Readings for my literature

Yey...I have officially started my readings for my literature.

I have finally started to write my first literature draft which comprises many articles on blogs in edcuation and very few on blogs in EFL. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much research on blogs in EFL and the little that has taken place is mainly in Japan or America. These small scale studies have found that blogging is beneficial in many ways in an English language classroom. Findings include: blogs increase learner autonomy, provide authentic writing and reading practice, improve lexical usage and revison of language learnt. Although thses benfeits are sound, they can still be achieved with other online prgrammes and non-online classroom material. for me, as I have been reading, io have been desperately looking for a breakthrough- an idea, a quality or a feature of blogging that will make me go "AHA that's what blogging is about." What I have realised instead is that what is really unique to blogging is the possibility of self-expression and formation or recognition or confirmation of self-identity.

In addition, the more i read about blogging in the classroom, the more i realise that there is very little teacher guidance except for instruction manual like texts on how to use blogs or ideas on how to integrate them in class. However, what abot the pedagogy? In the teaching of CMC, we have realised that something needs to be changed in the pedagogy and the role of the teacher is thus affected. Surely, this is the same for the use of social software in education. This is where Anne Bartlett-Bragg's framework comes in and inspries me to have a go. I as a teacher working in a small private language school am very behind in terms of technology use in the classroom; so behind that we have only just had 3 interactive whiteboards installed. I, although a little more confident than other teachers at my place, have found it very difficult to integrate technology as much as I would have like to. I ask myself-should we be focussing on the pedagogy and the evolvement in teaching that needs to take place with the developoment of technology? If we are going to successfully integrate these technologies such as blogs, we are going to have to rethink our teaching strategies, methods and approaches.

Have to go now.. boyfriend waiting to go out for food...:)

Struggling to blog...or not?

Why is it that it has taken me 5 weeks to post... surely if I want to blog then I should not have to force myself! Am I not motivated due to the fact that this blog is for my dissertation? Had I focussed on something I really want to talk about and am passionate about, would I have contributed more by now? However, I find this topic interesting which is why I want to focus on this area for my dissertation- I wouldn't choose a subject I'm not interested in anyway.

Or maybe simply, I am a new blogger and this is one of the stages that a new blogger has to overcome in order to become a fully active blogger. Mmmm.. food for thought. Or even a better explanation for my absence might be that you do not need to blog every day or week, every two months is okay, isn't it?

WEB 2.0 - The Machine is Us/ing Us

I think this is genius!

Read, read and read

Yesterday's meeting with my tutor-Niall, didn't go to plan. Why? Well, my list of things to do got longer and longer and the realisation of what needs to be done before I can decide on my research question hit me like a brick.
Despite this realisation, I am feeling more motivated and have a better idea of what to do now. Niall was very friendly and helpful. At the same time he set clear tasks with clear deadlines- read and write 6-8 pages of your Literature in 4 weeks time. (whilst working full-time and doing a module on Research which requires lots of work!) The thing is this is exactly what I needed- someone to tell me what to do by a certain time. This will make me work - I hope.

Friday thoughts...

After a very busy week at work teaching Swiss teachers, a lecture on Research (first week back at uni) and my first contact with my dissertation tutor, the pressure is on. After much pondering and sharing of ideas with my colleagues, I have come to the decision of focussing on blogs in my dissertation despite any doubts I have had until now. The fact that there has not been much research on blogs should make this research more challenging and exciting. So the plan is to meet my tutor on Monday and my new class who will be hopefully helping me out for this project. Firstly, will read about Anne-BarlettBragg's blogging process this weekend and aim to write up a page outlining my ideas for my tutor. Secondly, I need to think about how I will get students to set up their own blogs in their first week and develop a rough plan/guide of integrating it in to our lessons and setting students tasks for their own blogs. The aim is to encourage use and more use with clear learning outcomes that are obvious to both learners and educators. Hopefully, my next post will be less of stream of consciousness and will consist of more of sensible and organised ideas.

Should I write about 'blogs in education' for my dissertation?

As I'm pondering on the idea of writing my dissertation on 'blogging in education', I thought I might as well stop uhmming and arghing and set up my own individual blog. Hopefully, this will help me organise my ideas and encourage me to make a decision on what to write my dissertation on. The clock is ticking and getting louder and louder, therefore I must make a decision on what topic to write about.

With this blog, I also hope to improve my class edublog. I started my first blog- Shanel's Cafe in April for my module and use it for my classes as a group blog. I would say that the blog has so far enhanced my students' learning and made their learning experience more fun. However, as I'm still a beginner in the blogosphere, I am not sure I have been able to fully exploit it yet as a classroom aid. I am working on it though!