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This paper aims to understand how users' perceptions of the different functions of blogs vary in educational use and personal use, and further to explore whether experience with blogs has an influence on differences in perceptions of blog functions.

To empirically determine whether the blog functions were suitable for educational and personal use, a blog system with numerous functions was constructed for users to evaluate. In total, 48 college students were recruited to participate in the study. The participants navigated this system and then filled in a questionnaire to give their opinions on the functions of both educational blogs and personal blogs.

The findings of this study indicate that of the 26 blog functions, perceptions of 20 of the functions differed significantly between educational and personal use. Moreover, the results showed that only two blog functions, backup and traffic source, were influenced by both blog experience and blog usage.

This study distinguishes itself from the previous studies on blogging systems in its specific focus on functionality with detailed evaluation under different purposes of contexts. Practical suggestions are accordingly made for practitioners to choose when and which functions to use under different circumstances to enhance the interaction and information exchange between users in the field practice of educational blogging.

The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated framework for designing and investigating students’ engagement patterns and learning presence in educational blogs. The framework was grounded on the ideas of self-directed and reflective learning, and was applied to analyse students’ blogging activities in the context of an undergraduate course.

The proposed research framework was organized along three dimensions: content artefacts, blogging processes and community building. With regard to the methodological tools used, this study integrates content analysis of students’ posts using the framework of community of inquiry, the representation of learning mapping and social network analysis methods.

The results have revealed important information about the different ways of students’ engagement and learning presence within the blogging groups, the contribution and the influence each student had, as well as the structure and the cohesion of the learning community developed around the blogging project.

The findings of this study are limited by the blended course features, the specific sample and the context of implementation. Future research needs to consider and analyse students’ lurking or invisible presence in educational blogging communities.

This study has yielded promising results with regard to the design of educational blogs in higher education that aim to enhance students’ engagement, reflection, collaboration and self-directed learning.

The originality concerns the proposed conceptual framework which can guide the design, monitoring and analysis of blogging processes in order to reveal students’ learning presence within self-directed communities of blogging.

The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation of university students' participation and learning presence in a blogging activity, designed to support collaborative learning. There are three main reasons justifying the current research: to better understand the structure and the dynamics of students' blogging subgroups; to reveal students' patterns of engagement and their roles within the blogging community; and to evaluate the applicability of social network analysis (SNA) in studying students' performance and learning presence in educational blogs.

The design of students' blogging activities was rooted on the ideas of authentic learning and followed a project‐based learning philosophy. Data analysis used methods of SNA to reveal collaborative aspects of students' engagement, the different roles undertaken by the students and the structure of the community within group blogs.

SNA shed light into the different patterns of students' participation and the dynamics of students' learning presence within the community of group blogs. Research findings, both quantitative and qualitative, indicated that the majority of the students in the sample were generally active and exhibited learning presence actions within their group blog. Differences between students in the various groups were also recorded.

The study reported here is limited by the specific sample and the context of implementation. Future research will be directed towards applying the Community of Inquiry schema, in a way complimentary to SNA, to further analyse students' learning and cognitive presence in the community of the whole blogging project.

The originality of the paper concerns both the educational design of the blog‐based project activities and the use of SNA to reveal the different patterns of students' participation in educational blogging activities. Results could be of value for both educators and researchers in the field.

This chapter provides a comprehensive review of research and developments relating to the use of Web 2.0 technologies in education. As opposed to early educational uses of the Internet involving publication of static information on web pages, Web 2.0 tools offer a host of opportunities for educators to provide more interactive, collaborative, and creative online learning experiences for students. The chapter starts by defining Web 2.0 tools in terms of their ability to facilitate online creation, editing, and sharing of web content. A typology of Web 2.0 technologies is presented to illustrate the wide variety of tools at teachers’ disposal. Educational uses of Web 2.0 technologies such as wikis, blogs, and microblogging are explored, in order to showcase the variety of designs that can be utilized. Based on a review of the research literature the educational benefits of using Web 2.0 technologies are outlined, including their ability to facilitate communication, collaborative knowledge building, student-centered activity, and vicarious learning. Similarly, issues surrounding the use of Web 2.0 tools are distilled from the literature and discussed, such as the possibility of technical problems, collaboration difficulties, and plagiarism. Two case studies involving the use Web 2.0 tools to support personalized learning and small group collaboration are detailed to exemplify design possibilities in greater detail. Finally, design recommendations for learning and teaching using Web 2.0 are presented, again based on findings from the research literature.

Based on previous information systems/educational technology success models, the purpose of this paper is to establish a comprehensive, multidimensional model for assessing blog-based learning systems success.

Data collected from 240 blog-based learning systems users in the context of higher education were tested against the model using the structural equation modelling approach.

The results indicate the interrelationships between six system success variables: system quality, content quality, context and linkage quality, user satisfaction, system use, and learning performance. In particular, this study confirms that quality attributes positively affect user satisfaction, which in turn positively influences learning performance directly or indirectly through the mediation of system use.

This study is a pioneering effort to develop and validate a blog-based learning systems success model.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of blogs on teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to primary students. The study also explores educators’ perceptions of social media tools and digital literacy in school environments.

A three-step approach was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. First, the blogs of 23 fifth-grade students in an EFL class in Kuwait was analysed for one semester along with student perceptions and teacher observations. Second, a survey was distributed to the students at the end of the semester, and finally, four focus groups were conducted regarding educators’ perceptions on the use of social media, their skills and needs and problems encountered.

The findings showed that by the end of the semester, students were writing lengthy sentences, had fewer spelling and grammatical mistakes, were more motivated and independent and displayed a more positive attitude towards learning EFL. In addition, educators are enthusiastic about using Web technologies in their teaching practices but have several concerns such as digital literacy competencies, technology-use behaviour and lack of accessibility to digital content.

The number of questions on the student survey could be reduced. Also, it would be preferable in future studies to require all students to blog at least twice a week which could provide a broader representation of their writing abilities.

Little research has been reported in the literature on the use of blogs in teaching EFL to primary school students. Most literature focuses on teaching EFL to university students. By using a mixed-methodology approach, this study also highlights the needs of educators and students in technology learning environments and makes a good contribution towards offering pragmatic solutions.

The proliferation of social media, new generations of digital natives and the profusion of wireless campuses promise to revolutionise teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. No consensus exists on how to introduce Web 2.0 technologies into an educational context, so whilst it is intuitive that educators have a vital role in determining and evaluating the uses and implications of social media, there is a lack of research both into general pedagogic questions and into the particulars of introducing blogs to the classroom. The potential for blogging in education is explored through a review of international research, exemplars of good practice are cited and a qualitative case study of the integration of social media across a range of college level courses is presented. Vignettes from the case study illustrate both the successes enjoyed and the difficulties encountered introducing individual and group blogs. The majority of students endorse the use of blogs and report how blogs support their learning by codifying search trails, improving writing styles, help the visualisation of the process of their own and classmates’ work, how group blogs facilitate the coordination of collaborative projects and how for many blogging has become an integral part of their educational experience.

Students’ use of blogging tools in learning environments is increasing across the world. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature by examining the effects of relevant factors that engender satisfaction and positive impacts of the technology for learning.

A cross-sectional survey was used to collect data from 108 undergraduate students taking a management information systems course. The partial least squares technique of structural equation modelling was used to test the reliability and validity of the data, and the study’s hypothesised relationships or paths.

This study revealed that perceived enjoyment, compatibility, usefulness, ease of use, and confirmation have positive influence on students’ satisfaction with blog use. Perceived enjoyment had the greatest influence on students’ satisfaction with blog use for learning. Perceived impact on learning was positively influenced by perceived ease of use, enjoyment, and satisfaction.

A limited amount of empirical research has focussed on students’ perceptions of satisfaction and perceived impact on learning through blog use in higher educational contexts. This study adds to the growing literature in this area of study.

The importance of critical thinking disposition (CTD) in second language (L2) university students' writing is a topic rarely discussed. The purpose of this research paper is to examine L2 university students' CTD during the writing process. Research questions discussed in this paper encompass the CT dispositions and characteristics of L2 university students in online writing environments. Measuring CTD and CTD training via online collaborative peer review were the two grounding themes of this study.

A five‐point Likert scale online questionnaire which included two open‐ended questions was developed to assess CTD. A factor analysis and a cluster analysis were preformed on the data. A discriminate analysis determined the number of viable clusters and a one‐way ANOVA was performed to compare differences, with qualitative interview data to supplement. The data set for CTD measurement was a matrix consisting of 27 participants and P variables.

The findings reveal that the CTD characteristics of L2s include open‐mindedness, systematicity and inquisitiveness, and low interaction/motivation.

Limitations include a small sample size that mimics the researcher's anticipations, but the findings would be strengthened by a larger sample. A lack of sensitivity and generalisability could be corrected in the future by using broader subject matter within an online educational web site.

Knowledge of the CTD characteristics of L2s would allow interface designers to take into account different CTDs in developing L2 online collaborative educational web sites. This study outlines the first step in developing online collaborative educational games that allow L2 university students to improve their writing abilities by considering various CTDs.

This paper aims to investigate the viability of blogging over the summer holidays as an intervention to ameliorate the Summer Learning Effect (SLE) in writing. The SLE is the impact on achievement of taking a break from school over summer, and has been documented to affect differentially those students who come from low socioeconomic status (SES) communities compared with their more affluent peers. However, previous studies within similar communities suggest that the effect is not inevitable, and is amenable to intervention.

The present study is set in a group of low SES schools where students already have individual learning blogs. The Summer Learning Journey was designed by the research team in consultation with students and teachers from the schools and trialled in January 2015. The design of the programme drew on previous research that suggested that students would be motivated by interest, rather than achievement, and that literacy activity over summer should be leisure-based.

Initial evidence suggests that students who participated made measurable improvements compared with their own progress over the previous summer and also compared with a matched control group of students, and that the observed difference continued over the 2016 school year.

The study provides initial evidence of quite substantial differences in achievement for those students who were active bloggers.

The study provides an alternative direction from current summer learning programmes and indicates the potential for designing digital opportunities for learning at times when the school is not in session.