96 (0.83) 2.65 (0.81) 0.03*
Receiving comments from
supervisors
1.08 (0.27) 2.10 (0.97) <0.01*

19. Perception of using blogs/
Facebook for learning - 1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Reading others’ blogs/posts during
internship is useful
Blogging/Posting facilitated
information sharing
Blogging/Posting facilitated
knowledge construction
Blogging/Posting is suitable for
learning from others’ internship
experience
Facebook
Blog
Notes: Ratings are based on a 4-point Likert-type scale: 1-„Strongly
disagree‟, 2-„Disagree‟, 3-„Agree‟, and 4-„Strongly agree‟.

20. Perception of using blogs/
Facebook for learning - 2
 The most common benefit claimed by
students was the ability to learn some
general skills needed at workplace, e.g.
interpersonal skills.
 Students revealed that social media was
also helpful when they faced a job specific
problem as they could post their problem
on the platform and their peers would share
possible solutions to it.

21. Perception of using blogs/
Facebook for learning - 3
 Students also utilized the online platforms to
obtain information and learn about other
organizations in terms of their peers‟ work
nature, job responsibilities and working
environment.

22. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook
•Positive emotions
•Negative emotions
•Affect and support
•Providing questions
•Providing feedback
•Knowledge
•Experience
•Information sharing
•Knowledge
construction
•Problem solving
Cognitive Reflective
Affective
Social-
collaborative

23. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - cognitive
Blog entries
(Mean)
Facebook posts
(Mean)
Cognitive 5.66 3.65
Information sharing 1.7 1.4
Knowledge
construction
2.3 0.8
Problem solving 1.66 1.45

24. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - cognitive
 Retrievable and archival
features of blogs (e.g.
tags, blog archive)
facilitate the discussion
and co-construction of
knowledge.
 makes the blog content
more easily accessible
to blog owners and
readers

25. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - reflective
Blog entries
(Mean)
Facebook posts
(Mean)
Reflective 5.24 25.35
Knowledge 3.19 10.6
Experience 2.06 14.75

26. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - reflective
 Facebook users showed a high degree of
engagement in metacognitive process of
learning which involve the reflection of
user‟s knowledge/experience.
 The wide popularity and user-friendly
interface of Facebook allow it overtake
blogs in instant and quick experience
capture.

27. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook – collaborative
Blog entries
(Mean)
Facebook posts
(Mean)
Collaborative/social 0.51 6
Posting questions 0.19 1.3
Providing feedback 0.32 4.7

28. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - collaborative
 Participants recognized
that Facebook has more
advanced group features.
 E.g. all messages posted
onto the group wall would
generate group
notifications and greater
attention among the users.
 It enhances communications and interaction
between individuals, thereby facilitating the
social-collaborative process of learning.

29. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - affective
Blog entries
(Mean)
Facebook posts
(Mean)
Affective 4.96 9.15
Positive emotions 2.42 3
Negative emotions 1.57 0.6
Affect and support 0.98 5.55

30. Learning experience through
Blogs/Facebook - affective
 Facebook was associated with greater
social and emotional support.
 Facebook users could read and respond
to each other‟s postings by giving „Like‟s.
 “Like represents a kind of encouragement”
 “Like is the expression of concerns about
each other’s status”

31. Conclusion
 Students‟ perception of using blogs and
Facebook during internship was found to
be generally positive.
 This research provides empirical evidence
that supports the significance of blog and
Facebook in pedagogical scaffolding
during internship.

32. Conclusion
 Based on the functional difference
between blogging and Facebook shown
in this study, educators can consider the
roles of the two social media tools in
scaffolding students‟ learning so as to
maximize the pedagogical benefits of the
social media platform.

33. Thank you!