EFL105 - 2004-2005 Spring Semester

Thanks Seval for sharing your experience with us. It's really encouraging to see how you've started to use a blog. I had a look at the comments your students wrote--interesting to note that some chose to write in Turkish, while others wrote in English. Did you give them the option, or did you just leave it up to them? Perhaps it's just LAW students (but I think not!) that have an obsession with exam preparation and grammar, but it's really interesting to give students a forum like this where they express their needs.

In my group, Nazenin and Makbule were helping me out with the f2f contact while I was still at home. I was in the unique position of not having seen them f2f, so I used the blog as a sort of 'ice-breaker' - I was encouraged by the quality of the responses, even though only four found time to reply so far. But, like you, I find this blogging environment very easy and 'sympathetic' and even 'fun'! Now, if it actually makes our lives easier, and improves the service we try to provide to our students, I think we may be on to a winner...

If anyone else is attempting to use a blog with your students, don't hesitate to drop a note in this blog so we can share ideas and experiences.

Thanks again, Seval, for getting back to us with your blog.

[P.S. I'm really interested in getting hold of 'authentic' student writing-like the comments in your blog--to analyze from a lexical point of view. Would you be willing to let me have a copy at the end of the term? I suppose, we would also have to ask the students for their permission as well, since they have copyright on anything that they create in your blog. But, it would be a great resource, as we could not only get a profile of the productive lexis that students 'comfortably' produce by comparing it with the BNL, but we could also produce a concordance of these writings which would highlight a lot of the common problems in terms of grammar, syntax and lexis. In a few years time, with a few more blogs, we could have quite an interesting database. Let me know what you think.

BBC | British Council teaching English - Resources - Blogging for ELT

Hot off the press - a British Council 'spin' on blogging. Nothing much that we haven't already read or talked about, but interesting to see blogging hit mainstream EFL endorsement by THE Council...

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

If you're not quite sure about the BlogThis! feature, this page explains why it's useful, how it works, and how to install the BlogThis link in your browser. Seval has used BlogThis to share her blog as a posting in our SFLBloggers blog...I'm looking forward to seeing a few more once you've sorted out your profile photo. :) Or, if you don't want to use BlogThis! for your own blog, but rather another web page, feel free to do this as well (as I've done here with the Blog Help web pages.)

Blogger Help : How do I add my photo to my profile?

If you've succeeded in publishing photos to your blog, but are having trouble adding a photo to your blogger account profile, the instructions on this page should help.

Seval Niyazi:

"Bogaz is one of my favourite places :)"

Well, Tuncer gets the distinction of being the first SFL blogger to make a posting in our initial brainstorming activity, but Seval has the honour of being the first to go beyond the "Final Frontier!" Congratulations Seval!!

If you want to see why Seval likes Boğaz so much, pop in to her blog and see her photo. Reminds me that spring is on the way!

I found Johnson's article very enlightening as it gives simple, step-by-step instructions for setting up a course using blogs. Using blogs for writing is really a very good idea for the following reasons: a) Both student and teacher can monitor progress easily (how an assignment develops chronologically based on t's feedback and S's revisions) b) only the teacher has administrative privileges to modify class blogs. c) student cannot edit teacher's feedback on the assignment but can edit the assignment itself d) confidentiality-only the individual student and teacher can view student's individual blog e) the idea of dealing with common mistakes and individual mistakes separately in different blogs f) being able to edit class material when necessary g) as the students will be at the computer, they will be able to use the internet and also word facilities to improve their writing h) messages to and from the teacher will also contribute to the improvement of writing skills, and language proficiency in general i) increased contact will contribute to the relationship btw. T and students

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...

Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Another challenge task confronts you -- I was curious about the annoying link in the Blogger bar titled "Blog This" so I used the handy dandy help feature to discover what a wonderful tool this can be...if you add it to you links bar in your browser (of if you have the GOOGLE tool bar installed, you can adjust the options to show the 'Blog this' link in its visible icons) then when you visit a page that you would like to post on your blog, you just click ' Blog this' and the URL is automatically prepared to post in your blog--you have the opportunity to add a comment if you wish. This is a bit like sharing your favourites with the world..or in this case, I'm sharing my fascination with philosophy and technology. Here is the article by Marc Prensky that I refered to earlier. Apparently, you can just highlight the bits of the page you want, and that is what will appear in your posting...for me, I've just given you this description and the link to the HTML version of the paper. It's a bit dated, but still quite original in concept.

A challenge task for you bloggers...send a picture to this blog with a suitable caption. Looking forward to some interesting photos!! This is our trusty Suzuki, daring to go where few others have -- the coast due west of Korucam (Kormakiti) -- I bet you thought the only beaches like this were in the Karpaz!! 

I'm really not very good with mobile technology. I reluctantly bought a mobile phone last year, a cheap second hand Siemens model, and rarely turn it on except when I'm driving home to Karsiyaka from Magosa on a Friday night and Audrey might want me to stop on the way to do some last minute shopping. And I can see it's use for emergencies, but as far as mobile phones go I am definitely a 'digital immigrant' as Marc Prensky put it in his analysis of the divide between 'digital natives' (i.e. our students) and 'digital immigrants' (i.e me!!) Anyway, I'd love to get some help from one of you 'digital natives' -- can you find out if it is possible to post to a blog from a mobile phone? I'd be most interested in posting photos, of course, but I'd also be interested to know if SMS can be posted. And...can you be notified on your mobile that there is a new comment or posting to your blog?

Apologies for broken link

My apologies to anyone who suffered frustration at trying to download the final reading for this week by Johnson on using blogs in a writing class. I wish I could say that it was the fault of the Internet, but no...the fault rests fully on my shoulders. (A tip from me...always check your links after your publish!!!)

Thanks to Nilgun for letting me know about the problem...I've corrected the link in the posting and in the Links section in the sidebar. And, if you don't want to go any further you can download Johnson's Creating a Writing Course Utilizing Class and Student Blogs article here.

And just to make it up, I've added a link to the online Cambridge Dictionary to the sidebar for your online convenience...and it might be something you want to add to your blog sometime. :)

Here is the second step of the SFL blogspace event #2.

It's great to see the comments and feedback about the Campbell reading. Looks like those of us in IED might like to try the Tutor Blog idea, whereas MLD students might be ready for their own learner blogs. Actually, for MLD teachers, the blog has even more advantages as Nilgun points out, in that teachers often only see the students 3 or 4 hours a week, so blogging could be a much better medium to develop a rapport with individual students and classes. The point about saving on spam is a good one--and one wouldn't have to repeat the same message over and over again for students that missed a class.

Perhaps the SFL could consider blogging as part of the IED-MLD continuum...introduce blogs to students in IED so that MLD teachers can build on this experience in their courses???

In fact, if students started to build their own individual blog in IED, it would serve as a permanent 'e-folio' (thanks to Elmaziye for the term and the concept) so that their subsequent teachers in IED and MLD could actually have a convenient history of their development in English--true...we can see their grades in the portal...but test results don't really give the true and personal perspective of a student. The head of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at an MLD meeting once suggested having some kind of portfolio of each student's development in English throughout their academic career. Perhaps a blog could function as this....something to think about...in fact, it might be most gratifying for parents to have the opportunity to see how their children are doing as well. It might be a huge motivational factor to students if they knew that their parents would be popping in to see how they were doing (and what their teacher was saying about them???) And students might actually benefit by seeing how much they themselves have progressed through a reflection on their blog archive.

Blogs and writing....a new twist on an old idea??

Anyway, Steve was offline all day today due to a 10 hour power cut in Karsiyaka, and asked me to get you to move from the general to the specific...in particular, a very practical account of how one teacher used blogs in a writing class. Now it's time to have a look at a specific example of Creating a Writing Course Utilizing Class and Student Blogs by Andrew Johnson.

Again, as we've done with the general blogging concepts of Campbell, keep in mind our own EMU context when you read this. Do you think this approach would work with our students, either in IED or MLD? Could it be adapted, or is there a variant that might work better here. Also, and Seval will be glad to hear this, Johnson actually gives a very detailed step-by-step description of setting up blogs in, you guessed it, http://blogger.com. He gives some pretty useful tips.

Blogvanity in blogosphere

If you have some time after reading Johnson's article, pop along to a TESL 'Bloglog' of EFL teachers, visit a few and see if there are any that you would recommend to us as good example of what to do (or what NOT to do!!!). Post your comments in this blog and check out what others have had to say. Remember, you can add comments to individual postings if you want to.

Coming up next week...

Next week will be our last 'input' session and we'll delve into the features of weblogs, and how we can tailor them to our needs, and the needs of our students. There are almost twenty of us in the workshop, so we'll probably end up with twenty different approaches, but that is really what blogs are all about--individuality and creatively. We could end up starting a blogplode (blog and explode) here.