BLOGS IN ELT

Muhammad Farkhan Fauzi

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Actually we have already been forced by our lecturer, Mr Dwi Sulisworo in this Instructional Technology Lecture to use blog as our media to share our understanding about IT. I’ll try to discuss blog as media to teach English.

Blogs & blogging

An Internet-based weblog, also known as a blog, is essentially a homepage managed by a writer. McIntosh (2005) expands this definition in the following way:  Historically, a weblog, or ‘blog’ for short, is recognised by its regularly updated, time and date stamped posts, running down the computer screen in chronologically reverse order  (i.e. the most recent post comes first). Crucially, there is an ‘Add Comment’ feature so that readers of posts can leave their opinions, questions or thoughts. Finally, there is a writing style element: blogs are written by one individual who gives his or her  thoughts in a generally relaxed, ‘spoken’ style (p. 2).

According to Williams & Jacobs (2004), “...’Blogs’ have evolved along similar lines to other forms of human communication in that they are a product of convenience rather than design” (p. 232). Lamshed, Berry, & Armstrong (2002) connect blogging with journal writing, stating that “like a journal, a blog can be a continually updated resource that grows over time with the accumulation of writing and other content. This archived information is accessed using a simple calendar that highlights the dates on which entries were made” (p. 9). These and various other researchers (Hiler, 2003; Thorne & Payne, 2005) have also recognized blogging as “a set of... phenomena” that has, since its inception as a manner of producing anything from online diaries to academic and reflective journals, emerged to have the capacity to “engage people in collaborative activity, knowledge sharing, reflection and debate” (Williams & Jacobs, 2004, p. 232). 

The key elements of blogging

The cycle of blogging activities that was implemented included students setting up blogs, collaborating with blogging buddies (some within an appointed group of classmates called “blogging groups,” but others not), making blog posts, then reading classmates’ post and commenting. The ease with which a student or any other blogger can set up a blog has been discussed in the section above. This section addresses blog posts, peer reviews and peer comments on blogs posts, blogging groups, and the blogging buddy method. It also includes a summary of the common aspects of blogging that were covered in our various sources.

Blog posts

At one time a recurring criticism of the use of blogs in education was that blogging students only write “trivia” (Downs, 2004). A major tenet of this discussion is that, with well-structured activities and requirements directed by a classroom teacher, blogging activities and the associated technology provide the ideal forum not just for informal writing but also writing for academic purposes.

Peer reviews

The teacher has been the traditional source of power in the second language classroom, particularly for the writing classroom. A student’s paper is often corrected, commented on, and graded only by the teacher. Peer review activities diffuse some of that power, giving students a sense of responsibility and accomplishment both as readers and writers. Cho, Christian, & Charney (2006) note that, “Peer feedback appears to bring about a higher perception of meaning-change revision while most teacher influenced revisions happen at the surface level” (p. 270). Yang, Badger, & Yu (2006) found similarly that while peer feedback, as a supplement to teacher input, may have less influence on improved student writing, it seems to both impact development of writing skills and to increase learner autonomy.

Peer comments on blog posts

Blogging most significantly augments traditional paper-based activities when it provides students with the opportunity to participate in a meaningful, largely autonomous forum where they can exchange ideas, while practicing previously learned skills and developing new ones. For this reason, a strong follow-up activity to having students post writing on their blogs is to have their classmates read those posts and respond with comments, whether informal feedback or assessments based on pre-determined criteria.

In addition to posting a writing assignment on his/her blog, each student is required to read and respond to a set number of classmates’ posts. As this peer commentator reads those posts and responds with his/her own viewpoints, sometimes in accordance with a classmate, and sometimes not, a number of written dialogues are initiated. This step underlies the notion of the blogging activity as a student-centered process, one in which “active learning, student engagement, and student responsibility” are central (Darabi, 2006, p. 53).

Blogging groups

Teachers with experience having students create blogs and make posts often state that it is difficult to insure that members of a class regularly and universally receive comments on their posts. From our experience it seems that if students are not provided enough guidance, they will gravitate and respond to the posts made by their friends. Under these conditions, a popular student might receive comments from more than half of his/her classmates, while a quieter student close to none.   

The blogging buddy method

Student writers developing skills in a non-native language need to be encouraged to write in that language as often as possible. Writing assignments for such developing writers tend to fall into one of two types: guided, teacher-directed, and accuracy-based work, such as structured paragraphs, strip stories, summaries, multi-draft essays and the like, or self-directed, fluency-based tasks, such as those often found in free writing and journals. Fluency writing is generally assigned as paper-based free writing or as journal-centered tasks. In those cases, the teacher generally does not have the time to comment extensively on every student’s paper. In addition, writing for an audience of one person (the teacher) may cause students to feel unmotivated over time. The challenge to teachers who utilize blogs for instructional purposes, especially when they are creating assignments aimed at providing students with opportunities similar to fluency writing tasks, is how to increase production without compromising quality. Felix has observed that, “Blogging opens up the possibility of regular peer assessment and breaks down the barriers of the four-walled classroom,  helping achieve the aims of the 3rd millennial classroom: collaboration, inclusiveness, flexibility and bringing more relevance to learners” (cited in McIntosh, p. 6).

One way to address the issue of blog writing quality is with the blogging buddy system. The term “blogging buddy” refers to a student writer’s editing partner, the person who checks and comments on his/her blog post before it is posted. The blogging buddy is the initial peer reviewer, the first or final-draft reader, the one who acts as both the writer’s good conscience (useful for motivational purposes) and as his/her proofreader (in that way, also a surrogate teacher).

Regarding the blogging buddy’s role, there is no limit on how much or how little editing input or other commentary he/she provides for his/her partner (although this dictum can be adjusted according to class circumstances) as long as there is a concerted effort at review and response. In this way, the blogging buddy system is simple: It requires each student to present a piece of writing to his/her blogging buddy before it is posted.

 

References :

Cho, K., Christian, S., & Charney, D. (2006). Commenting on writing: Typology and perceived helpfulness of comments from novice peer reviewers and subject matter experts. Writing Communication, 23(3), 260-294.

Darabi, R. (2006). Basic writing and learning communities. Journal of Basic Writing, 25(1), 53-72.

Downs, S. (2004). Educational blogging. Educause Review, 39(5), 14-26. Retrieved on November 03, 2016, from http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1.

Hiler, J. (2002). Blogs as disruptive tech: How weblogs are flying under the radar of the content management giants. Webcrimson.com. Retrieved on November 02, 2016, from http://www.webcrimson.com/ourstories/blogsdisruptivetech.htm

Lamshed, R., Berry, M., & Armstrong, L. (2002). Blogs: Personal e-learning spaces. Binary Blue. Retrieved on November  01, 2016, from http://www.binaryblue.com.au/docs/blogs.pdf   

McIntosh, E. (2005). From learning logs to learning blogs. Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research. Retrieved on September 29, 2007, from http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/SLR/Current%20Issue/SLR13%20McIntosh.pdf   

Williams, J., & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. Retrieved on November 02, 2016, from http://www.jeremywilliams.net/AJETpaper.pdf

Yang, M., Badger, R. & Yu, Z. (2006). A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback in a Chinese EFL writing class. Journal of Second Language Writing, 15(3), 179-200.