Learning Log Week 2

 Weblogs in English Language Teaching

A Weblog is a free user-friendly technology that is easily created, tailored, used, maintained, and frequently updated (Noytim, 2010).

Blog posts are Asynchronous because students can learn at different time.

 

Unique Features of Weblogs

-        Individual ownership: individual bloggers can

·      publish the blog content

·      moderate readers’ comments

·      decide the rights of the readers

·      customize the look and feel of the blog

-        Updates displayed in reverse chronological order: A typical blog places the latest posting at the top of the page. Older posts appear further down the latest post. This systematic reverse chronological display of the postings makes it possible for users to access the latest posting immediately when logging on the blogs.

-       
Archival of postings: Weblogs auto-archived older posts, placing newer posts on the top of the blog. Over time, the blog will continue to grow, but the weblogs only capture a certain fixed number of recent posts on the site and older posts are no longer shown. Archived Older posts can be accessed elsewhere on the site via a permanent hyperlink or permalink.

Type of Weblog

Tutor:

•        administered by the instructor
•         encourage learners to do reading practice and explore links for self-study

Class:  can facilitate project-based language learning, and can be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language exchange.

•        administered by the entire class
•         encourage learners to post messages, images and links pertinent to classroom discussion topics

Learner: (encourages learner self-expression and develops a sense of ownership.)

•         administered by the learner
•         encourage learners to post their thoughts about the reading

Campbell (2003)

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Weblogs

Advantages

-        provide an authentic learning environment for real communication. It is not only about your teacher that can see your blog but also about your friends and other people who visit your blog can tell you what they think.

-        function as online learning logs where learners record their learning experience. For teachers, this function can be used as e-folio that record learners’ progress and encourage learners to reflect on their learning experience.

-        Learners can comment their opinions and ideas to communicate with other and it help them to crate social networks and learning communities. It improves their writing skills.

Disadvantages

-        Low English proficiency students:

·      experience difficulty in putting their ideas in order

·      anyone can access to weblog writing and peer comments

-        Students lacking confidence in their writing ability:

·       feel fear at having others read their thoughts

-        Students with developmental writing problems:

·      May feel embarrassed because others can see their mistakes.

 Teachers should take a more active role in assisting students during the blogging.

 

Difficulty to keep students’ interest in blog-based tasks

-        Teachers should respond to students’ posting quickly, asking questions about their postings to stimulate or motivate them to keep writing.

-        Students should be actively encouraged to read and respond or comment to their peers.

-        Writing to the blog could be required as part of the class assessment. Students should be encouraged to post their writing homework on the blog instead of only giving it to the teacher.