Blogs in the language class, blogs for teachers, blogs for students, what is a blog, edublogs

1. E-LEARNING,
E-TEACHING
BY DR. ROSER NOGUERA MAS
UNECA, ADDIS ABABA (SEPTEMBER, 2015)

2. USING BLOGS FOR
LANGUAGE TEACHING

3. WHAT IS A BLOG?
• A blog is a type of website. A blog is short for weblog, which is a simple
online diary that allows you to publish, date and list your periodic
thoughts, opinions and musings on a particular topic or idea, generally
in reverse chronological order (i.e. whatever you publish last appears
first)
• Blogs enable users to post regular entries (or blog posts) and these
can include news, comments, descriptions of events, photos or videos.
• There are many free blog services, and blogs are very easy to use and
have a clean, professional look that makes them very attractive to use.
• To blog is also a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
• A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web
pages, and other media related to its topic.
• Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even
message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity
that distinguishes them from other static websites, and makes them
particularly attractive in teaching and learning.

4. You can use blogs:
• As a source of reading
material for your
classes,
• To create a class blog
for your students,
• Or blog yourself!

5. BLOGS
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5acLmS3RQ

6. • Most blogs are mainly
text-based, although
some focus on art (art
blog), photographs
(photoblog), videos
(vlog), music (MP3
blog), and audio
(podcast).
• Edublogs are blogs with
an educational goal: to
help in the process of
teaching-learning
within an educational
context.

7. Glossary of Blogging Terms
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Vu3UIxnokw/Uum9nuy35ZI/AAAAAAAAkCQ/-
zokuQzv3lk/s1600/1.png

8. BLOG SEARCH ENGINES
To find relevant blogs,
you can use a blog
search engine. The best
ones are:
• Technorati,
• BlogScope,
• Google Blog Search.
You can search for
blogs or blog postings
about specific topics

9. Task 1
• To find 5 blogs about
tourism in Ethiopia in
the language you
teach and share them
in Edmodo.
• To make a comment in
a blog, take a picture
and share it in
Edmodo.
http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-
get2/I0000gNCUez5Ik8M/fit=1000x7
50/LFR669.jpg

10. Why would I want to use blogs and
blogging in my teaching?
A blog provides “a genuine audience, is authentically
communicative, process driven, peer reviewed, provides a
disinhibiting context and offers a completely new form with
unchartered creative potential” (Ward, 2004: 3)

11. Because…
1. The regular practice of
reading and writing is
very useful in learning a
language, particularly in
distance learning,
independent study and
blended teaching
contexts.
2. Blogs are a useful tool to
use in your teaching,
both a source of
reading material and
as a way to structure
writing activities and
peer reviewing.

12. 1. For reading
Blogs are an excellent
source of up to date
reading material:
encourage your
students to find a blog
they really enjoy and
subscribe to it. This
should be motivating,
and provide a real
reason for reading!

13. 2. To disseminate student generated
content
A blog can be a window
into your classroom. You
can encourage your
students to post their
work there (especially if
you use the blog for a
particular project):
students often get an
immense sense of
satisfaction from having
their work “published”,
and blogging is indeed a
form of publishing.
http://normasapa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/blog.jpg

14. 3. For sustained, regular writing
Blogging regularly has been
shown to have a positive
impact on learners’ writing
fluency and to increase their
motivation to write for a
broad audience. You might
want to encourage your
students to keep a blog that
they post to regularly (like a
diary or journal), or set up a
class blog and encourage
students to take turns to
write blog postings.

15. 4. For discussion and peer review
Blogs offer students an
opportunity to interact with
peers and to learn from each
other. Because they enable
readers to post comments to
blog postings, they offer a
forum for discussion. For
instance you could encourage
students to post about culture,
politics, travel, or other areas
of personal interest, and ask
other students to comment on
posts they find interesting.
Feedback from your peers on
your blog posts can be
enormously motivating.

16. 5. To increase opportunities for interaction
outside the classroom
Students can comment
on each others’ blog
posts outside the
classroom. This
contributes to creating a
sense of community,
and takes learning and
peer interaction outside
the confines of the
classroom.
http://u20science.org/files/201
2/11/Blog-2.jpg

17. 6. For reflection and evaluation
Blogs are often used as
a tool for reflection.
For instance, students
can have a personal
blog that they use as a
journal of their learning
experience.
https://encrypted-
tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQI9h
YHbpVWiTMrOob4woFyxhD-
Peshjk3SwMFr33MlXkudlbCe

18. 7. As a portfolio
Because they can include
photos and videos, and links
to other sites, as well as
“regular” text postings, blogs
are an easy way to get
students to produce a
multimedia portfolio,
documenting their work
during a course or a work
placement, for instance. You
as teacher can comment if
appropriate and, like any
other portfolio, it can be
submitted as part of the
assessment.
http://conchaabadgurria.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/Importanci
aBlogMerodio.2_NEWS_Jueves04s
eptiembre.jpg

19. http://netpros.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/wordpress-blogger.jpg

20. http://www.tilomotion.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Licencias-de-Derechos-de-Au.png

21. Code of conduct (Tim O'Reilly)
• 1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for
the comments you allow on your blog.
• 2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.
• 3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.
• 4. Ignore the trolls
• 5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find
an intermediary who can do so.
• 6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them
so.
• 7. Don't say anything online that you wouldn't say in
person.

22. Working with images
• Select an image:
https://eatropia.wordpress.com/page/2/#jp-carousel-1794
• Brainstorm for words you associate with it.
• Write without stopping and in full sentences whatever
comes into their mind. It can be a description, a dialogue,
a few verses, the beginning of a story, a dream…
• Make a suggestion about how to improve it (correct a
mistake, use a different word, etc.)
• Polish the piece of writing and publish it in the class blog.
• Comment the photo.

23. Language activities
• Passive activities: Students are the audience. Activities
like reading documents, listening songs, maps, etc.
• Active activities: Students are producers of contents, for
example texts like a digital postcard, a post, a wiki, etc.
• Interactive activities: Students are producers and
receptors, they participate in an authentic bidirectional
process of communication, for example an email or a
videoconference.
Montserrat CASANOVAS CATALÁ

24. From the paper book to the digital
BASIC TASK TASK 2.0
1. To elaborate a questionnaire to know your
classmates
To create a personal blog and introduce yourself
2. To decide what you want to do during the
course according to your interests and
learning goals
To log in a social network for language learning
and find a person to do a linguistic interchange.
To write in your blog about an ICT interesting
source
3. To plan a weekend in a Spanish city To create an audio-guide of any city around the
world and publish it on your blog
4. To create a campaign to prevent traffic
accidents or health problems
To elaborate a presentation of the campaign
and publish it on your blog
5. To write a poem following Ramón Gómez
de la Serna’s greguerías model
To elaborate and share a multimedia
presentation on Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s
greguerías
6. To investigate a criminal case and write an
story
Collaborative or podcast recording for your blog
7. To create a business company and design
a TV spot
To record a video and link it on your blog
8. To elaborate and debate a program about
a better future for our society
To write a comment in a podcast and a review
about the podcast

25. Blog design
Most blogging services have
templates that enable you to
select a design, and then
customise it by changing the
colors, font and layout. This
enables users to create
attractive looking blogs
very easily. Page elements
(posts, archives, etc.) can
be dragged and dropped
into different parts of the
page to suit your
preferences.

26. Access Controls
This is probably the most important feature to think about when
you start a blog: it lets you decide who can write on your blog
(for example, you can set up the blog and then invite all your
class to be writers, so it becomes a communication tool for your
class) and who can read it (you might want to restrict this just to
your class, or open the blog up so that it can be read by
anyone). You might decide that rather than have a single blog for
your class, students will set up their own individual blogs which
they can keep private (for reflection, or to use as a portfolio), or
share with others (everyone, or selected individuals, such as
their class members and you as their teacher). Examples of Blog
Reader settings: a) Only people you choose can read the blog b)
Only blog authors can read the blog:

27. Comments
You can allow anyone to give feedback on your posts,
or make the feedback visible only after you have
checked it out yourself. You can also delete any
comments you don’t like. This is particularly useful if you
have a class blog that is readable by anyone: you might
want to encourage external readers to leave comments on
your students’ work, as it can be very motivating, but at the
same time be able to exercise control over what comments
get published, to screen out spam or offensive comments,
for instance.

28. Photos
You can also easily add
photos to your blog,
which will make it even
more attractive. Photos
in blogs can also be a
great focus for language
teaching activities. http://plainjoephotoblog.com/wp-
content/themes/tofurious-
22/images/blog_lower_header.jpg

29. Languages
Many blog service
providers localize their
products, so they are
available in different
languages. Blogger is
available in more than
40 languages, so you
can easily change the
language of the
interface to suit your
context.
https://encrypted-
tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSK-
eiR8UQUD2uSgq1gPfYUEAwRUs9TD2Y3EqcUTIyyr_
lSMK8

30. Autoevaluation
• I can describe blogs and blogging to others briefly.
• I can give three reasons for using blogs or blogging in
language teaching.
• I can describe and use basic features of blogs.
• I understand the pedagogical benefits of using blogs and
blogging in my teaching.
• I understand practical considerations around setting up a
blog.

31. Conclusion
1. Blogs are helpful for E-learning.
2. Informal channel of communication between teachers and
students.
3. To promote social interaction (socializing in and out the class,
sharing common interests).
4. Blog is a personal media to reflect about the way we learn
and teach (e-portfolio).
5. Digital identity
6. Students have their voice
7. Visibility to your work
8. To offer materials related to class contents
9. To build a learning community (space to debate (feedbacks),
think, comment, to write about common interest news).
10. Real audience (teachers and students read what others
write)

32. Task 2
To classify:
• Blogs from the students point of view
• Blogs from the teachers point of view
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrN6PAPdA4_KCMbMqEWq4Je2vSpHq-sHwHHBH94EmbauTMbDLI

33. Blogs on language teaching
• Blogs about news related to language teaching.
• Teacher blogs: reflections and experiences as teachers
• Blogs about meetings, workshops, conferences, etc.
(usually directed to colleagues).
http://globalum.es/images/Blog-bien-trabajado-engagement-asegurado.jpg

34. Language teaching blogs
• Teacher-students blog in a course
• Teacher blog in a course
• Students blog in a course (usually related to other
students’ blog and to the teacher’s blog).
• Student blog used as a portfolio or learning diary to reflect
about his/her improvement, cultural experiences, etc.

36. Who are they writing to?
http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/
TEFL Matters. Language teaching, teacher education &
new technologies.
http://www.inglesonline.com.br/
Tips for those who learn or teach English.
http://www.teachingvillage.org/
Blog made by a passionate teacher, which is especially
about teaching English to young learners
http://teacherrebootcamp.com/
Ideas & challenges for teaching ELLs
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/
Teaching EFL teachers how to teach speaking.

37. RSS
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=0klgLsSxGs
U
http://www.feedly.com/

38. Ideas for our blog
• Title?
• Gmail account?
• Porpoise/ Goals?
• Who are our potential readers?
• Who is in charge?
• Social networks (Twitter, Google+, Facebook)
• Who would like to participate and how often?
• Languages?
• Contents? (Drive document for ideas)

39. Bibliography
• “Using blogs for language teaching” (used in this
presentation)
http://ict-
rev.ecml.at/Portals/1/documents/Using_Blogs_for_languag
e_teaching.pdf
HUFFAKER, D.: «The educated blogger: Using Weblogs to
promote literacy in the classroom», Firstmonday, Vol. 9 (6),
junio 2004.
http://www.firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/115
6/1076