Blogs as a tool for teaching

As a way to start, I must address what is a blog, a blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries, mostly known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, “blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. The blogs provide a valuable filtering function for their readers” (Blood, 2000). Blogs have evolved throughout the years becoming an essential part of the internet culture, “blog editors sometimes contextualize an article by juxtaposing it with an article on a related subject; each article, considered in the light of the other, may take on additional meaning, or even draw the reader to conclusions contrary to the implicit aim of each. It would be too much to call this type of weblog "independent media," but clearly their editors, engaged in seeking out and evaluating the "facts" that are presented to us each day” (Blood, 2000), one of the main aspects of the blog is how its subjected to the author’s ideas and opinions and changes to its requirements, in fact it is this same aspect that turns the blog into a useful teaching tool.

Now, how it can be used as such. For starters the students of today have a major connection towards technology, therefore applying the use of technology in the classroom can be proven as a way to make the class more relatable to the student, “when technology integration in the classroom is seamless and thoughtful, students not only become more engaged, they begin to take more control over their own learning, too. Effective tech integration changes classroom dynamics, encouraging student-centered project-based learning” (George Lucas Educational foundation, 2007). The use of technology can help the new generation of students to enter in an environment that can engage them and motivate them to learn. However there are certain details that do need to be addressed, “how we define "technology integration" depends on the kinds of technology available and how much access one has to technology. This definition also depends on who is using the technology. For instance, in a classroom with only an interactive whiteboard and one computer, learning will still remain teacher centered and integration will revolve around teacher needs, which are not necessarily student needs” (George Lucas Educational foundation, 2007), the use of the technology is limited by the tools available which, depending on the educational context, may interfere completely with the goals of the lesson. Although it is through this same reasoning that it can be concluded that the use of blogs for teaching are the best way to apply technology for the students. According to the data stipulated by “Educarchile”, most schools have computers in their possession, bringing the relation to ten students per computer, so it is agreeable that the students possess by default access to the internet.  As for the use of the blogs, the blog consists of a simple tool that can be altered to fit the necessities of the students, in some cases it can be used as a mean of stocking the information delivered during the classes, in other cases it can be given to the students as an individual or group tool for them to use as a mean to deliver their homework, stock information, express their opinions towards the subject at hand and many more.

We stated that the blog can be used as a mean of teaching, it can be applied to any area but I will focus on the area of language teaching. In the aspect of second language acquisition, the learning process can take place in many ways, depending on the type of input applied, and it is this versatility of teaching that relates it to the blogs. The blogs can be used in the learning process of an L2 by altering itself to the needs of the students, an example would be to encourage the students to use the blog as a platform for them to express their opinions on the classes, this way they can practice writing as well as improving their critical thinking skills.  Between the abilities that the blog can be used to improve more than others are reading and writing. Blogs mostly consists of posts, written entries, which regard a certain topic, the idea of the post is to be a written version of the author’s thoughts and for it to be read by an audience. By taking this into consideration it is understandable that the blog, may excel on working with those abilities.

Therefore, as to only select one, the ability that I shall work with will be writing which will be improved through the use of the blog. The main idea is for the students to every week, post an entry on their personal blogs, which shall be created previously, in regards of their experiences in the classroom, making of their second language, focusing on what did they learned, what they were unable to comprehend and how they would improve the class in general. The activity shall be applied from 10^th to 12^th grade students, considering that they require a minimum understanding of the use of the second language to be able to efficiently express themselves. The activity aims towards helping the student improve their writing capabilities and to create the space for them to handout their opinions freely. However, there are certain limitations regarding the activity that must be taken into consideration: first of all, the requirement for the student to not only possess a computer but also access to the internet, which if by chance they found themselves in a lack of it they will have no choice but to make use of the computer lab from the school in available hours, cutting their working time greatly; another issue is the need of a minimum understanding of English, certain students, even though their at this level in their schools, might not possess the required level of English to put the activity in motion, by simply being unable to express themselves correctly; and finally the fear of certain students to expressing themselves, teenagers tend to close themselves up from others in fear of hurting themselves or others, therefore having them express freely will be a difficult obstacle to overcome.

In conclusion, the use of the blog may prove to be a valuable learning tool for the student, considering that students today relate to technology more than before, as well as by being able to alter itself to fit the needs of the lesson, however the drawbacks may be difficult to overcome initially which in turn may create a lack of motivation to pursue the methodology, but the results might prove the value of risking to application of the activity.

References

Blood, R. (2000). weblogs: a history and perspective. Obtenido de rebecca's pocket: http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

George Lucas Educational foundation. (2007). Edutopia. Obtenido de How to Integrate Technology: https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation