Today I did my reading on Blogging for ELT . The article strenghtened my belief in the importance of blogging with students as a new learning tool.
I also read two excellent posts by fellow bloggers Azhar and Cami, where they give examples of how to engage students in blogging projects.
Now I would like to share my personal experience with you. I have been blogging with my students for a year now. However, we started off with Ning, which is rather a social network, not a blogging platform, although blogging and commenting are possible. The reason I chose Ning was that it presented the opportunity to create a virtual classroom and a safe environment. Now I must say that my students were 16 years old at that time and all of them had been well-experienced in social networking websites in general and Facebook in particular.
However, most of them were first-time bloggers and this is where our Ning network proved of great value in helping them overcome their fears of having their thoughts read by a wide audience of known and unknown readers. After some time we opened up the door to a class of sophomores from Colorado and both blogging and commenting flourished.
Later on I created a Learner Blog on Edublogs. Each of my students was given their own blog and I was proud when I saw how positively they responded to the new environment. However, at the end of school year they told me they were in favour of the Ning site, as it gave them a strong sense of belonging and togetherness.
Thank you , Arjana, for being so supportive for all of us. I managed to create the blog list following your explanations .
ReplyDeleteAs I already wrote on my blog I really intend to use the blog as means of making our work with students better seen .I can say that you inspire me at a great extend . I feel that I can go off full score .
The next step is to check the Ning network .Because one decision carries another .Right ?
Hi Cami,
ReplyDeletethank you for your kind words:-)
Unfortunately, Ning is not free any more. They have introduced several pricing plans and their services won't remain free for educators. We'll have to find some other free social networking sites.
All the best
Arjana
Hi Arjana,
ReplyDeleteI think it is a valuable experience you did with your students. But, let me ask you some questions: What English areas were developed by Ning site? and Can we replace the Ning site with Facebook.
Yours,
Azhar
Hello, Arjana. I'm taking a peek at your blog and your reflections about blogs are quite interesting. It's good to know I'm not alone in this blog thing journey. How we keep learning a lot from one another.
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Johwyson.
Hi dear Arjana,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for sharing your blogging experience with your students. It seems that you have had an enjoyable journey through the teaching year... Azhar asked important questions regarding your experience or should I say experiment? I am waiting for your reply too.
Best,
Khuloud.
Hi Marjana,
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed by your blogging dynamism and and the way you used this tool for educational purposes. 'm sure we will learn a lot from your blogging experience.
I would appreciate it if you tell us more on your students language performance after you'd turned them into bloggers. Did they learn better than before?
Regards
Arbi
Hello dear classmates,
ReplyDeletethank you for your kind words:-)
As to Azhar's question on the Ning site vs. Facebook, I would say that these are two different things. Facebook is only a social network that will keep you in touch with your friends worldwide in a way that you can post short messages and upload photos and videos and write comments.
You can do this on Ning as well, but Ning will allow you to have your personal page where you can post blogs that can be as long as you want them to be.
However, Ning is not free anymore, and therefore I wouldn't recommend it. There are other free social network sites that can be used for teaching.
Arbi, what I noticed about my students' language performance is that they have become more confident in expressing their ideas in a language that is not their mother tongue. However, a lot needs to be done regarding their accuracy.
All the best
Arjana