Here we go...the first of three blogspace events for this workshop.

Objectives

As indicated in the workshop description, this week you will:

• join the group blog as members (and therefore become fully-fledged contributors),
• contribute postings and make comments in our group blog.
• get started with some introductory readings about weblogs,

Okay...let's get started with some basics

1. In fact, through the very process of registering, you have already opened up an account and created your own blog. You then accepted the invitation to be a member and are now fully-fledged contributors to our group blog. Congratulations! You're one-third finished the first blogspace event already!
2. We've already asked you to brainstorm in the blog and share with everyone what you know about blogs and blogging in general, and questions in your mind that you'd like to find answers for. Tuncer, Seval and Nevin have demonstrated how easy it is to accomplish the second objective.
3. Now comes a reading task. You'll read a short article about Weblogs. This should take ten or twenty minutes (depending on how well you skim read from the screen).
4. Skim through this article about weblogs from Wikipedia.com...there is a lot of jargon, so don't get bogged down.
   • Choose one of the postings made by one of your peers giving the questions they have about blogs.
   • Skim through the article and try to find answers for these questions.
   • Post your answers as a comment to your peer's original posting.
5. Languages are dynamic, and English is particularly flexible in its ability to absorb new words and terms.
   • Were there any new terms that you came across in the reading that you haven't seen before?
   • Were there any that you liked or found particularly interesting or amusing?
   • Was there anything you read that you really found surprising or especially interesting?
6. Create a posting listing any of the new words that you think you'd like to remember or use again, and briefly explain why.
   • Mention anything that you read that really surprised or interested you.
     
   • Compare your ideas with those of the other contributors.
     

Coming up next blogspace event.

Next week we'll start to focus on blogs in English language teaching. We'll look at how Aaron Campbell uses weblogs in ESL classes, and his classification of tutor, learner and class weblogs. We'll also see how Andrew Johnson uses class and learner blogs in designing and running a writing course.

# posted by Steve Neufeld @ 12:01 PM