Introduction

Using Weblogs in ESL/EFL Classes:
New Developments, Uses, and Challenges

Introduction

The power of blogs allows for creative, constructive, flexible, student-driven, decentralized, intercultural collaborative learning to flourish 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The use of blogs in ESL/EFL is not without its difficulties and challenges, though. When we introduce a virtual aspect to our small classroom communities, numerous questions arise.

drawing by Natalie d' Arbeloff

How do we best get our students started with blogging? How do we convince them of its benefits?
What tools are the best to use? Once they get blogging, how do we track and monitor the activities taking place?
How do we deal with problems, both technical and pedagogical, as they arise?
As facilitators, how can we help shape the online experience to best meet the needs of the learners, allowing them to communicate better and learn more effectively?
How can we help our learners develop their own voice and style?
How can we create opportunities for collaboration and bring the outside world into the classroom?
What can we do to not only cultivate, but also maintain our blog-based communities beyond the end of the school term?

Let us now embark on our journey of discovery in blogosphere
and together try to blog out some of the answers!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Webquest designed by
Aaron Campbell, Barbara Dieu and Graham Stanley
for Evonline 2005 workshop on Blogs in EFL/ESL Classes