Am I ready to introduce blogging to my own EFL class?'

With the help of the book chapter ’’Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms’’ and the video about weblogs in school by Will Richardson I got the chance to deepen my knowledge about such powerful web tools as blogging, wikis and podcasts. According to Will Richardson, blog is really archive of ideas, it is a place where you chronicle your learning, where people collect links and comment on it, where they share their experiences and ideas.  Blog is not simply a discussion board or a diary or a journal, it is really a place where you can be reflective, where you can do critical thinking. It is where more learning, more investigation, more conversation and more engagement happen.

The possibilities of blogging are endless. The blogs provide students with real learning opportunities to improve not only their written English but also their reading in English by reading their classmates’ blogs and responding to them. Blogs provide students and teachers with an authentic task, as blogs are common and have become a relevant and credible forum for people to express their opinions, interact around ideas and share information throughout the world. Also, blogs provide students not only with opportunities to acquire and use new vocabulary but also with new and useful computer skills. It is also interesting to learn that kids are really engaged in social networks. They are more motivated to write in front of the real audiences as the audiences are much wider than simply the teacher giving feedback in ways that are different from the four walls of the classroom. So, it definitely enhances the way that they write.

Another powerful tool is micro-blogging which brings benefits to the learning experience. Using Twitter gives the opportunity to foster a strong sense of community within and beyond the walls of the classroom and students learn, share and reflect forming a collaborative community. Twitter does not replace traditional language instruction in the classroom. It does help extend learning outside of the classroom and encourage the students to use the target language more often. Twitter can be used to help students ‘’crystallize thoughts, focus attention and make connections’’.

Learning about the benefits of blogging leaves a room for me to think about integrating blogging in EFL classroom. As a TEFL professional, my mission is to change and make a difference in school programs. 

I will definitely try to use blogs and twitter in EFL class as a collaborative board for both teachers and students. The proficiency level of learners may vary from intermediate to the advanced level. I will encourage them to reflect in more depth on themes touched upon in class using blogs. As an assignment I will give a topic and several articles to read (sometimes links to the videos to watch). Students will have to read the articles, synthesize the information and provide a reflective writing. Also, they will respond to their peers’ blog posts through comments by providing supportive feedback to each other and offering additional suggestions. Students may also upload their drafts for writing and have an online portfolio of student written work. As a teacher I will respond to student posts quickly, write a short comment related to the content or even customized forms to collect feedback.

Students can tweet their own notes during lessons and share with their peers. I will ask students to review lessons using twitter and remind students what is going to be covered in class that day or the next.  Students can use Twitter to coordinate assignments: collaborate on different projects and keep a quick reference on any changes.

One predictable challenge will be students’ demotivation due to lack of interest. The solution will be carefully selecting topics and sometimes giving them the freedom to choose the topics. Another challenge is the inappropriate feedback that students may receive from their peers. T should raise their awareness about this issue and can put a class analyze the blog post of one classmate so that they can be more involved and engaged.