The phenomenon of blogs and theoretical model of blog use in educational contexts

Many educators have attempted to implement a blog in educational contexts to enhance the communication environment among students and teachers. However, it is uncertain as to why traditional computer-mediated communication (CMC) applications should be replaced with blogs. It is time to comprehensively explore the effects of educational blogs by considering the CMC tools. This paper reviews prior studies and develops a model for the use of blogs in educational contexts by taking into account socio-technical systems theory. The model contributes to interactivity, an open system, a visualization tool, and a decentralized environment of online communication circumstance.