The effects of using blog as a web tool in biology teaching in high schools

Abstract

The Internet is a service where much information from the world of science, technology, fashion and entertainment can be found. With the development of mobile devices, information from the Internet has become available almost everywhere. This fact should be used to help students learn curriculum e-materials from smartphones, tablets and netbooks. One of the Internet services that can be successfully applied in teaching is a blog. This research has analyzed the effects of using blog as a web tool in biology teaching. The sample under research included 171 students divided into two groups: an experimental group which used a blog and a control group in which the teaching was conducted without a blog as a teaching tool. The students from both groups were first tested by means of a pre-test according to which the groups were at the same level of knowledge of biology and after covering the topic of Cytology both groups did the post-test. The research showed that the students who used the blog had statistically a significantly better result on the post-test. Further research showed that students make equal progress at all levels of knowledge with the help of blogs and that the blog is the most useful to advanced students.