Music blogs in the third cycle of primary education: perspective of students and teachers

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to analyse the use of blogs as educational resources in the process of teaching-learning in the music class in the third cycle of primary education in Spain. Participants are 6 teachers and 178 students of several schools that use blogs to develop the music class. Students responded an online questionnaire in order to describe motivation, attitudes and expectations regarding the blog and to study its relationship with characteristics such as gender, age, love for music and grades in music. Regarding to teachers, a structured interview was conducted asking them about their opinions, expectations and suggestions with respect to the use of the tool. The results reveal a high valuation of the blog in both cohorts. Association between variables, by the chi-squares test, shows: the more time using the blog, the more interest in new technologies (x2 = 23,43; gl = 4; p<0.05), the more Internet use (x2 = 23,43; gl = 4; p<0.05) and the better grades in music (x2 = 17,74; gl = 8; p<0.05). On the other hand, the results of Mann-Whitney test indicate no significant differences in the valuation of the blog according to gender or age, but there are differences according to experience with the blog use and love for music, being high the mean valuation in the groups with more experience and more love for music. Finally the response of teachers were analysed according to the following categories: arguments offered for the creation of the blog, methodology, advantages and disadvantages, participation, and potential improvements of the blog.