Exploring the Personal and Self-Directed Use of Weblogs

In recent years educators and researchers have started to explore conditions and requirements in formal and informal educational settings for the development of personal learning environments and their self-directed digital instrumentation. This workshop contribution discusses how a re-design of master level courses created an impulse for students to explore the personal use of weblogs as an instrument for supporting their study practises. Preliminary results of a small case study conducted at the Institute of Informatics at Tallinn University, Estonia, show the development of a range of use patterns that can be interpreted as an expression of different levels of control and ownership that students have gained over this particular type of digital instrument. The paper ends with an outline of potential steps for further research in this regard.