The final frontier--to boldly go where no SFL teacher has gone before.....

[we hope that there are some Star Trek fans out there who appreciate our attempt at a little humour... :)]

Right...this is it. Enough reading, discussing, posting and postulating. It's time to turn words into action.

In fact, we can see that some of you have already dabbled in creating your own blogs (just click on any of the contributors on the left and you'll see the list of blogs that they have created and allowed you to see.)

• As Seval already pointed out (thanks Seval!) the basic nuts and bolts of using Blogger to create blogs for EFL purposes has been given by Johnson.
• Erkan has raised some philosophical issues about the integration of technology into teaching at the IED.
• Nevin, Fatma and Zehra have provided some useful insights into what they think might work and might not work with our students.
• Nilgun has pointed out some positive aspects of using blogs from an MLD perspective.
• Dindy has identified the pitfalls of 'blogvanity' from a quick look at a few of the blogs on the blogroll.
• And Tuncer gets special mention for the first blogger to make a posting in our brainstorming event.

Thanks for these comments and those of everybody we haven't mentioned--Cigdem and I have really enjoyed this first foray into 'blogosphere' with you, and we've learned a lot from you. We hope you have found it useful as well. Pity blogs don't include a polling option, or we would have canvassed your opinion about what you've liked, haven't liked, your suggestions and comments, and whether you think that we should consider running more 'blogshops' for the future. But, if the spirit moves you, we'd be more than happy to receive some constructive criticism, so exercise your rights as contributors and post away!!

The final frontier...

Okay...here goes. Mission Impossible...

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to implement the use of a blog with your class this semester.

• Pedagogically, you can choose any one of the models suggested by Campbell - a tutor, class or learner blog, or a combination of any of the aforementioned.
• Technically, you should:
  • have a complete and updated profile, including a photo.
  • publish at least one image of your own choosing in your blog.
  • share your blog with us by using the "Blog this!" facility.

If at any point in your mission you should be tempted to give up--don't despair...we won't disavow any knowledge of your mission. Together we should be able to overcome any obstacle. And this posting won't self-destruct in five seconds. :)

Coming up in the next few weeks...

We hope we've given you enough of an idea about what blogs are, how you can create them, what you can do with them within our context here at EMU, and why we should even bother using them.

We are really looking forward to sharing our exploits into blogosphere over the next few weeks. We're hopeful that there will be more success stories than otherwise, but we recognize that we're all in uncharted territory. Sharing our successes and our failures will help everyone in the long run, as we can benefit from what works with our students and avoid the things that don't! We've got a really strong group of contributors, and we're really lucky to work in an institution that encourages innovation and has provided a very good infrastructure to facilitate experimentation and development. Blog away!!!

At the end of this final phase of the workshop, we'll issue some certificates of attendance and successful completion. More on that to follow later...

# posted by Steve Neufeld @ 8:14 AM