Nowadays, many foreign language instructors do their best not only to inspire and teach in the classroom, but also to prepare students for learning outside the classroom. One of the ways is using a relatively new learning platform, the blog. A wide range of its possibilities provide learners with numerous methods to practise the language, by commenting, questioning, answering, reflecting, reviewing, etc. Thus, blogs represent a valuable pedagogical tool in all its authentic, interesting and communicative nature.
It is of considerable importance for teachers to organize the content on the blog as best they can so that they have a real insight into learners' works and assess their abilities properly. Let's see what various reasons for blogging with students are:
- motivating and getting students ready for class
- encouraging student independence
- placing lessons and different assignments online
- promoting the idea of sharing
- developing student self-confidence
- enabling learners broader access to relevant material by incorporating links
- challenging students by posting tests and quizzes
- improving upon class interaction via online chats, discussions or debates
- facilitating communication with absent students
- getting parents more involved by allowing them access to their children's work
- fostering out-of-class learning
- dealing with a subject in a digital environment
Blogging for educational purposes, including language teaching and learning, is becoming increasingly popular every day, and its popularity seems only to grow in the near future due to the blog's limitless benefits. As a medium to reflect on material, inquire into matters, and interact with others, blogs represent a rich and easy-to-use resource for both students and teachers. Nevertheless, in order to determine to what extent blogs do further many aspects of learning, more research needs to be done. In the meantime, the focus ought to be on exploring the world of blogging more so as to take full advantage of it in the context of innovations in pedagogy.
ELT Blog Carnival colleagues, keep up the good work!
Photo source: http://www.eflclassroom.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnett/2836828090/
