Web Collaborator

I've just been introduced (by Bee) to Web Collaborator, which omtegrates a blogging tool. It looks like a really exciting and useful tool,and I'm looking forward to trying it out. Here's what they say about the blog bit:

"Discussion Through Blogging
The discussion section of any collaboration is done in a blog. Descending from the words 'web log', a blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. Postings on a blog are arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions at the top.
A blog is a perfect arena for discussions where you can attribute who is saying what and when they said it. This allows a group of people to focus on certain parts of a collaboration. For example, if I noticed that a paper we were working on needed more citations, I might say so in the blog. It is the first page people see when they come into a project, so any news of interest that might be inappropriate inside the project should go there. "

Basic Blog Post Formats

Contentious Link-Only (Basic Blog Post Formats, Part 1): "This is part 1 of a 7-part series that describes the main types of blog posting formats." and more "News and musings on how we communicate in the online age"
By AMY GAHRAN.

EFL Blogging article

Aaron Patric Campbell writes: "I recently wrote a short piece for the Internet TESL journal describing how I added an experiential element to my EFL reading/writing classes last spring through the use of Livejournal. Students wrote weekly and were able to interact with the peers from abroad in the target language. It was educational and fun for everyone involved. The paper is entitled, Using Livejournal for Authentic Communication in EFL Classes."

I've been following some links on docendodiscimus, a weblog run by Peter Williams with content of interest to EFL teachers.

One link led to an interview at Weblogs in Education with Will Richardson, whose weblog Weblogg-ed.com is a great source of information for educators who want to use weblogs.

In the interview, Will says that "From a teaching standpoint," weblogs are perhaps best used as "online classroom portals, discussion sites, filing cabinets for handouts and syllabi, collaboration spaces and personal portfolios." He also thinks "the easiest place to start is to use the Weblog as a homepage for a class to post homework assignments, links, discussion questions."

Gmail blog

Thanks to Stephen Downes for this:

It seems that someone has turned his gmail account
into blog
authoring software.

There followed a discussion on Slashdot that caused such a commotion that the gmail blog was turned off, but the author plans to reinstate it once the fuss has died down.

There's a lot of interest related to Google's gmail accounts because of the space they provide for free (1GB), the organisational aspects, search facilities, and akso the anti-spam element. I have been trying out gmail and I am very impressed with it. Unfortunately, it's in a beta (testing) phase and is open to new members by invitation only. However, I have lots of invitations, so if anyone wants one, just leave a comment on this post and I'll send you an invite.

Eastgate Tinderbox: the tool for notes

Eastgate Tinderbox: the tool for notes may be an interesting option for Mac users looking for a sophisticated weblogging tool (and more. Here's what they say about it: "Tinderbox is a personal content management assistant. It stores your notes, ideas, and plans. It can help you organize and understand them. And Tinderbox helps you share ideas through Web journals and web logs." It's not free, however.

:: t e k t o n i c a :: mo;Blog

:: t e k t o n i c a ::: "mo:Blog is a mobile blogging tool for PalmOS devices. With mo:Blog you can post new messages to most blogging applications. It even allows you to upload binary files - like images - to blogs that support this. "

Articles about blogging: different perspectives

The nymber of articles on blogging in education increases every day. Here are two more I came acros: Exploring the use of blogs in the higher education sector is an article from the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, and When Blogging Goes Bad: A Cautionary Tale About Blogs, Emailing Lists, Discussion, and Interaction is an essay showing a different point of view. There's a discussion of this essay at Kairosnews, "a weblog for discussing rhetoric, technology and pedagogy."

Furl - The Aaron Campbell Personal Webpublishing Research Archive

Furl - The Aaron Campbell Personal Webpublishing Research Archive is a good place to start looking for articles about blogging.

Dear Ai - Good advice for ESL Students

Dear Ai - Good advice for ESL Students seems to be a first - a weblog "agony aunt". Students are encouraged to write to Ai, and she answers their questions and gives advice about their problems about studying English in Vancouver.

TESL-EJ On the Internet: Diaries as introspective research tools

TESL-EJ On the Internet: Diaries as introspective research tools: "This article reports on a study of the usefulness of a diary as a research tool conducted as a part of a Masters degree program in TEFL/TESL at Birmingham University, UK. The study analysed the efficacy of using blogs as a research tool compared to diaries, using the example of research in teacher use of motivation strategies, and found that blogs offer various possible advantages in the domain of action research."

what's the word, wiseguy?

what's the word, wiseguy? is a blog by John Kuti "about the cultural and linguistic gap between English and Russian, life in Saint Petersburg, teaching and learning languages."

I got this link from John's blog: The history of CALL. I tried searching for 'weblog', but the search returned errors. I looked via the index but it seems there's nothing on weblogs yet. After all, it's a site about the past, I suppose, not the present.

Question Pro

http://www.questionpro.com/ isn't a blogging tool, but it may be of interest. It's "An Integrated online service for Building Surveys, Collecting Data, and Viewing Results in real time. Free for Academic and Research Organizations." Has anyone had experience of using this?

Pitfalls of introducing blogs in a university context

Stephen Downes has an article about a fictional history professor's attempts to introduce blogging:

"The department chair murmurs, that's very interesting, but we haveour hands full with online courses. You need to start teaching and stop wasting time with these toys."

Read on...

Blogging tips

Once again, thanks to Jason for this link: Everything you wanted to know about blogging but were afraid to ask at Simon World. Simon's article is, as he says, not the first to deal with this subject, but it is well written, and he has some very good advice. I personally like the "Never get your brother to guest blog for you" bit. Intriguing, Simon. what happened?

Knock, knock!

Knock knock, who's there? is "A blog for all students, colleagues and anyone else who's interested in discussing the intricacies of the English language", run by a colleague of Jason's (see previous post). The site has started posting texts written by students.

New Class Blog

http://y5r.motime.com/ is a new class blog created by Jason Reagin, a teacher in China. This is what he says about the new blogging experiment:

"I have set up another 'motime' blog for my class. It is called Y5R (the name of my homeroom class). One of my main concerns all along has been that in order for my students to have their 'own' blog they would have to sign-up with a free service... If you have any suggestions about how I can solve this problem with the students not have an e-mail account please pass them along!"

Can anyone offer help to Jason?

You can find this entry and others at http://wjreagin.motime.com/ - it seems as if Blogger is blocked in China, and so he has set up a weblog with another provider.

elise.com: On the Job: An Overview of the Weblog Tools Market

The piece elise.com: On the Job: An Overview of the Weblog Tools Market by Elise Bauer gives a nice summary of the current situation with weblog tools. Of course, Blogger is the leader, with Livejournal following closely behind. More hosted services are mentioned in the article, as are weblog tools such as Wordpress, Drupal and Greymatter, which require installation on a local server, and so are normally more popular with more technically-minded bloggers.

The article goes on to show perceived market share, and which tools attract which type of person.

Je blogue, et vous, vous bloguez? is a presentation that Barbara Dieu gave at Cyberlangues Colloquium in Sao Paolo last Wednesday August 25th. It's a very good introductory presentation (in French) to blogging, and in addition, includes the following links to innovative blogs that can be adapted for language learning:

Buzznet is a sit for photo-blogging. You can see an example of a teacher using it here: Vance Stevens' photoblog

Moblogging is a form ofg blogging by mobile. Again, an example can be seen here:

Audio blogging. Barbara has some examples on her weblog Bee2online

There are other example blogs given on Barabara's presentation, so be sure to check it out.