week1

Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes Written by Aaron Patric Campbell

There are 3 Types of Weblogs for Use in ESL classroom such as the tutor blog , the learner blog and the class blog.

Firstly, The Tutor Blog is a type of weblog that is run for the learners.

       * It gives daily reading practice to the learners. Sometimes students find assigned reading material. Entries are kept short, geared towards the learner interest and linked to related online sources for further reading if desired.

       * It promotes exploration of English websites ought to encourage further exploration of the Internet in English by linking to related articles and content based websites.

       * It encourages online verbal exchange by use of comment buttons. Blog reader can make a comment that can ask your students questions, give them riddles, challenge their views. 

       * It provides class or syllabus information that also serve to remind students about homework assignments and upcoming discussion topics.

       * It serves as a resource of links for self-study. The blog permanent links can be set-up and organized to aid the learner in self-study.

Secondly, The Learner Blogs are blogs that are either run by individual themselves or by small collaborative groups of learners. The students can get writing practice, develop a sense of ownership and get experience with the practical, legal, ethical issues and exchange of ideas is promoted.

Lastly ,The Class Blog is that students can get writing practice, develop a sense of ownership and get experience with the practical, legal, ethical issues and exchange of ideas is promoted.
The Class Blog The result of the collaborative effort of an entire class.

       * In conversation-based classes to post messages, images and links though on a common theme assigned for homework discuss idea.

      * With intermediate and advanced learners also useful for project based language learning to develop research and writing skills.

      * Learners from different countries would have joint access and publishing rights to the blog. The entire exchange would then be transparent to all readers and could be followed and commented on by other learners, tutors, parents and friends.

      * Individual learners can be given varying amounts of responsibility to publish material arising from postings on the discussion list.

       
         By introducing the 3 types of weblogs above and mentioning the software necessary, I hope to draw the attention of other practitioners to both the potential that weblogs have to support classroom based ESL learning and the ease with which an ESL blogging project could be started.