Samuel K. W. Chu, Alvin C. M. Kwan and Peter Warning
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Chu, S. K. W., Kwan, A. C. M., & Warning, P. (2012). Blogging for Information Management, Learning, and Social Support
during Internship. Educational Technology & Society, 15(2), 168–178.
Blogging for Information Management, Learning, and Social Support during
Internship
Samuel K. W. Chu, Alvin C. M. Kwan and Peter Warning
Faculty of Education, Division of Information and Technology Studies, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong //
samchu@hku.hk // cmkwan@hku.hk // pwarning@hku.hk
(Submitted August 9, 2010; Revised February 28, 2011; Accepted July 15, 2011)
ABSTRACT
The functions and possibilities afforded by blogging have been suggested to be relevant to learning and
information management. Its increasing use in the business and education sectors is documented, but currently
its use in professional education or internship is limited. The social nature of blogging appears to support the
applicability of blogs to facilitate learning and communication between student interns. To contribute to the
empirical evidence supporting these propositions, this study investigated the use of web logs to facilitate
information management, learning, and mutual support for internship students. Undergraduate information
management students (N=53) formed three cohorts who used three different blogging platforms in the course of
their internships. They evaluated the use of blogs through an interview questionnaire that included close-ended
rating scales and open-ended probes. The results revealed that students generally have positive perceptions on
blogging as a tool to facilitate information management and mutual support. Blogs were also perceived to be
useful in terms of self-reflection and communication. This study also showed that the blogging platform does
not seem to have an impact on the students’ perceptions on the use of the blogs, whereas the communication
between students and supervisors through the blog comments needs to be improved.
Keywords
Blogs, Internship, Information management, Reflection, Communication
Introduction
Blogs have existed since the 1990s, but their application to educational settings is a relatively recent phenomenon
(Tan, 2010). A blog (abbreviation of “web log”) is a journal presented in reverse chronological order that consists of
a person’s thoughts and ideas posted on the Web for multiple viewers (Flatley, 2005). It is a database containing text
entries and other forms of content, including pictures and sound files which can be created, edited and published to
the Web in a flexible manner. It has been suggested that blogging has attributes that are relevant to knowledge
management [KM] (Levy, 2009). For instance, blogging has been identified as another means of storytelling, which
is an established KM method.
Blogs have been effectively administered in higher education, as well as in distance learning settings (Buffington,
2007; Downes, 2004). Additionally, the application of blogs appears to have potential beyond classroom education.
For instance, blogs may be a suitable tool for professional education or internship, since they are simple and
accessible personal diaries that allow a community of users to interact and communicate with each other (Levy,
2009). The main purpose of an internship is to facilitate the application of theoretical concepts learned in classroom
settings into professional practice, and in a manner, shifts an individual mind to a social setting (Gonczi, 2004). The
social aspect of blogs seem to fit this perspective of internship; however, empirical evidence to support blogging for
students during their professional education is still scarce.
Blogging and knowledge sharing
Knowledge is viewed as an output that emerges from active social construction (McDermott, 1999). The application
of blogging for knowledge management has gained rapid recognition in business organizations, largely due to its
potential as a channel for imparting knowledge, soliciting comments and links, and options for classifying and
archiving entries (Ojala, 2005). Blogs have been found to be effective in organizing information, articulating,
developing, and sharing ideas (Mortensen & Walker, 2002). Blogs can also act as tools for developing community
relationships and conversational learning (Fiedler, 2003). Essentially, individuals can establish and maintain a
personal network, and organize the information exchanged through blogging.
ISSN 1436-4522 (online) and 1176-3647 (print). © International Forum of Educational Technology & Society (IFETS). The authors and the forum jointly retain the
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specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from the editors at kinshuk@ieee.org.Knowledge sharing refers to the process by which knowledge from one individual is transformed, understood, and
used by others (Ipe, 2003). While knowledge sharing has been explored in detail at the level of business
organizations and task orientations, other forms of knowledge sharing occur over the Internet, such as blogs (Hsu &
Lin, 2008). While effective information and knowledge sharing can be facilitated by a diverse range of Internet
technology such as email and asynchronous discussion forums, blogs provide an environment that is relatively more
advanced (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004). In contrast to a discussion forum that is shared by many, a blog provides full
ownership to the user over his/her online content which may not fit neatly within a hierarchical or topic-based
discussion forum.
Blogging in education
Interest in blogging as an educational resource has been fueled by its capacity for individual self-expression and
social connectivity (Burgess, 2006). Blogs have been suggested to be more efficient than traditional pedagogical
tools as they are portable, have automatic time and date stamps, can avoid misinformation due to time lag, and are
economical if one has access to a computer and Internet connection (Gleaves, Walker, & Grey, 2008). The use of
blogs as pedagogical tools has been documented with parents of first grade students (Clyde, 2005), with high school
students (Downes, 2004), among librarians in higher education settings (Buffington, 2007), and in foreign language
classrooms (Ducate & Lomicka, 2005).
Characteristics of blogging appear to support its use in the constructivist learning paradigm. Constructivist learning
facilitates individuals to actively interpret and process information (Ally, 2008) in an emergent manner through their
own inferences and discoveries (Villalba & Romiszowski, 2001). Social constructivist principles underpin the use of
collaborative interactions among students to promote deep learning through exposure to alternative perspectives
(Brett & Nagra, 2005). Two or more people learn something together through communication, negotiation, and
production of materials (Gros, 2001). Recent studies indicate that collaborative learning is successful in online
learning environments (Chu & Kennedy, 2011; Curtis & Lawson, 2001; Woo, Chu, Ho, & Li, 2011), and allows
students to widen their knowledge base through interactions with other learners (Chu, 2008; Tyran & Shepherd,
2001). While collaborative learning emphasizes social and intellectual engagement (Smith & MacGregor, 1992),
blogs have also been put forward as tools of social interaction and subsequent exploration among students through
the mechanisms of comments and critiques.
Ellison and Wu (2008) have also proposed that blogging encourages critical and analytical thinking as it allows
students to develop wider perspectives by interacting with their peers and even with a wider audience on the World
Wide Web. Some findings revealed that peer feedback not only encourages learning among students but also leads
them to engage in a higher level of understanding (Ertmer et al., 2007). Such a peer feedback system may be
described as being inherent in blogging: some studies have found that the most effective aspects of maintaining a
blog for students are reading others’ blogs, and reading feedback on one’s own blog (Ellison & Wu, 2008). The
ensuing feedback mechanism may provide different perspectives from peers and encourage individual reflection
(Lin, Hmelo, Kinzer, & Secules, 1999).
Reflection, which is an integral component of professional learning (Dietz, 1998), allows a learner to examine
responses, beliefs, and context of experiences to gain new understanding (Rogers, 2001). It has been suggested that
written records facilitate better recall and reflection than face-to-face discussions (Wells, 1999) such as the case of
reflective journals. Blogs have been promoted as online forms of reflective journals (Richardson, 2005) and a
number of studies have found blogs to be efficient reflective tools (Lin et al., 1999; Stiler & Philleo, 2003).
Furthermore, blogs have also been shown to be good motivational tools that encourage students to engage in
interactive discussions (Chu, Chan, & Tiwari, 2012; Downes, 2004; Flatley, 2005).
Internship has long been recognized as an important method to prepare students for professional careers. Hands-on
experience, informal apprenticeships with active professionals, and exploration of learning through other institutions
(e.g., business, community associations) are fundamental ways of refining students’ skills and helping them attain
new insights on their professions (Weinberg, 1986). Since internship is an effective transitory phase towards
professional development, a significant body of literature has focused on the theories of design and experience in its
implementation (Lloyd & Bristol, 2006). Murray-Harvey (2001) investigated sources of student support from
teachers during a training program; the findings revealed that students placed a high value on emotional support from
169teachers, as well as collaboration and feedback from the teachers. In many cases, it is difficult to provide support on
a face-to-face basis due to time constraints and geographical dispersion. Some studies have explored the use of
information technology for providing support during students’ internship. These studies examined web-based
asynchronous discussions (Doering, Hughes, & Huffman, 2003), email communications (Graf & Stebnicki, 2002),
and the use of video-conferencing (Nasiopoulos & Ward, 2002).
It is apparent that the potential of blogging as a resource for information and knowledge sharing has been examined
substantially in both business organizations and conventional education settings. However, little is known about the
use of blogs as a supportive tool during internship. Using the framework of collaborative learning, this study utilized
blogging as a platform for reflections during the internship of undergraduate students in the B.Sc. in Information
Management (BScIM) programme of the University of Hong Kong. Building on the growing evidence that supports
the suitability of blogging for constructivist learning approaches, we explored the potential of blogging during
internship with foci on information and knowledge sharing, as well as social support. The blogging behaviors and
perceptions of three cohorts of students were examined using quantitative and qualitative methods.
Research methods
This study aimed to describe the students’ blogging behaviors, and determine their perceptions of blogging in terms
of facilitating information management, mutual support, learning, and communication during internship. All the
procedures were reviewed and approved by the ethics review committee of the university.
Participants
Undergraduate students (N=53) in the BScIM programme were grouped in three cohorts based on their years of
enrolment from 2006 to 2008. They all took part in an internship programme lasting for one to three months in
various organizations. Research participants included 16 out of 19 interns in 2006, 16 out of 21 interns in 2007, and
all the 21 interns in 2008.
Procedures
Undergraduate students in the BScIM programme undergo internship in their third (final) year over a period of one
to three months. They are assigned to different organizations of varied nature (e.g., library, hospital, police force,
publishers, and law firms). For each year, approximately 80% of the students undertook their internship in local
organizations in Hong Kong, while the remaining 20% did their internship in Mainland China or in overseas
organizations. The students’ tasks revolve around information management, but may vary in terms of scope and level
of technical requirements.
At the onset of their internship, students were asked to create blogs as a means of sharing their experiences and
posting reflections. Internship requirements included the submission of self-reflections, and the students were asked
to write their self-reflections and post them as blogs every one to two days, for the duration of their placement.
Students were advised to share what they have learnt, and useful resources they have found, with their classmates.
Each cohort of students had a different blogging environment. The first cohort used a commercial blogging system:
either Xanga (http://hk.xanga.com) or Blogger (https://www.blogger.com). The second cohort used an open source
content management system named Drupal, while the third cohort used another commercial blogging system called
YouBlog (http://www.youblog.cc). The free commercial blogging systems had common functionalities that
supported blog creation, editing, viewing, commenting, file attachment, and links creation. Additionally, Xanga and
YouBlog provided view counts for each blog entry. On the other hand, Drupal is an open-source, self-hosted content
management system which includes blogging among its supported features. Both Drupal and Xanga allow users to
provide feedback to bloggers by giving a rating for each blog entry.
After their internship was completed, students were invited to participate in telephone interviews where they reported
their blogging frequency and rated the effectiveness of blogs for learning and support through the use of a 4-point
Likert-type scale. The Likert-type scale utilized a score of 1 for “Strongly disagree”, 2 for “Disagree”, 3 for “Agree”,
170and 4 for “Strongly agree”. Reasons to support their response choices were probed through open-ended questions. All the interviews were audio-recorded with the participants’ consent and transcribed for data processing. Data analysis Numerical data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using non-parametric tests (SPSS version 16.0). Responses on the Likert scales were summarized using descriptive statistics, and median scores that were higher than 2.5 were interpreted as edging towards the positive, while median scores that were lower than 2.5 were edging towards the negative feedback. Interquartile range was also calculated for the blogging frequency, and scores below the 25th percentile were classified as infrequent users, while scores above the 75th percentile were classified as frequent users. Statistical significance level was set at p
from the students’ ratings appeared to support this proposition. No significant differences were noted between the
ratings of the frequent and infrequent users. Previous studies have shown that learners who use an online technology
for learning more frequently tend to give lower ratings for its effectiveness (Chu, 2008). This has been explained by
the higher chances of noting the technology’s limitations as a user becomes more familiar with the technology. In
this current study, the frequency of blogging did not seem to influence the interns’ perceptions on the effectiveness
of blogging for learning. In the preceding section, the number of blog entries per student (M=45.8) has been reported,
indicating that a substantial amount of blogging has been done by the interns. This may explain the generally
consistent perceptions of students, regardless of their blogging frequency.
Table 2. Students’ ratings on the effectiveness of blogging for information management and mutual support
Overall ratings Frequent users Infrequent users
Variables measuring the Sig.
Mean1 (SD) Mean (SD) Mean (SD)
effectiveness of blogging Mann-Whitney
Median Median Median
Blogging facilitated 2.8 (0.62) 2.93 (0.48) 2.6 (0.84)
0.61
knowledge sharing 3.0 3.0 3.0
Blogging facilitated 3.1 (0.53) 3.29 (0.47) 3.0 (0.56)
0.26
information sharing 3.0 3.0 3.0
Blogging facilitated mutual 2.8 (0.70) 3.0 (.056) 2.64 (0.50)
0.17
emotional support 3.0 3.0 3.0
1
Note. Using the 4-point Likert scale as discussed in the methodology section.
It has been suggested that by accessing blogs of others with similar interests, bloggers can obtain information that
may serve as useful resources (Efimova, 2004). In this study, the main benefits of blogging for information sharing
reported by most students include free mutual reading allowing them to know what the others are doing, obtaining
information regarding other job fields, and easy access to research-related information. One example of students who
share information on blogs is extracted below:
“The seminar will be held again on 23 August, if you are interested, go to the Census and Statistics
Department’s website for more details: http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/statistical_literacy/course_and
_seminars/scientific_sample_survey/index_tc.jsp”
Blogs provide a virtual personal space, while at the same time allow online communities to form (Glogoff, 2005).
Bloggers are able to share knowledge and express their personal styles (Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz,
2004). It appears that blogging provided a venue for interns to share knowledge based on their personal experiences.
Probing questions in the interviews revealed further the participants’ explanations of their perceptions of blogs’
usefulness for information and knowledge sharing (see Table 3). Blogging has been reported to be useful for interns
in terms of sharing information and knowledge on their respective work assignments. Interns also appreciated the
ability to upload multi-modal forms of information (e.g., photos, videos) on the blogging platform. The potential of
learning from their peers’ problem-solving experiences was noted by only two of the participants. Problem-solving
that is shared in a community has been described as a representation of knowledge exchange and serves as a means
of knowledge building (Yang, 2009). The varied nature of the organizations to which the interns were assigned
resulted in disparities in their tasks. This may have resulted in interns’ limited perceived usefulness of the problem-
solving experiences of their peers.
Table 3. Students’ opinions on blog as a suitable tool to facilitate information management and mutual support
Positive Feedback Negative Feedback
Provides knowledge on what others are doing (13) Most blog entries are unimportant and routine (6)
Provides free mutual reading (9) Most entries are personal and are not useful
Provides information on other work fields (8) comments (4)
Enables sharing of information on research, photos, videos (8) Students just write little in order to complete the
Allows sharing of experiences (5) assignment (4)
Provides access to information everywhere, anytime (4) Face-to-face communication is necessary (2)
Serves as a source for problem-solving mechanisms (3)
Provides opportunities to learn from others’ experience and
analysis (2)
Note. Students were asked to comment on the effectiveness of information and knowledge sharing by blogging
172The primary negative feedback was related to the superficiality and routine nature of most blog entries. The students’
blogs represented their self-reflections which made up an academic requirement for their internship. It appeared that
some students may not have engaged in deep reflection through their blogging. An earlier study indicated that
blogging encouraged ongoing and thoughtful reflection by making thinking visible and available for critique and
comment by others (Luehmann, 2008). However, as a tool for reflection, blogs have been observed to be more
descriptive than critical (Yang, 2009). The findings of this study appear to be consistent with this latter observation,
and may be partially due to the required nature of the interns’ blogs. Some interns may have written entries that were
superficial and routine, primarily to fulfil the academic requirement. Nevertheless, it may not be discounted that the
requirement may have pushed some other students to exert extra effort into writing their blogs to improve their
academic standing. In any case, these aspects need further examination that is beyond the scope of this report. Future
inquiries may investigate students’ intrinsic motivation to blog as opposed to blogging to fulfill the required
reflection. This may reveal further insights on optimizing the educational impact of blogging. At this point, the
findings essentially imply that there is a need to increase the students’ awareness of blogs’ potential usefulness
during an internship.
Blogs were also found to enhance social support among students in various ways. Student C1-S6 (Cohort 1-Student
6) reported that his classmates did not only write about what they had learnt, but also about their relationships with
colleagues and supervisors so that insights were gained on dealing with interpersonal relationships in positive ways.
Some students used blogs to vent their frustrations at work. For instance, student C1-S4 complained about not getting
any interesting tasks at work, while other students complained about the heavy workload or huge pressure they had
during their internships.
Perceptions of blogging as a tool for learning
As a tool for learning, blogging was evaluated in terms of usefulness for reflection and communication, and students
reported positive perceptions on these aspects (see Table 4). It has been previously suggested that blogs may also
serve as online journals (Richardson, 2005) and studies have found them to be efficient reflective tools (Stiler &
Philleo, 2003). It appears that interns recognized this benefit of blogs as well. The effectiveness of blogs for self-
reflection has been described to be due to the easy retrieval of previous information (Flatley, 2005), automatic
archiving of information, and more effective monitoring of one’s progress (Lin, et al., 1999). Students can always
retrieve their reflections from their blogs by typing the date of entry. More importantly, this reflection process can
contribute to effective learning as it enables students to better understand what they have learnt and how these learnt
skills can be applied in the future (Tan, 2006).
Table 4. Students’ ratings on the usefulness of blogs for communication and learning
Overall ratings1
Survey questions
Mean (SD) Median
Blogging is useful for self-reflection 3.2 (0.65) 3
A blog is suitable for recording self-reflections 3.0 (0.65) 3
Blogging is useful for communication among classmates 3.0 (0.5) 3
Classmates’ comments on blogs are helpful 2.1 (0.99) 3
Supervisors’ comments on blogs are helpful 0.6 (1.09) 0
Note. 1Using the 4-point Likert scale as discussed in the methodology section.
Table 5. Students’ opinions on using blogs to keep self-reflections
Positive Comments Negative Comments
Serve as reminders for projects (14) Privacy concerns (4)
Record and reflect things systematically (12) Concerns about grades and authenticity of content
Convenient (7) (3)
Entries are easy to trace (5) The mandatory use of computers is found to be
Readily usable for sharing (5) problematic (2)
Easy to access (4) There are better alternatives, e.g., Facebook (2)
Suggestions from classmates and supervisors are received (3)
Allow expression of feelings (2)
Centralized platforms (1)
Note. Students were asked to comment on the blog’s suitability to keep reflections.
173Table 5 summarizes the students’ opinions on using blogs for self-reflection. It was noted that blogs were useful
reminders to prevent students from missing data for their projects. Additionally, the participants reported that blogs
provided a systematic record of what they have done at work, and they were convenient to use. The major negative
comment on the blogs’ use for self-reflection is the concern over privacy. Student C1-S7 commented on this by
saying that “the blog is a platform that anyone can access, which information can be easily traced by date of entry
and type of content. Outsiders would then be able to see information that I want to keep private.” It is worth noting
that such concerns have been adequately addressed by the blogging platforms by allowing users to customize their
privacy settings to restrict access to selected postings.
Compared to traditional means of communication, blogs have been considered desirable tools for students to make
their thoughts, feelings and experiences accessible to a wider audience (Ellison & Wu, 2008). Student C1-S10
suggested that benefits of communicating through blogs included increasing the transparency of work because the
BScIM course requires real-life sharing of experiences where different approaches have to be learnt. This student
further stated that communication through blogs allowed interns working overseas to communicate with each other
as it provided a viable alternative to face-to-face interactions. Student C2-S8 worked overseas and thought that blogs
were useful for communication as phone calls were seldom made to classmates who were working in Hong Kong. It
appears that blogs were found to be particularly useful for students who are separated by geographical distance.
Another student (C1-S6) described the blog as a centralized platform for communication which effectively countered
the difficulties associated with the physical distance at work.
From the probing questions, a number of students did not think that blogs were a very suitable communication tools
since their classmates or supervisors preferred using emails or direct conversation to communicate. Student C1-S3
clarified this by saying that “blogs might be more useful for students working abroad.” However, for students who
worked in Hong Kong, face-to-face interaction with their classmates and supervisors was preferred.
Participants gave unfavourable ratings for the helpfulness of comments on their blogs, including those from their
classmates (mean=2.1±0.99) and supervisors (mean=0.6±1.09) respectively. Probing inquiry revealed that students
perceived the comments from their peers as shallow and not useful (14 out of 53 participants), while a few of them
remarked that suggestions from one work area may not be applicable to another (5 out of 53).
Negative views on the usefulness of their supervisors’ blog comments were reported, mainly because they were
either infrequent or absent (41 out of 53). The majority (89%) of the students reported that they received blog
comments from their supervisors once per month or less. Student C3-S11 gave a typical response of the interns
regarding supervisors’ comments “He (my supervisor) has never given me any feedback or comments via the blog.”
In another interview, Student C3-S3 noted that, “my supervisor had never visited my blog.” Students who received
comments from their supervisors regarded the comments as helpful advice for problem solving and academic work
(9 out of 53). As some studies suggest that students have to learn through self-exploration and directive learning with
their supervisor’s feedback (Glogoff, 2005), it appears that there is a need to improve the regularity of supervisors’
feedback in order to make learning more effective. The existence of supervisors’ comments serves as guidance for
students, and also as an indicator that they consider blogging to be an important communication tool. This may
potentially encourage students to blog more frequently. Table 6 summarizes the information obtained through the
open-ended questions.
Table 6. Students’ opinions on the usefulness of classmates’ and supervisors’ comments
Positive Comments Negative Comments
Comments from Allowed difficulties to be shared; solutions and Shallow and useless (14)
classmates advice were obtained (9) Seldom (if not never) received (12)
Provided encouragement (9) Comments regarding other work fields
Provided information on how the others are doing were not applicable (5)
and their work areas (6)
Provided a reflection of work situations and job
scope (4)
Different perspectives and viewpoints were
discussed which helped problem solving (2)
Promoted resolution of disagreements and sharing of
ideas (2)
Stimulated thinking (1)
174Comments from Provided professional and academic advices that Seldom (if not never) received (41)
supervisors helped problem solving (9)
Indicators that supervisors kept track of students’
progress (2)
Note. Students were asked to comment on the usefulness of comments from other students and supervisors.
While the blogging platforms differed for each cohort, our results show that there were no significant differences in
the ratings on the usefulness of the blogs as a platform for learning among the participants (all p>.05, see Table 7).
Table 7. Comparing the 3 cohorts’ ratings on the usefulness of blogs as a platform for learning
Cohort 1 Cohort 2 Cohort 3
Sig.
Survey questions (n=16) (n=16) (n=16)
(Kruskal-Wallis)
Median Median Median
Blogging is useful for self-reflection 3 3 3 .46
Blog is suitable for recording self-reflections 3 3 3 .11
Blogging is useful for communication among 3 3 3 .99
classmates
Classmates’ comments on blogs are helpful 3 2 2 .76
Supervisors’ comments on blogs are helpful 0 0 0 .17
Note. Using the 4-point Likert-type scale as discussed in the methodology section.
While we noted in the earlier section of the findings that the blogging platform may have influenced the frequency of
comments, the platform did not appear to influence the students’ perceptions on blogging. As noted above, consistent
negative feedback was also given for the usefulness of classmates’ and supervisors’ comments. These findings imply
that while the type of blogging platform may not have a significant effect on blogging impact during internship, the
quantity and quality of comments from classmates and supervisors have a more important effect.
Conclusion and implications
In the constructivist learning paradigm, an active exchange and interpretation of information facilitates knowledge
construction in learning (Vygotsky, 1986). Along the lines of this theoretical framework, blogging has been
suggested to address the discursive nature of knowledge construction (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004). Our findings
indicate that across three cohorts of students, blogging has been reported to be supportive of constructivist learning
by facilitating information and knowledge sharing. While such positive perception was consistent, the usefulness of
blog contents has been inconsistent among participants. Furthermore, comments from classmates and supervisors
have also been reported as inadequate and shallow. Collaborative learning places a great emphasis on the extent and
quality of the exchanges that occur among students in a given environment (Dillenbourg & Schneider, 1995). Our
findings confirm that blogging is perceived to support collaborative learning, but there is a need for scaffolding that
has to be addressed. Scaffolding has been used as a metaphor referring to approaches wherein teachers provide
students with the tools they need to learn (Jacobs, 2001). Originally used in teaching children, scaffolding has also
taken various forms of adult support in terms of providing demonstrations and guidelines, and keeping learners’
attention focused (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2002). Our findings suggest that blogging provides a platform for
knowledge construction and given adequate scaffolding may facilitate constructivist learning during internship.
Scaffolding for blogging in higher education may take on the form of consistent guidelines and recurrent reminders
of the focus and purposes of the task. This extends current theoretical explorations of using technology to facilitate
constructivist learning, and takes the focus towards internship in particular.
The blogging interface that generates feedback from readers naturally positions the students for reflective
opportunities (Ferdig & Trammell, 2004). Regardless of the platform used, the utilities of blogging systems have
allowed interns to record their experiences and generate responses from classmates and supervisors. Consequently,
participants across cohorts confirmed the usefulness of blogging for reflection. A framework for the educational
affordances of blogging has been suggested by Deng and Yuen (2011), pointing out that reflection occurs as a
blogger writes, reads, and exchanges comments. While our quantitative findings confirm that students perceived
writing blogs to be useful for self-reflection, findings from the probing questions indicate perceived benefits from
175reading blogs (i.e., reminders, easy sharing) as well. In contrast, comments from classmates and supervisors were
perceived to be of limited worth. We suggest that these findings support the framework of blogging affordances,
where reflection involves reading, writing, and exchanging comments. In fact, students explained the dissatisfaction
with comments to be due to lack of both depth and frequency. We thus infer that reflection is best facilitated by
blogging when the educational affordances are harnessed into the system. The technological characteristics of
blogging systems appear to be adequate to support these educational affordances. Our findings imply that the
inadequacy in employing blogging’s educational affordances might be associated with pedagogical factors that are
intrinsic in each particular internship program.
In the context of internship, our participants were required to write their reflections as blogs. Consequently, their
blogging behaviours were more focused on writing their own blogs, and giving rise to comments that were described
to lack depth. On the other hand, supervisors’ participation in the blogging activities may be constrained by limited
time resources, a desire to limit their impact on students’ independence of judgement during internships, or other
reasons. These factors associated with the context of internship appear to have important effects on how interns used
blogging for learning. Earlier studies have also shown that the pedagogical context of a course influences students’
blogging behaviours (Kerawalla, Minocha, Kirkup, & Conole, 2009). In this study, students tended to direct their
attention towards blog writing as a consequence of the internship context. While the nature of internship is distinct
from a classroom-based coursework, our findings imply the value of the pedagogical context of learning in utilizing
the educational affordances of blogging. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that our findings may have limited
generalizability to interns in other disciplines or fields of study. Future research work on using blogs for internship is
warranted to build on our findings.
Further studies might also examine the use of blogging as a learning tool during internship using other outcome
parameters. Interns reported generally positive perceptions on blogging for information and knowledge sharing, self-
reflection, social support, and communication for those who are placed overseas. While this is an encouraging basis
for future use of blogging in education, there is no causal mechanism that has been established. Furthermore, the lack
of association between frequency of use and interns’ perceptions imply that students’ blogging behaviours (i.e.,
amount of blogging activity) may relate to students’ views of blogging for learning. For educators, this brings about
the question of the actual utility of blogging as a tool for learning, which may be addressed by further research that
may delve into learning processes and outcomes. In conclusion, we found that in the context of internship, blogging
was found to be a generally useful tool that supports constructivist learning. Future applications of blogging in
education are also suggested to account for the pedagogical context which may include scaffolding strategies.
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