Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Homepage
"Since 1999, PT3 grantees have worked to transform teacher education so that technology is integrated throughout teaching and learning."
Posts
::: XPLANA.COM ::: Exploring how we can learn and teach with technology
"Last week I did a quick survey of how the Internet and web publishing can completely change the way students write - the Internet gives students a real audience for their writing, it expands the content of their writing (images!), allowing them to link and be-linked-to, while promoting continual revision throughout the semester. Does Blackboard, a web-based course management system, take advantage of any of these features? It does not. "
cyberdash - cyberteacher cyberculture cyberlearner :
Taking the Portal Plunge :
" writing researcher Matt Barton has been integrating technology into his courses for a while, doing some great work with using both wikis and phpBB in his teaching. If I weren't so busy using weblogs, I'd be following in his footsteps investigating their pedagogical value, too :)"
Thoughts on Blogging by Will Richardson :
"To me, the process of blogging is, most of the time, an ongoing series of steps: 1. Find and read material that is relevant to your life. 2. Capture the essence of this relevant reading, give credit to its source, and synthesize those ideas into a piece of writing that advances a personal, perhaps greater understanding of that topic 3. Publish that writing for response and for perhaps pushing someone else's thinking on the subject. "
EduResources Weblog--Higher Education Resources Online :
"It seems to me that the multiplier effect that occurs in weblogging is at the center of what learning and scholarship are really about. Being able to share thoughts, share readings, share online resources, and then get the boost that comes from one person multiplying what is shared into a network of unpredictable connections and responses is just what every teacher wants students to learn about learning, i.e., that it's exciting to learn and exciting to share what is learned. "
Blogger Con: :
"Weblogs. The unedited voice of a person! Will easy and inexpensive publishing technology change the face of politics, business, journalism, the law, medicine, engineering and education? Is a revolution underway, or are weblogs just the latest Internet craze? ...Educators are using blogs to help students express themselves and learn from each other. "
WikiLog :
"What kind of person might like to run a Wiki Weblog instead of a straight WebLog?An individual who wants to write about ideas, relate them to each other, and refine them.
Someone who's been intrigued by the idea of Hyper Text might be interested.
I could see Vladimir Nabokov using a wiki instead of hundreds of index cards to develop a story. :)
Someone who's thought, 'This weblogging stuff looks interesting, but you're always just throwing away your notes as they slide out of view' might be interested."
Blog Vs Forum : "Of course there are, and will continue to be, vibrant and successful newsgroups and discussion forums. But I'm convinced that destination sites and centralized message stores are not the future of online community. Blogs are. They solve a bunch of problems. They also create a few new ones, but these feel like really good problems to tackle."
AP Campbell :
"If anyone is interested in reading the report I wrote on our blogging experiment last spring, here it is:
The Experience of Computer Supported Cooperative Learning Using Weblogs in the University Classroom: a phenomenological case study
Thanks again to those of you who took part in the course and allowed me to research your activities and make the results available to those who might benefit. Comments are welcome."
Another Cat Cult student response
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
b) OK (depending the other alternatives)
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy (still don´t know how to do some staff)
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
b) sometimes (often)
4) Did you write because
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
3) Event
4) General Impression
Cat-Cult blog - One more Student response:
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
4) Did you write because
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Event d) General Impression
Here you have my answeres. and I liked the assigment where you needed to talk to diffrent people. Because that is actually an exchange of culture. And I also liked that you put information about what happening in Barcelona on it.... ann in the beginning I was looking at the website every time I was on the internett, but then people stopped writing and it was not that interesting anymore.
Note: As this student says, a weblog that isn't updated regularly won't be read - it&#
Cat-cult Blog - Another student response:
1) Do you think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
b) OK
c) not interesting
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
a) easy
b) difficult at first, but easy later
c) difficult
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
a) always
b) sometimes
c) never
4) Did you write because
a) you wanted to?
b) you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
b) No
c) I don’t know
6) Which assignment(s) did you think were the most interesting?
a) Place
b) People's opinions
c) Event
d) General Impression
Comments: > To write about peoples opinions you got a lot of the same answers and if you compare your culture to the Catalan culture also. There are a lot of dutch people so in general the answers are equal. If you write about a place everybody mentions something else and that is interesting to read.
7) Please w
Cat-cult Blog - Student reply:
1) I think using the weblog on this course was...
a) a very good idea
2) How difficult was it to understand and use?
b) difficult at first, but easy later
3) Did you read what the others wrote?
b) sometimes
4) Did you write becauseyou wanted to?
or because you you had to (ie. Only for the assignments)?
c) a mixture
5) Would you recommend using a Blog next year?
a) Yes
6) Which assignment was most interesting?
1 ) Place: good to know what experiences people have had in different places, nice to recommend things to each other (or not...)
2) People's opinions: interesting for yourself, cause normally i wouldn´t ask this to someone, though it´s really interesting!
3) Event: like the first question: good to know what experiences people have had in different places, nice to recommend things to each other(or not...)
7) Any more comments?
I liked the catalan culture classes! Usefull information when you´re com
Catalan Culture Blog
I have been using a blog with a group of 28 ERASMUS students who take an introductory course in Catalan Culture to help them get the most out of their stay in Barcelona. It's now coming to an end, and I have asked them to report back to me, to tell me what they thought about using a blog as part of the course.
Apart from asking them to share thoughts and information with each other on the blog about anything they felt like, I also posted occasional information about what was happening in the city, using the blog as an online noticeboard, and to tell the students of links to websites that might be interesting for them. Although I didn't use this facility as much as I could have done, I think it was useful.
I also made the weblog the evaluation device. Rather than ask them to give me papers, I asked them to respond to four short assignments by publishing their answers on the weblog.
I have just asked them to respond to a short questionnaire, so
Thinking and Writing Wrinkles: : "This weblog project is a log of the learning journey combining a group of ESL students and their native-speaking classmates in an elementary school. Students will collaboratively develop their abilities as speakers, listeners, readers, writers and thinkers using weblogs to write about topics of interest to them."
O'Reilly Network: What We're Doing When We Blog [Jun. 13, 2002] :
"Blog posts are short, informal, sometimes controversial, and sometimes deeply personal, no matter what topic they approach. They can be characterized by their conversational tone and unlike a more formal essay or speech, a blog post is often an opening to a discussion, rather than a full-fledged argument already arrived at. "
"When the Web began, the page was the de facto unit of measurement, and content was formatted accordingly. ...as the Web has matured, we've developed our own native format for writing online, a format that moves beyond the page paradigm: The weblog, with its smaller, more concise, unit of measurement; and the post, which utilizes the medium to its best advantage by proffering frequent updates and richly hyperlinked text. "
"What distinguishes a collection of posts from a traditional home page or Web page? Primarily it's the reverse-chronological or
Online Learning Update
"Self-publishing tools are gradually finding their place in the Web mainstream...today these resources enjoy more attention than ever. This is in part due to the growing community of "bloggers": people who regularly post commentary to personal Web pages, usually targeting a particular readership. Blogging is making headlines as a powerful means of exposing socio-political issues (Shachtman, 2002; Reynolds, 2003) and as a mode of self-expression; in Iran, for example, blogging technology was viewed as capable of threatening national security and led to the arrest and imprisonment of a journalist (Delio, 2003). Other uses of blogging in online publishing have been described by Downes in articles (2000, 2003a) prior to his current Technology Source piece (2003b). In recent months, Penn State University's DEOS mailing list has been humming with observations about blogging's educational impact, and a new variant of the blog—known as a "
My comments: I've not been blogging much here lately because all of my classes have been starting up and that's taking up most of my time, although I have been blogging with them (surprise surprise), so I'll start posting the URL's and my comments up here before long.
One thing I will say, is that I have now got the introductory Blog class down to a fine art after doing it four times. It (obviously) takes more time with lower level learners, but a 90-minute class is ideal to get everything done. Here are some tips:
a) I take the class to a computer room and show them a couple of example blogs
b) I tell them that they're going to set up their own, individual (student) blogs and go to Blogger
c) They set up their blog and post and publish an introduction
d) Then I show them how to change the settings and ask them to invite me and one or two of their classmates to their blog.
e) If we have time, they accept the invitation and post to their classmates' b
My new class blog / student blogs
I have started using weblogs with one of my Audio Visual English groups (Class Blog http:realpro.blogspot.com ). this is a pre-intermediate group studying cinema/theatre/TV Production/Direction courses. There are 21 students in class and I took them to one of the computer classrooms last Friday.
The session was a success, much more so than the last attempts I have had trying to register students for a class blog. This time, I did the following:
1) I asked them to go to the class blog site and take a look at the links in the latest post. After they'd had a look at these two blogs (one class blog / one individual blog about films) I told them that they were going to set up their own weblog. There were some queries: i) What was the reason for doing so, and ii) what a blog actually was. My answers to them were i) to practise writing in English in a new, fun way and ii) a personal journal / diary. some of the students understood the concept th
New Class / Student Blogs - Audio-Visual English groups
I have decided to use weblogs with my audio visual English groups this year, especially as we have been encouraged to take them into the computer room for classes. I want to follow a similar system as Bee has with her students (see side-bar link) , but instead of a class blog, I think I'm going to run a tutor blog.
I am going to ask the learners to set up student blogs (which will also be part of their evaluation) and invite me to them That way, I can set up a dialogue with them.
I am thinking of encouraging student-student interaction through comments system like Blogspeak (the system running here) instead of having a class blog, but I haven't fully made my mind up yet...
With this system, I'm even thinking of abandoning the coursebook (at least with one of the groups), in the best Dogme fashion, especially as coursebooks are generally received very negatively by these groups. Perhaps using weblogs cou
Blog Start-Up Experience
I have finally started a class weblog with my Erasmus group ( Cat-Cult Blog )
I have had a few snags getting them all registered to Blogger , and I thought I'd record them here for reference.
I set up the blog some time ago, and at our first session, took a list of their e-mails. Of course, sometimes it was difficult to interpret their handwriting (why don't people write clearly when they print their e-mail address!) and not all of the students got my invitation.
Those who did had problems logging in and we had to have a 40 minute session together (even after this 7/30 of them are still not registerd) This is where we had problems:
1. Those who followed the link from a hotmail account were left in a Hotmail frame, and it proved impossible to register (they had to copy/paste the link into a new browser window)
2. Non of them had a Blogger account, so they should have clicked on the 'Create new account button' instead of si
Seblogging: Dynamic Webpublishing, CMS and Weblogs in Education : by Sebastian Fiedler :
"From my experience it does seem hard to reap the benefits of personal webpublishing within a short timeframe. It easily took me four months to integrate myself into the network - and I spent a lot of that time in the blogosphere, something a time-pressured student is unlikely to be able or willing do.
Most people who kept personal Webpublishing projects (Weblogs, Wikis, etc.) running for months and years can report how certain qualities and benefits only emerged over time. They remember how they were basically talking to themselves at the beginning, how they found a small circle of like -minded authors, how this circle grew through chance meetings and focused search, how their readership grew and got more diverse, and so on."
tellio II : :
"Teaching is a humbling profession. Sometimes it is a matter of laying material in a careful, efficient, linear pattern. Bricking a smooth path for them to tread. Then it seems a craft. Other times it's casting scratch before chickens. "
My comments: Teacher reflections on teaching, including on using weblogs with his students.
D. Walker :
Educator blog: thoughts on publishing class work
"I really like the idea of 'self-publishing' as a writing/literature class experience. I just read someone who coigned the term, and I haven't given it a lot of thought, but it seems to get at what I think I want from weblogs. Without having used weblogs in the classroom yet, I have this feeling that they will facilitate more 'immersion' in the writing process. How will students feel about this publishing? It will certainly make the publishing part of the writing process more real. Publishing to date has been little more than sharing with a writing group or the whole class (which is not insignificant), but it has not facilitated the interaction about writing that I hope for."
Weblogs.Com News : The History of Weblogs :
Another definition:
"Weblogs are often-updated sites that point to articles elsewhere on the web, often with comments, and to on-site articles. A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there's also comraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other... "
Techlearning > > Education Web Logs > August 1, 2003 : "Web Logs [also 'weblogs', or, more commonly, 'blogs'] offer an exciting personal way to express opinions, communicate ideas, and share interesting links. Thanks to free blog publishing software that masks the programming code underlying Web Log creation, virtually anyone can 'blog' or practice 'blogging,' that is, create a Web Log and update it with daily postings. Integrating blogging activities into language arts curriculum in a meaningful way, however, does require planning."
I BLOG, YOU BLOG, WEBLOG Presentation
My comments: Oops. My mistake. It's at 22:00 Spanish time. Here's the e-mail that Barbara has used to publicise the event. Please copy and send it to anyone you think my be interested.
Join Graham Stanley and Bee Dieu at the Euro Language Forum (ASO) *.
Discover their blogging connections and examples on how to involve your students in reflecting, writing and publishing online.
Graham Stanley is a freelance teacher presently working at Turismo Sant Ignasi-ESADE and the British Council (both in Barcelona,Spain.) He has recently started blog-efl , a weblog about the use of blogs in ELT. ( http://blog-efl.blogspot.com )
Barbara Dieu teaches English at the Lycée Pasteur, a Franco-Brazilian school in São Paulo, Brazil and has been blogging with her classes since March.
When?
Sunday September 22nd from 1:00-2:00pm PST/ 4:00-5:00pm EST/
8:00-9:00pm GMT/ 5:00-6:00 pm Brasilia Time 22:00-23.00 Spanish time
* After Schoo
My comments: This Sunday at 2.00pm (Spanish time) I'm joining Barbara Deu (see link to her wonderful class weblog Bee Online) for an online presentation about using weblogs. I've not been involved in one of those before, so I'm quite excited about the prospect. I'm too tired to search for the links (for anyone who wants to join us), tonight, but I'll post them tomorrow.
Weblogs in Education:
EduBlogs Blogs in Education :
"For people at groundlevel in education, the Weblog is becoming the Web-presence of choice; educators and students alike are taken by the blog's advantages over the traditional Website - without being radically different, the date-stamped blog structure lends itself to regularly updated personal records and comments on current Web-based resources, with quick and visible responses from other bloggers; this easy interaction facilitates the development of learning communities. Although the blog may be simply presented as 'a place to write, nothing fancy', early-adopters are beginning to explore the use of the genre as a teaching/learning tool in educational environments around the world."
Collaborative weblog:
http://www.simnet.is/annalar/blogg37/
My comments: The weblog's in Icelandic, so I can't understand it, but you can get the gist about how it works by taking a look at the page. This type of weblog is closer than any I have seen to the blog that I would like to use with my students of Tourism this year.
"All students in the course...could write to this weblog but it was not obligatory to participate, this weblog was for discussion about the projects of individual students and this was the place where the students who wanted comments about the project they were working on asked for comments. It also turned out to be the spot for social talk between students where they joked and informed each other of stuff they wanted to broadcast."
comments from : Structure - Units
A word of warning:
Learning Environment : "There is real danger in trying to build academic on-line environment...by imitating the structure of a traditional university class or an university building where fixed groups gather at fixed hour at a certain place ...places where the build-up of knowledge networks by individual student is discouraged and where communication with the outside world is blocked. "
Weblogs for use in student portfolios:
Portfolios
"All students keep a weblog - a learning journal for four months. The journal became one part of the portfolio
One aim of a portfolio is to promote reflective practice in teaching - The portfolio becomes a process, not just an idle snapshot. Reflective practice and improvement is a part of good teaching"
My Comments: The rationale behind the use of weblogs is to help the promotion of metacognitive skills, and contains some interesting predictions for possible future uses of weblogs.
Google Search button facility
My comments: I have added (bottom left) a Google search button to the site. This makes looking for specific posts a lot easier - Rather than have to trawl through the archives looking for something you remember seeing some time ago on this site, you just put in the topic and Hey presto!
It's a nice idea for a weblog that aims at collecting information about a specific topic (like this one does), and gets round the problem of manually linking to specific posts (something I did think about doing at one point, until I realised I didn't have the time)
BlogTalk - A European Weblog-Conference : "What is a weblog? A weblog is a form and a format: a frequently updated website containing entries arranged in reverse-chronological order. But this simple form is infinitely malleable, and weblogs have huge potential for professional and private use. Easily maintained via computer or mobile devices, weblogs are organizing businesses, creating and strengthening social ties, filtering the World Wide Web, and providing a platform for ordinary people to publish their views to the world. (Rebecca Blood) "
rebecca's pocket :: talks :: waging peace: using our powers for good
My comments: Rebecca's blogtalk for the conference in Vienna, May 2003.
"I hope to provide some examples of the ways we can use our weblogs to bring together people--and ideas--which normally would not mingle."
"When I began Rebecca's Pocket, I think there were 50 other sites that called themselves weblogs. By 2001, only two years later, there were hundreds of thousands."
Analysis of Learner Blog #1
Laura 2nde1 English Page :
My comments: I thought it might be a good idea to look at some specific learner blogs to see what students have written about.
Facts and Figures:
Blog Started: March 17th 2003
Last Posting: June 1st 2003 (Note: This may be because the students began a class blog, which may have meant they have had less time to keep up with their personal weblogs.)
General comments: It's obvious that Laura has had a lot of fun with her blog, and she's taken time to change the design several times. Unfortunately, the links to most of her archives don't seem to work, so we can only see a small sample of the postings. She has also started to use the weblog as an HTML project, and she mentions having started using the webpage design programme 'Front Page' (I'm sure some of her motivation to learn Front Page and HTML has come directly from having a blog).
Sample comment:
"Hi people!!!! How are you
Alternatives to Blogger?
It's funny how I've stuck with www.blogger.com even though there are lots of other weblog publishing systems. Curiously enough, I have got so far as downloading software and thinking about getting to know other systems, but the idea of going through another learning curve and spending time getting to know them has put me off. I am comfortable using Blogger now and this is the reason why I'll be using it with my students this year.
I know I have read about Blogger's supposed limitations, but it seems to me the appropriate system to use in ELT. It is very easy to use and reliable. I was tempted early on by School Blogs, and even set up a weblog with them, but there were problems half of the times I tried to access it (it seemed as if the server was down), and the last thing you want (especially if you are planning to use weblogging in an Internet classroom with students) is for that to happen.
I would be interested in hearing from any
Catalan Culture Blog
I have now set up the blog I intend using with my ERASMUS course students. You can find it here , although it won't be in use until mid-September. It'll be interesting to see how they take to it, especially as they are mixed nationalities, from very different backgrounds and studying a wide variety of things. None of them are actually studying English, by-the-way, but they will get the opportunity to use the blog as a forum for any doubts they might have about Spanish or Catalan.
Converge : "Why do some students resist participating in course discussion boards when they know their grade will suffer? How can students with polished social skills come across in online courses as uncooperative and unengaged, with short postings of little substance? What causes this? Can it be fixed?"
My comments: Some thoughts on what makes some students reluctant to post to weblogs, etc. The reasons Tim dotson suggests are logistical, personal, educational and instructor-related. The article also has suggestions on what to do to encourage 'Johnny' to participate.
Weblog Workshop:
Weblog Workshop :
"There is not a "right" or a "wrong" way to post. This is an area that is wide open for exploration of learning possiblilities for both students and teachers..."
"Although you will probably begin by creating a weblog for your own use, keep students in mind throughout the process. Students need lots of practice engaging in exciting, collaborative learning activities where they have to discuss, think, contribute, read, and write. Weblogs are a perfect place for this so include them in your thoughts and planning."
My comments: Here are some great tips for those who are new to weblogging and want to know where to start. I recommend that you go and take a look at the other comments as it's a clear and well-informed introduction. Well done Anne Davis! Be sure to check out her Edublog Insights too.
Presentations weblog : "EXAMPLES OF Weblog ACTIVITIES
1. Collective study notes
1. Divide up the keywords or study questions associated with a textbook chapter or a story among class members.
2. Each student posts the �answers�.
This enables each student to make a key contribution toward the combined class �study notes,� which are posted online and available to all.
2. The mystery guest
1. Invite some one to contribute a posting to the class blog
2. Students make guesses as to who the guest can be from his/her posting
3. The winner can have an online prize (an online card or a virtual chocolate!)"
My Comments: You can find a good summary of weblog uses on this blog, complete with straightforward ideas for activites like the one listed above. Of course, it's not just about weblogging...
EdBlogger Praxis : "What about blogging for younger students? How can an edublog be utilized in a primary classroom? I wish I had the answer to that question, but that is what I plan to find out this year."
My comments: This sounds like a site to watch if you are interested in
teaching very young learners and wonder about the possibilities of using a weblog with them. you can find more of Mr. Wright's comments about this here .
weezBlog: The professor has left their context
My comments: There is some very interesting debate going on here about the nature of using blogs with students and how certain types of weblogs might affect the teacher-student relationship. Especially when students come across personal blogs written by their teachers. Perhaps it's not as important an issue for those of us involved in ELT, especially in the communicative language learning classroom circumstances where learner-centredness has taken a higher priority, but it make fascinating reading anyway.
I suppose that it's always good to bear in mind that whatever you publish on the Web, be it in a weblog or not, could conceivably be read by anyone. I mean it's not like we're writing in a private diary, although some webloggers publish very personal things. This should be made clear to our students if we are encouraging them to write in weblogs, that they shouldn't write anything they might be embarrassed abou
Good Weblog Design and Content
"GOOD WEBLOG DESIGN AND LAYOUT
How to make the most of existing blog tools:
1.Use Titles
2.Abstract Long Posts
3.Use a Teaser Paragraph for Long Posts
4.Select a Readable Font, Size & Column Width
5.If You're a 'Linker', Add Something of Value
6.Give Readers Someplace to Go for More
7.Use Graphics If They Add Something
8.Use Categories Only If They Help Your Readers
9.Use Outlining 'Twisties' Cautiously
My comments: There are some useful points here (summarised above) with examples to illustrate the principles, for anyone interested in posting to weblogs.
Catalan Culture:
Although it won't get going until mid-September, I have decided to try using a weblog as part of the ERASMUS course I teach every year. I think it will be a good way of getting to know the students, and a learner-centred way of increasing communication between students, as well as an easily-monitored evaluation tool. There are more details on the web-site .
Bee Online:
My comments: I have recently become quite an active blogger on Bee's class weblog - I was invited to post comments, and have been pleasantly surprised by the level of response from the students. Their level of curiosity seems to indicate that intercultural blogging might hold a lot of possibilites. I still want to organise an intercultural weblog project with my Tourism students to see how this can be exploited.
RSS Feeds:
LLT Vol7Num2: Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration : "One of the technologies used by blogs to alert users to new postings, as well to help sort information coming from multiple blogs and other Internet sources, are RSS feeds. RSS stands for "really simple syndication"
"...RSS feeds can help keep track of changes to blogs used as project centers"
Language Learning & Technology: Blogs
LLT Vol7Num2: Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration : " If one thinks of blogs as being essentially on-line journals, it may not be evident how they could be used in collaborative ways. But actually looking at a few blogs (such as InstaPundit by Glenn Reynolds or Scripting News by Dave Winter) demonstrates how interactive they can be."
"By publishing the blog on the Internet, the student has the possibility of writing for readers beyond classmates, not usually possible in discussion forums. Readers in turn can comment on what they're read, although blogs can be placed in secured environments as well. Self-publishing encourages ownership and responsibility on the part of students, who may be more thoughtful (in content and structure) if they know they are writing for a real audience. This same degree of personal responsibility is lacking in discussion forums."
Students and Blogs:
jill/txt :
"...student's weblogs counted for 40% of their final grade..."
"...I'm planning to set aside time for blogging in each class and giving the students very specific tasks in their blogging time, because I want them to have enough experience with this way of writing and working that they can find out whether it's helpful to them."
My Comments: Jill speaks about there being 3 types of students (in her experience): 1) those who take to blogging enthusiastically 2) those who have difficulty seeing the point of it, and need lots of encouragement and 3) those who begin very negatively and continue to reject the idea of blogging:
For the second type, she says : "...you need to devise specific blogging tasks and actually spend class time blogging."
...and for the third type: "There definitely are people who don't get much out of blogging. But then, there are people who hate written exams or ora
Interactive Talking Weblog: eigodaigaku
My comments: Eigodaigaku is a Japanese-based weblog for english language learners which contains something called a 'Site Pal', which seems to be a web-bot that learners can 'talk' to (very impressive). The site is not just a weblog - it has quizzes, and other language learning exercises.
WANTED: CLASS FOR WEBLOG PROJECT - ENGLISH FOR TOURISM
I am interested in starting a joint project with a class of university students studying tourism and studying English as a subsidiary subject. If you are interested, please get in touch . Here are the details of the class:
24 undergraduate Tourism students. Age 18-24. Level: Upper-intermediate. . Based in Barcelona, Spain.
My idea would be to use the weblog with another class in another country and to compare culture / tourism / etc. I don't have any more specific ideas just yet, so I would be very happy to start discussing it with anyone who might be interested in collaborating.
Damianos replied to my e-mail about the use of weblogs in his ambitious website for high school students with the following:
"...the site has been developed as a study into how ICT could be integrated in the curriculum. You see, as of late (at last!) the Greek Ministry for Education has refurbished the school curricula for primary and secondary education. As I was looking for a topic for my M.Ed. dissertation with the Hellenic Open University I have been developing this site. I tried to implement it in some way, but there were too many constraints from parents' suspicion, children's lack of time due to their hectic lives with extra-curricular activities, outside school like dancing, sports, martial arts and the rest, to timetabling and curriculum constraints; you see not all teachers are ready to integrate technology in their classes and in my case I work with... (someone) who is technophobic, or rather unable or worse indifferent to comprehend technology, so the whol