Getting better with blogging

Emily SaavedraUnitec New Zealand

CALL Conference, Beijing, ChinaJune 2006

In this session I will …

• … look at what a blog is.

• … give you a bit of background to our research.

• … discuss how our students feel about blogs and how they use them.

• … expound the benefits of blogging.

• Picture / example of blog …..

A blog is… online journal/diary

‘need to write’

critical reflection

‘platforms of intelligent reaction to current events’ Duber (2002)

VOICE

links

experience

thoughts feelings

English teacher

• autonomy

• authentic interaction

• reflection

• writing

How do we, as teachers, view blogs?

easy in to a website

motivating

authentic

autonomous tool

interesting

innovative

time consuming

“lack of control”

technologically challenging

access

extra work

Questions• How do blogs support students in their language

learning? • How do students view blogs?• How do students use blogs?

How do students demonstrate an awareness of audience when blogging?

Literature about Blogs

Barrios, B. (2003). The year of the Weblog, from http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/barrios/blogs/

Campbell, A. P. (2003). Weblogs for use with ESL classes. The Internet TESL Journal, IX(2).

d'Eca, T. A. (2005). Have Fun with English: A blog or a plog? Paper presented at the APPI Conference, Lisbon.

Dieu, B. Blogs for language learning. Essential Teacher.

Duber, J. (2002). Mad Blogs and English. TESL-EJ, 6(2).

Farmer, J. (2003). Incorporated Subversion, from http://www.xplanazine.com/archives/2003/10/incorporated_su_5.php#emailentry

Get your blog on(line). (2005, Jan 8). NZ Listener, 22.

Johnson, A. (2004). Creating a writing course utilizing class and student blogs. The Internet TESL Journal, X(8).

Kennedy, K. (2003). Writing with Weblogs. Technology and Learning.

Richardson, W. (2004). Blogging and RSS — The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators. Multimedia & Internet @ Schools, 11(1).

Stanley, G. (2005). Blogging for ELT, from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/blogging.shtml

Suzuki, R. (2004). Diaries as introspective research tools: From Ashton-Warner to Blogs. TESL-EJ, 8(1).

Vallance, M. (2004). Blogging. Modern English Teacher, 13(2).

Ward, J. (2004). Blog Assisted Language Learning (BALL): Push button publishing for the pupils. TEFL Web Journal, 3(1).

Wrede, O. (2003). Weblogs as a transformational technology for higher education and academic research. Paper presented at the Blogtalk Conference Paper, Vienna.

new

not much research

descriptiveHow to…

What I did…

Tips

mainstream

Meet the bloggers …

Previous experience with blogs

n = 113

Before this term I knew what a blog was

Yes 60 53%

No 53 47%

I have written a blog before in my first language

Yes 38 34%

No 75 66%

I have written a blog before in English

Yes 23 20%

No 90 80%

“Self-publishing encourages ownership and responsibility on the part of students, who may be more thoughtful … if they know they are writing for a real audience.”

Godwin-Jones, 2003, p14

Audience

• Sense of community …

Considerably easy for people who borrows my blogger to

know about me.

Sometimes we can’t understand what we speak, so we need to read blogs to know each other.

Audience

• Share experiences …

The good thing about my blog is to give smile to my friends

because there are some stories about me.

… that other students can share my idea and give me some

advices.

Audience• Need for communication and ongoing

dialogue …

We can converse with other people without actually meeting.

Hello, glad to meet you.

What’s up?

In future I can show my son or my grandchildren my experience

this is my first time express myself in

English

I would use my blog more ifI want to say something

and hope more and more people to know my feeling.

Online personae

• CONTEXT– The experimenter– The online extrovert– The returnee

• LANGUAGE– The bilinguist– The language student– The deserter– The diarist

• LEARNING– The reflector– The poet– The shy student– The minimalist

LEARNING– The reflector– The poet– The shy student– The minimalist

LANGUAGE– The bilinguist– The language student– The deserter– The diarist

CONTEXT– The experimenter– The online extrovert– The returnee

Preliminary findings

Our students’ reactions in general (from questionnaire and focus group interviews)

1. Little previous experience.

2. Students liked it.

3. Believed blogging improved their English.

4. Teacher directed.

5. Time an issue.

Further findings

• Students are conscious of an audience

• Students embrace blogs as a tool to communicate with peers

• Students welcome the opportunity to express themselves

• As teachers, we need to initiate and support students in this environment.

Blog of my experience with

blogs

http://takingcontroloflearning.blogspot.com/

http://bloglines.com/