This article takes a look at blogging, which is becoming
increasingly popular as a language learning tool. It gives an overview
of blogging websites, suggests why you might want to use them, and gives
some practical advice on setting up blogs for use with your own
classes.
- Types of blogs used in language teaching
- Tips for managing learner blog settings
- Keeping students interested
- Some ideas for activities
- Pitfalls to watch out for
What is a blog? A blog (short for
weblog)
is a frequently updated website that often resembles an online journal.
It's so easy to create and update a blog - it requires only basic
access to the Internet, and a minimum of technical know-how. Because of
this, it is one of the 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 basics, 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:
- 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 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 posts. A great example of this is Aaron Campbell's own 'The New Tanuki' http://thenewtanuki.blogspot.com/
- 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 Dieu's 'Bee Online' http://beeonline.blogspot.com/) and 'Bee Online 2' http://beeonline2.blogspot.com/
- The Learner Blog
is the third type of blog and it requires more time and effort from 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
interests them, and can post comments on other students' blogs. For
examples, see the links to learner blogs from the class blog and tutor
blog examples above.
Of course, teachers who decide to
use blogs often use a combination of Tutor or Class blog and Learner
blogs, with hyperlinks connecting them.
Why blog?
So,
why should you blog with your students? There are many reasons why you
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.
Here are some other reasons for using blogs:
- 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.
Where to start
There
are lots 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 is 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 sets 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 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 learner blog settings
- Use the 'Settings' in
Blogger to add yourself (under Members) as Administrator of the learner
blog. This is invaluable if students later forget usernames or
passwords, and can also help if inappropriate posts are published
- 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.
- 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 blogs 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 blogs frequently, then they can quickly be
abandoned. A failed experiment. Here, the teacher in the role of
facilitator is vital for maintaining student interest. Here are some
ideas to how this can be done:
- Respond to student posts
quickly, writing a short comment related to the content. Ask questions
about what the learner writes to create stimulus for writing.
- Students should be actively encouraged to read and respond (through the commenting feature of the blog) to their classmates.
- 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 instead of only giving it to the teacher.
Some ideas for activities
- Mystery guest. Invite
another teacher or someone from another school or country as a mystery
guest to your blog. Ask the students to engage him or her in dialogue
and guess their identity.
- Project work.
A blog is an ideal space for developing a project, especially if the
project is a shared one between several classes or even classes in
different countries.
- International link-ups.
Contact another educational establishment to see if they are interested
in a joint blogging project. Students can write about their lives,
culture, interests, etc, and be encouraged to read about the other class
and respond by writing comments.
- Photoblog. If you plan on using photographs in your blog, there are lots of tools available to help you. Flickr (http://www.flickr.com)
makes publishing photographs to blogs easy. If you want to make
photographs central to the blog, however, it is better to use a blogging
tool such as Buzznet (http://www.buzznet.com), which is a photo publishing tool and blog rolled into one.
Pitfalls to watch out for
- Unwanted comments. To avoid unwanted comments, you can always restrict comments to people in the class or to registered bloggers.
- Correction.
It is difficult to use a blog for correcting students. Student written
work can always be corrected before posting to the blog, or you can do
class correction sessions using work published in the blogs.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/blogging-elt
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