Blogging is a revolutionary pedagogical tool. Blogs are a piece of social software used to develop and communicate certain information in order to seek interaction with peers and why not experts in the field. In my opinion, and as a foreign language teacher, blogging nourishes in two facets of my professional growth: learning and teaching.
Through the interactive and collaborative aspect of blogging, many teachers have already seized on this technology to create an educational website: they offer online resources, share ideas and activities for the classroom, share what works and what do not. I truly believe that teaching itself is an ongoing learning experience for the educator; therefore, it is essential to communicate with peers and learn from them. For this reason and even more blogs are the right tool; they extend and enhance teachers’ collaboration from around the globe.
For my action research, I am planning on creating a content website for my students; blogs are a piece that I am excited to implement. Ducate & Lomicka (2008) asserted that blogs help develop literacy skills in a foreign language learning environment. Their research showed that blogs are productive because students feel comfortable when making mistakes; this should be monitored by a good strategy from the teacher. By using blogs, the educator ensure that students provide feedback to their peers and participate more actively than if they were in a classroom. Williams & Jacobs (2004) averred that blogs conform to Vygotski's social constructivist theory since they are based on feedback through interacting with peers. So the social and the commentary pieces of blogs converge into common goals: build the students self-esteem, enhance collaboration and make learning motivating and fun.
Blogs have various advantages; they are easy to create. Ring (2008) declared that blogs required no HTML, they could easily be updated and edited from anywhere. On her article she assured that students and teachers could create their own blogs to display writing and photos and to share information with each others; blogs could be set up to be "private" so only users allowed may access them.
Reference
Ducate, L.C., & Lomicka, L.L. (2008). Adventures in the blogosphere: from blog reader to blog writers. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 21(1), 9-28.
Williams, J.B. & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. Retrieved March 31, 2010, from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet20/williams.html
Ring. S (2008) Google for Educators: The Best Features for Busy Teachers. Edutopia Retrieved March 31, 2010, from http://www.edutopia.org/google-educators
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