- What is a blog?
A blog (short for weblog) is frequently
updated website that often resembles online journal. It’s easy to create and
update a blog it requires only basic access to the internet, and a minimum of
technical know-how. Because on this, it is one of easiest ways to publish
student writing on the WWW. It’s almost as easy as sending an email.
Nowadays, blogs can also display photos
and some people are using them with audio and even video, but this article will
concentrate on the basic, showing how a simple text-based blog can be used to
great effect with your English language learners.
- Types of blogs
used in language teaching
Aaron Campbell (2003) has outlined three types of blogs for use with language classes:
a.
The
Tutor Blog is run by the teacher of a class. The content of
this type of blog can be limited to syllabus, course information, homework,
assignments, etc. or the teacher way may choose to write about his or her life,
sharing reflections about the local culture, target culture and language to
stimulate online and in-class discussion. In this type of blog, students are
normally restricted to being able to write comments to the teacher’s post.
b.
The
Class Blog is a shared space, with teacher and students being
able to write to the main area. It is best used as a collaborative discussion
space, an extra-curricular extension of the classroom. Students can be
encouraged to reflect in more depth, in writing, on themes touched upon in
class. Students are given a greater sense of freedom and involvement than with
the tutor blog. A very good example of what has been done with this type of
blog is Barbara Bieu’s ‘Bee Online’ http://beeonline.blogspot.com/ and ‘Bee Online 2’ http://beeonline2.blogspot.com/
c.
The
Learner Blog is the third type of blog and it
requires more time and effort the teacher to both set up and moderate, but is
probably the most rewarding. It involves giving each student an individual
blog. The benefit of this is that this becomes the student’s own personal
online space. Students can be encouraged to write frequently about what
interest them, and can post comments on the other student’s blog. For examples,
see the links to learner blogs from the class blog and tutor blog example
above.
Of course, teacher who decide to use
blogs often use a combination of Tutor or Class blog and Learners blogs, with
hyperlinks connecting them.
- Why blog?
So, why should you blog with your
students? There are many reasons you may choose to use weblogs with students.
One of the best reasons is to provide a real audience for students writing.
Usually, the teacher is only person who reads student writing, and the focus of
this reading is usually on form, not content. With weblogs, students can find
themselves writing for a real audience that, apart from the teacher, may
include their peers, students from other classes, or even other countries,
their parents, and potentially anyone with access to the internet.
Here
are some other reasons for using blogs:
a. To
provide extra reading practice for students.
This
reading can be produced by the teacher, other students in the same class, or in
the case of comments posted to a blog, by people from all over the world.
b. As
online student learner journals that can be read by their peers.
The value of using learner journals
has been well documented. Usually they are private channels between teacher and
student. Using a blog as a learner journal can increase the audience.
c. To guide students to online
resources appropriate for their level.
The Internet has a bewildering array
of resources that are potentially useful for your students. The problem is
finding and directing your learners to them. For this reason, you can use your
tutor blog as a portal for your learners
d.
To increase the sense of community in a class
.A class blog can help foster a
feeling of community between the members of a class, especially if learners are
sharing information about themselves and their interests, and are responding to
what other students are writing.
e. To encourage shy students to
participate.
There is evidence to suggest that students who are quiet in
class can find their voice when given the opportunity to express themselves in
a blog.
f.
To stimulate out-of-class discussion
.A blog can be an ideal space for
pre-class or post-class discussion. And what students write about in the blog
can also be used to promote discussion in class.
- To encourage a process-writing approach
Because students are writing for publication, they are
usually more concerned about getting things right, and usually understand the
value of rewriting more than if the only audience for their written work is the
teacher.
- As an online portfolio of student written work
There is much to be gained from students keeping a portfolio
of their work. One example is the ease at which learners can return to previous
written work and evaluate the progress they have made during a course.
- To help build a closer relationship between students in large classes
Sometimes students in large classes can spend all year
studying with the same people without getting to know them well. A blog is
another tool that can help bring students together.
- Where to start the blog?
There are a lot of sites where you
can set up a blog for free, but perhaps the best known and one of the most
reliable and simple blogging tools to use with students Blogger (http://blogger.com) .it takes only fifteen
minutes from setting up an account to publishing the first post using this
valuable tool.
The teacher set up the tutor blog or
a class blog. With a Class blog, students will need to be invited to
participate by- e-mail. Learner blog accounts can either be set up beforehand
by the teacher, or done at the same time with a whole class in a computer room.
The former gives the teacher more control of student’s accounts, but some
advantages of the latter is that learners are given more choice (of username,
design of the blog, etc) and a greater sense of ‘ownership’ of their new
virtual writing space.
- Tips for managing learners blog settings
a)
Use
the ‘Settings’
in Blogger to add yourself (under members) as Administrator of the learner
blog. This is invaluable if students later forget usernames of passwords, and
can also help if inappropriate posts are published.
b)
Make
sure you change the setting and turn the ‘Comments’ feature on. This will
allow the others to respond to things the students write on their learner
blogs.
c)
Also
in ‘Settings’, you will find an option to receive an email whenever a student
publishes their blog. This will save you time regularly checking learner blogs
to see if any of your students have posted. Another way of being informed of
this is to use the ‘Site Feed’ function (discussed further below).
- Keeping students interested
Many teachers who start to use blog
find the novelty factor is enough to create student interest in starting to use
them. However, blogs work best when learners get into the habit of using them.
If learners are not encouraged to post to their blog frequently, they can
quickly be abandoned. A failed experiment here, the teacher in the role of
facilitator is vital for maintaining students’ interest. Here are some ideas to
how this can be done:
a)
Respond
to students post quickly, writing a short comment related to the content. Ask
question about what learner writes to create stimulus for writing.
b)
Students
should be actively encouraged to read and respond (through the commenting
feature of the blog) to their classmates.
c)
Writing
to the blog could be required, and it may form part of the class assessment.
Students should be encouraged to post their writing homework on the blog istead
of only giving it to the teacher.
