BLOGS IN DISTANCE EDUCATION: An Analysis of Physical Educators‘ Perceptions of Learning

The flexibility of open and on line learning in meeting different kinds of needs in a variety of ways and the need for planners to make appropriate choices, taking a number of factors into account indicates the need to find out more about the evaluation of teacher training through on line distance education. In recent years web 2.0 technologies such as blogs enable sharing and collaboration between geographically remote users and offer the opportunity for new forms of student-centered pedagogic practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the physical educators‘ perception of learning toward three blog courses, carrying on during an eight week period, in order to enhance their professional development and their skills in effective teaching. In each blog a different cooperative teaching method was applied (STAND, COOP and ICL). Participants were fifty four (n=54) physical educators who teach in elementary and secondary schools of different Greek regions, with an experience of 1.67 to 21.75 years.Data was collected using an online questionnaire after the education programme was completed. Overall, participants‘ responses in the perceived learning questions supported the benefits of use asynchronous web 2 tools in distance education programmes. Their perception of learning using blogs appears to be positively increased regarding the regulation of the applied cooperative procedure.