Mod 2: Blogs in the L2 Classroom

I'll have to start this post eating crow! Anyone I've ever met that blogs (and I checked it out) does so in order to scream and rant and rave about their political beliefs, and subsequently hound their coworkers asking, "Did you read my latest blog post about..." To the wind with political sensitivity and respect, right?! And so, I've always thought blogs were just a medium for obnoxious, attention-seeking people to have a potentially global audience. But, I also figured that no one actually reads any of this "crap."

However, our text Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson explains that blogs are a forum for communication, collaborative news sharing, and tool to expand classroom organizations and student learning beyond geographic limitations.

My assignment is to list several ways that blogs can be used in an L2 classroom while supporting academic standards, for example standards in the United States (as modified by No Child Left Behind). You can go to TESOL.org to read and outline of the  K -12 TESOL standards.  I'm not sure that that blogs would be an appropriate learning tool for L2 students until they reach a certain level of proficiency and comfort in their English language studies, maybe at least an intermediate level,...simply because the nature of blogs has a goal towards collaboration and creative interconnectedness between people and ideas. That being said, two of the domains within TESOL standards are reading and writing.  The are quoted off of TESOL.org below:

Reading

English language learners process, interpret, and evaluate written language, symbols, and text with understanding and fluency. Learning to read in a second language may be enhanced or hindered by students’ level of literacy in their native language. Students who have a strong foundation in reading in their first language bring with them skills that can be readily transferred in the process of learning to read in English.

Writing

English language learners use written communication for a variety of purposes and audiences. Writing can be used to express meaning through drawing, symbols, or text. English language learners may come with writing styles influenced by their home cultures.

Having learned foreign languages myself within an academic setting, as a student it can be very limiting having only a teacher (and other students who are also struggling to learn) to interact with. Using a blog can connect students from different classrooms within the school to different classrooms within the world. Let's say in my teaching career, I find myself teaching in a foreign country like Japan. I could perhaps have a classroom blog where we post writing prompts. If I were to coordinate this process with an American classroom learning Japanese, then the students will have more people to communicate with and learn from, than one teacher within  their class. Conversations on the class blogs could include both English and Japanese languages, causing each set of classroom students to both be learners involved in their own learning and teachers involved in the learning of a peer class halfway around the world.

An interesting feature of blogger.com is a translation service built in. Students will no doubt "process, interpret, and evaluate written language, symbols, and text with understanding and fluency," and they will gain a strong understanding of how to "use written communication for a variety of purposes and audiences." 

Richardson also discusses how a class could engage in the use of a blog as a way to structure and organize assignments and create a transparency and open forum for parents to be more easily involved in their child's education. On page 39 of the text, Richardson states that a class blog could be used to "post class-related information such as calendars, events, homework assignments, and other pertinent class information," as well as communicate with parents, especially if you are working with young students. Parental involvement within the school community and advocating for the student's education has been particularly stressed by the No Child Left Behind Act and the Department of Education .  

Outside of the classroom,  blogs can be used by educators in order to share ideas about teaching experiences, discuss ideas about best practices and why a classroom effort did not work as planned, and share specific teaching activities and language games specific to curriculum goals (p39, Richardson). 

We are in a whole new world of technological advances, which are creating a whole new world of possibilities. And blogging, being no different, has truly redefined what we can incorporate into our classrooms taking away many geographic and public accessibility limitations that have limited our global communication in the past. I just hope that I can keep up!