By:
Widya Rahmawati
(1507042033)
Using blogs as an in-class activity helped the
students and teacher overcome many of the challenges by improving student
engagement. It also gave them some valuable technical skills and lessons in
digital citizenship. The goal was not to create another assignment, but rather
turn them on to something really great with some real world applicability and
skills. It was amazing to see how many students jumped on right away and
completely immersed themselves in blogging. Though a handful of students chose
the paper and pencil option, the vast majority published their nightly writing
assignments via the blogs.
There are many reasons why the teacher may choose to
use weblogs with students. One of the best reasons is to provide a real
audience for student writing. Usually, the teacher is the 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.
What is blog?
Stanley (2006) notes that “blogs are a way of opening
up the classroom walls and showing the wider world what is happening... thus
creating a small language learning community.” McIntosh (2005: 2) 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.
According to Williams & Jacobs (2004: 232),
“...’Blogs’ have evolved along similar lines to other forms of human
communication in that they are a product of convenience rather than design”.
Blog is “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”
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
·
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.
When the students started blogging, their creativity
and productivity skyrocketed because they knew that their work had the
potential to be viewed quickly by an authentic audience that mattered to them.
In contrast to the usual slow route that student work takes, from the teacher's
inbox to the bulletin board, student folder, backpack, and then kitchen table,
these students could tell their peers, educators, and relatives to log in to
their blog and check their work the same day.
They could then go into the "back end" of
their blog and analyze the statistics page, where they could view demographic
information about their readers, including how many viewers they receive daily,
which of their articles have received the most page views, and what country
their readers live in.
References
McIntosh, E. (2005). From learning logs to learning
blogs. Scottish Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research.
From http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/SLR/ Current%20Issue/SLR13%20McIntosh.pdf
Stanley, G. (2006). Blog-EFL: Observations
and comments on the use of weblogs, emerging technologies & e-learning
tools for English language teaching, from http://blog-efl.blogspot.com/
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.
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