Why a blog?
A blog is a brilliant way to communicate with the outer world. A blog is similar to a journal, a diary or a causerie as the writer posts written text on whatever subject the blog is about. The big difference from these other forms of writing lies in the publicity of the blog. This is also what makes the blog such a brilliant option for teaching - having a real audience provides meaning to school tasks. The students are more likely to care about how and what they write when someone else is about to read it, rather than if the only reader would be the teacher.
A blog is a brilliant way to communicate with the outer world. A blog is similar to a journal, a diary or a causerie as the writer posts written text on whatever subject the blog is about. The big difference from these other forms of writing lies in the publicity of the blog. This is also what makes the blog such a brilliant option for teaching - having a real audience provides meaning to school tasks. The students are more likely to care about how and what they write when someone else is about to read it, rather than if the only reader would be the teacher.
How does it
work?
What one really needs to get started is simply a computer with a steady enough Internet connection. After connecting to the Internet the first thing to do is to find the most appropriate software. These days there are really easy blog software on the Internet, and some of them are free to. A few examples of a free and easy to use software are Blogger, Wordpress, Blog and Kidblog (click on the word to go directly to the website!).
What one really needs to get started is simply a computer with a steady enough Internet connection. After connecting to the Internet the first thing to do is to find the most appropriate software. These days there are really easy blog software on the Internet, and some of them are free to. A few examples of a free and easy to use software are Blogger, Wordpress, Blog and Kidblog (click on the word to go directly to the website!).
When one see a blog, or a website for that matter,
it´s easy to view it as something complicated, something one-self couldn´t do.
But the secret is that we can all do it. To create your own blog you just need
to fill in a few boxes, choose a few colours and designs, and of course – decide
what the blog should be about. The difference from a blog and a website is that
you yourself don´t have to build the page, i.e. the html code, rather you
choose from a few options and get a ready made page. (As a matter of fact these
days there is also the same kind of idea behind a few free website software,
such as Bluevoda, where you similar to a blog choose templates rather than
writing html code).
To post on the blog isn’t usually more difficult than
sending an email; you write a text, press preview to see if it comes out the
way you want, and instead of printing you publish your work on the internet.
There is a lot of fun little applications and functions that easily can be used
to make the blog become more alive, and to invite the reader to interact. For
example one can put up photos and videos straight in to the blog, but also
highlight words and make them become links to other blogs, websites, videos, or
songs. I would say that the most relevant function is the comments. By being
able to comment the reader can become an integrated part of the blog, and the
resource by this means promotes interaction rather than monologue. The blog is
considered social software because it´s outgoing perspective and the opportunity
for readers to comment on the posts - without the readers the blog has lost
it´s purpose.
Blogs in
teaching
A blog can be used in different ways in teaching and I argue that that´s part of the power of the resource. Once learned and mastered it can be used over and over again without repeating exactly the same procedure. It can be used both by the teacher, by the students and by teacher and students together.
A blog can be used in different ways in teaching and I argue that that´s part of the power of the resource. Once learned and mastered it can be used over and over again without repeating exactly the same procedure. It can be used both by the teacher, by the students and by teacher and students together.
The teacher can use a blog as a way of communication
with students - to keep them updated about homework, when particular
assignments are due, if anything changes in the schedule and other important
information.
For an individual blog held by one student on it´s
own, a student blog, there are endless possibilities. According to the
student’s age and interests they can blog about their hobbies, about history,
food, music, geography, basically anything. It is possible to write comments on
on-going things in society and become part of a national, international or
global discussion about culture, politics or just about anything.
When teaching younger children I think a blog comes to
it’s best in communication with parents and other students through a class
blog. A class blog is a blog shared by all the students and the teacher. When
children are aloud to post stuff on the blog they become more involved in the
process. An idea is to make a couple of students responsible for the blog each
week. If they are old enough they can have full freedom of writing about
whatever they like or they have to summarize the week. With the smallest ones
the teacher can participate and scaffold where photos of the weeks can be
commented in simple sentences. Of course all the tasks mentioned in this text
are supposed to be done in English. A class blog is a great way to communicate
with a partnership class in a different country about what´s going on. Having
an audience makes the task of writing in English become real; it becomes
meaningful if someone is actually reading the blog.
A good way to start working with blogging is to set up
the blog together. The teacher can then write the first post as an example for
the students to follow. As the students gradually learn both more English and
more about technology after a couple of years the students can start their own individual
student blog. In this one they can be freer and allowed to entirely choose the
topics themselves.
Also…
Not everyone is comfortable of putting pictures of themselves or of their child on the Internet, and for this reason it´s important to talk to parents and caretakers before setting up the blog. It´s possible to make a blog private, which means putting a password on entering the blog, and by doing this the blog is not out on the web available for everyone to see.
Not everyone is comfortable of putting pictures of themselves or of their child on the Internet, and for this reason it´s important to talk to parents and caretakers before setting up the blog. It´s possible to make a blog private, which means putting a password on entering the blog, and by doing this the blog is not out on the web available for everyone to see.
When Facebook is taking over the social networking
scene there is a need to think about weather it is a good arena for
professional interaction between teacher and student. In my opinion a blog is a
way more serious, helpful and appropriate communication tool than a Facebook
group.
/ Vera Peterson
For me, an middelage woman who never have learnt, nor recieved the computorskills from playing in my youth, your fears that some might think it is hard to make a blog, is correct. BUT I can see people around me, and pupils for that matter, blogging and using the internet for communication all the time. And I realize that it is a fabulous playground and a potential arena for interacting with people. If, the teacher is interested to learn, or young enough to know how to do it, it must open new opportunitys for implementing lagnuage training in class.
ReplyDeleteIt is exactly as you write. Having a real audience, and a freely chosen topic and friends to share opinions with ... it´s get started. Another advatage as I thought of is that blogging contains both reading and writing while interacting with other people. I remember in "the old days" you had "pen-pals" all over the world, but you had to wait weeks for answers. So there was not much of writing and the supervision of teachers none. This IS somewhat the same, but much better...:o)From the teachers point of wiew there is a lot of other advatages that you points out. I'm thinking specifically of the daily comunication with parents in many different ways.