Do you currently read any blogs? Why or why not? *
Yes, I currently use blogs in my teaching for several reasons.
The main reason I use blogs is as a way for my international students to have a forum for creating a social network of classmates by having them each create their own online persona on a blog with links to all other classmates in the class. This helps them get adjusted to the new culture by establishing friendships more quickly, by allowing these second language learners time to reflect on and self-edit their language when posting, and by establishing a portal to share information about their own culture thereby establishing an online identity in the new culture.
A secondary reason for using blogs is that they serve as an on-line portal for students to check what their homework is and to compare their own submissions against answer keys posted to the instructor blog.
A third reason for having blogs in my classes is that it gives students extra motivation as they have authentic audiences and contexts for completing their writing assignments – current classmates and various world-wide visitors such as family and friends back home.
How does it feel to have your own blog?
Satisfying. It is fun.
Are there any issues? *
Not so far.
How could you use a blog as a learning activity with your students? Be as specific as possible.
I use blogs in my ESL writing classes. I have a semester-long project called the blog-on-test. In this contest, students add writing, music, videos and various links to sites containing information about their own interests to share with other classmates. This encourages visitations from one another and technology sharing as they see something “cool” on their friends’ blog and then ask that person how to set it up on their own site. Furthermore, it creates an authentic audience for the writing assignments assigned as classwork as other students visit and read their friends’ submissions.
At the end of the semester, we have a contest whereby each student gets to present their blog from the front of the multimedia classroom. It is set up like a knock-out tournament where students vote for their favourite blogs. Each winner goes to the next round and receives bonus points with the grand champion receiving a total of 3% bonus for their final course grade. This really encourages students to work hard on creating a great ‘space’ where visitors can come and view their compositions and share other cultural information.
