Blogs are useful tools that ESL teachers can start including into the curriculum. This can be helpful if teacher involve students in it for them to get acquainted with technology. Because it is a way to make discussion of certain topic it is important to mention that “…allowing students to personalize their spaces makes them more invested on their blogs” (weblogs, 46). A way in which we as teachers can use blogs is to create one to make students comment on fieldtrips, for example. For doing so, they can include in the blog pictures of the fieldtrip and retell the experience through the images. Also, we have to take into the account the students’ possibility to have access to internet because not everybody does. “…you need to consider the level of internet access that your students have both at school and at home” (weblogs, 45).
Using technology might be scary at times, especially when we are not familiar with it. However, everything has been created with the purpose of making things easier for the users. Once we decide to overcome our fears and try out the new technologies, we immerse ourselves in the broad possibilities of creating and discovering. This is certainly what we experience when interacting with blogs. Some people may argue that it reduces students’ contact and participation, when it is exactly that what it reinforces through the web. As it is stated in reading “Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom”, ‘Blogs work well for students because they can be worked on at virtually any time, in any place with an Internet-enabled computer. Hence, they can be used by computer savvy teachers to create a classroom that extends beyond the boundaries of the school yard’. Then, technological tools as blogs open many possibilities for education. In the video, we can appreciate how to include pictures in our blogs. This is important because visual aids are useful not only for learners to understand vocabulary, but also because they are attractive. The blog becomes more than information; it becomes a healthy-attractive-interactive-educational environment. As a student, I have participated in different educational blogs for different classes. I consider them great tools because students get engaged and they can find educational material related to the studied topic. They participate on it by posting comments and studying from the blog. As a teacher, I will use this tool for my teaching because I think that students have more opportunity for participating. We can tell them to post picture from which students need to make a comment. This will be especially useful for shy students that do not like to speak in class, and then the blog helps us to check on their language acquisition. Another way of using pictures in blogs for my teaching is to stimulate vocabulary development. Teachers use to take pictures to present vocabulary in class, but students do not keep those pictures. Instead they get vocabulary lists. Blogs can put an end to this methodology. By having the pictures on the blog students can study the vocabulary and avoid translations.
Certainly, using blogs for educational purposes is a great deal; it is a source from which we can take advantage. However, in order to create good learning opportunities with this technology, it is not simply to have a blog and tell our students about it, give them the hyperlink and hope they will look at it and like it immediately. It also implies that we will need to work hard to keep it interesting and updated. Both the information as well as the pictures we could use must be, like Richardson mentions, “sufficiently provocative” (reading “Weblogs”, p. 46). As a result, our students will not only provide answers to the questions we ask them, but may also provide more feedback and get engaged in the posting process; expressing their opinions. For instance, we may use blogs appealingly in two cases: 1. Blogs for introducing a topic, in which we could use attention grabbers (nice videos, pictures, questions) 2. Blogs to add extra information regarding a topic, sometimes students may need more information or practice. In this case, the information, pictures, etc. we could present should provocative in the sense that it they may be challenging them to demonstrate their knowledge.
Blogs are useful tools that ESL teachers can start including into the curriculum. This can be helpful if teacher involve students in it for them to get acquainted with technology. Because it is a way to make discussion of certain topic it is important to mention that “…allowing students to personalize their spaces makes them more invested on their blogs” (weblogs, 46). A way in which we as teachers can use blogs is to create one to make students comment on fieldtrips, for example. For doing so, they can include in the blog pictures of the fieldtrip and retell the experience through the images. Also, we have to take into the account the students’ possibility to have access to internet because not everybody does. “…you need to consider the level of internet access that your students have both at school and at home” (weblogs, 45).
ReplyDeleteUsing technology might be scary at times, especially when we are not familiar with it. However, everything has been created with the purpose of making things easier for the users. Once we decide to overcome our fears and try out the new technologies, we immerse ourselves in the broad possibilities of creating and discovering. This is certainly what we experience when interacting with blogs. Some people may argue that it reduces students’ contact and participation, when it is exactly that what it reinforces through the web. As it is stated in reading “Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom”, ‘Blogs work well for students because they can be worked on at virtually any time, in any place with an Internet-enabled computer. Hence, they can be used by computer savvy teachers to create a classroom that extends beyond the boundaries of the school yard’. Then, technological tools as blogs open many possibilities for education. In the video, we can appreciate how to include pictures in our blogs. This is important because visual aids are useful not only for learners to understand vocabulary, but also because they are attractive. The blog becomes more than information; it becomes a healthy-attractive-interactive-educational environment. As a student, I have participated in different educational blogs for different classes. I consider them great tools because students get engaged and they can find educational material related to the studied topic. They participate on it by posting comments and studying from the blog. As a teacher, I will use this tool for my teaching because I think that students have more opportunity for participating. We can tell them to post picture from which students need to make a comment. This will be especially useful for shy students that do not like to speak in class, and then the blog helps us to check on their language acquisition. Another way of using pictures in blogs for my teaching is to stimulate vocabulary development. Teachers use to take pictures to present vocabulary in class, but students do not keep those pictures. Instead they get vocabulary lists. Blogs can put an end to this methodology. By having the pictures on the blog students can study the vocabulary and avoid translations.
ReplyDeleteby Zully
Certainly, using blogs for educational purposes is a great deal; it is a source from which we can take advantage. However, in order to create good learning opportunities with this technology, it is not simply to have a blog and tell our students about it, give them the hyperlink and hope they will look at it and like it immediately. It also implies that we will need to work hard to keep it interesting and updated. Both the information as well as the pictures we could use must be, like Richardson mentions, “sufficiently provocative” (reading “Weblogs”, p. 46). As a result, our students will not only provide answers to the questions we ask them, but may also provide more feedback and get engaged in the posting process; expressing their opinions. For instance, we may use blogs appealingly in two cases:
ReplyDelete1. Blogs for introducing a topic, in which we could use attention grabbers (nice videos, pictures, questions)
2. Blogs to add extra information regarding a topic, sometimes students may need more information or practice. In this case, the information, pictures, etc. we could present should provocative in the sense that it they may be challenging them to demonstrate their knowledge.