1st
Week
What
is a weblog? What is a wiki?
"Blogging is an exploration.
You start from nothing and learn as you go."
(adapted from
E L Doctorow)
Recommended Readings
Pre-reading for Anne Davis chat:
ESL/EFL
Weblogs: An Overview of Weblogs
For those of you still unsure of what a weblog/wiki are or want to recap, please read more about them by following some or all of the links below. Feel free to review last year's Evonline session on blogs
- The
difference between blogs and message boards
- Wiki
Grab Bag
-
For those who like statistics:
The State of blogging (pdf file)
When you have lots of extra time:
Into the Blogosphere
Educational Wikis: features and selection criteria
Individual TasksBefore you start, you may want to print and fill in this KWL chart before/after every week as you go along. It may help you organize your thoughts and reflection on your blog later.
Since this course is all about blogs (and you will be also using a wiki), the best way to learn about them is to jump in and start using them right away. Even if you have your own blog with some other provider, please open an account with Blogger to post your reflections on this workshop. You will also need it to participate in our collective blog. It is OK to use a blog (Blogger) you have already set up for the individual tasks. Be sure to adjust the settings as suggested below.
Step 1: Opening an account and adjusting settings
Task Set #1:
-
Open an account at Blogger. If you are unsure about experimenting on your own and need to know beforehand what lies ahead, you can always have a look at these tutorials :
- Before you start posting on your blog, you should make sure you have adjusted your blog settings and make sure you have activated your comment area.
Step 2: Making your first post
Task Set #2
You may choose among the following options - or do them all :-)
-
a) Comment on the picture and the quotation above in the light of what you have read and done this week
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b) Write about the most important thing you've learned so far this week
-
c) Write about what you still find confusing
Step 3: Adding your Resource to the wiki
Task Set #3
- Open an account in the Blog EFL/ESL wiki and add your Blogger URL (and all other urls you may have to other blogs) to the Wiki Blogroll in the Community Portal Page . Please use your first name and surname (and not the name of the blog) for the alphabetical order.
You will be soon receiving an invitation to join the collective blog. As soon as you accept it, you will see your name appear in the list of contributors and you will be able to post in the main body your assigned collective tasks.
Collective TasksPlease click here to volunteer for the task
you know you can be responsible for this week
-
Group 1 (Wiki): Transcribe all the useful links of this session to the Wiki adding a description, and a comment or review.
- Group 2 (Wiki): Pool and list all the questions and answers that have popped up in YG, grouping them together according to subject and start a FAQ section.
- Group 3 : (Comment Area of Personal Blogs): Comment on the posts (Task #2) made in the participants' blogs. Find their blogs from the blogroll or the photoroll.
-
Group 4 (Collective Blog): Review the transcript from Anne Davis chat and summarize it for the people who were not present. You may want to use the wiki page to brainstorm collectively and/or the draft function in Blogger before publishing the final version to the blog.
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Group 5 (Collective Blog): Write a summary report of the week. You may want to use the wiki page to brainstorm collectively and/or the draft function in blogger before publishing the final version to the blog.
Points to consider:
- how easy/difficult it was for you to set up an account
- what most surprised you about blogs/wikis
- some of the difficulties that you envisage when setting them up in your class and how you may go around/solve these problems
- what wikis and blogs have in common, how they differ
- if you think blogs/wikis may be useful tools in EFL/ESL and why
