An Exploratory Study Regarding the Use of Blogs in a Project Management Approach in Teaching and Learning for the Case of &quot;Students at Risk&quot;
Author: Saad, Ahmad Fuad
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses
Subjects: STEM Education,Elementary Secondary Education,Teaching Methods,Learner Engagement,At Risk Students,Active Learning,Student Projects,Cooperative Learning,Creativity,Thinking Skills,Soft Skills,Web 2.0 Technologies,Electronic Publishing,Web Sites,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,21st Century Skills,Student Motivation,Learning Analytics,Computer Software,Game Based Learning,Portfolios (Background Materials),High School Students

There are always challenges in teaching K-12 students Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics which is called STEM subjects due to the scientific nature of these disciplines that require strong and higher order thinking along with the ability to connect abstract concepts and relate to them. Additionally, there is a decrease in number of students interested in these disciplines (Hom, 2014). Moreover, the COVID-19 Pandemic had affected education in a drastic way worldwide and had led to an almost total closure of schools, colleges and universities and forced them to convert their educational procedures to on-line. Hence, applying creative methods of instruction in regular school systems has more benefits than ever, especially if on-line elements are used. The advantages are many, and one of them is to keep students motivated and engaged especially students at risk who tend to have low motivations, lower grades, and tendency to drop out from the educational system. K-12 teachers always face challenge to keep all their students motivated and engaged at the same time. By offering more choices to students and by providing more authentic assessments to their students, and by allowing students to take active role in their education, intrinsic motivation of students will improve (Albrecht et al., 2009). A new way of looking at STEM education is to teach these disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics as one. So, students who are taught these disciplines integrated as a whole one subject will be able to solve real life problems. Furthermore, real life problems are not separate disciplines which are taught in lessons. These problems tend to be complex, and is difficult for discipline-based teaching to solve and define these problems hence the use of Project Based Learning (PBL). Additionally, the effectiveness of STEM integration is manifested once it's organized in a PBL setting and used by the teacher and students in teams for solving specific problem or managing a specific project in a specific time frame. PBL enables students to collaborate with each other, apply their prior knowledge, stay engaged, and it makes them gain different skills throughout the project. So, it is necessary for teachers to explore alternative methodologies and built-up methods that reinforce the important skills related to STEM, in order to achieve a high-quality education. These skills will improve the students' involvement in learning, as well as their social and ethical commitment. It will provide critical thinking and problem solving, effective communication, collaboration and team building, creativity and innovation. Not only it will enable them to assess their learning, but also their ability to learn and their learning skills in general. The ability for innovation is based on a set of skills and knowledge which produces creative thinking among students. These skills are not only technical but also include soft skills, that are crucial in boosting innovation. These soft skills include autonomy, communication, proactivity, accountability and problem-solving. They are exhilarated through pedagogical methods such as digital integration, Doctoral Thesis Ahmad Fuad Saad 10 and learning through collective projects (Ferguson et al, 2017; Zergout et al., 2020). So, by digital integration it's possible to use Web 2.0 based technology like blogs to promote such advantages. Research on the use of blogs in Higher Education, for instance, had suggested that students who blogged, as part of a course requirement, demonstrated an increase in reflection, a heightened feeling of connection, and an increase in course-related knowledge. So, blogging can provide a promising medium for students to engage in reflection as they participate in a PBL. It can actually guide a project by providing a productive place for team members to communicate clearly, to document their work and input other resources, and also brainstorm their ideas. Research also suggests that blogging brings other advantages for students like increasing their motivation to learn and provide them with ICT skills. Blogs also bring to classroom differentiated instruction for diverse students, or it can be used as electronic portfolios for students: using e-portfolio system individually positively influence some subjects, it encourages students using computer or cellphone to reach the information on virtual environments to assess themselves and to monitor their computer skills, and their development. It provides a creative way of organizing, summarizing, and sharing student work and to demonstrate evidence of students' professional growth (Karademir et al., 2016; McBride et al., 2015). Blogs can also be used as a supplementary medium to promote achievement and knowledge acquisition for students as well as an information searching and sharing skills within a learning community. Furthermore, once blogging was used in a PBL STEM environment and was managed effectively, this will maximize the advantages of it. Hence comes the Agile methodology in managing such STEM projects with blogs. Agile is a demanding methodology for organizations in general and educational organizations in particular, because Agile helps teams in projects to manage and adapt quickly to change. Additionally, Agile provides students with workforce ready skills and it gives them better performance in group projects (Hulshult &amp; Woods, 2020). It can be used to manage STEM projects in education combined with blogging.