Blogging

I agree with Susana that a blog has created a collaborative environment for learning. There is no doubt that a blog can be an affective tool to enhance a group learning atmosphere which ultimately makes a learner an autonomous learner. As Stanley (2005) argues that a blog does not only develop students' reading ability but also develops their writing ability. Writing in the blog for example enhances learners' ability to write for the peers and other real-life audiences but not only for their teachers as it happens in the traditional way of writing. The most important point in Stanley's article is that the use of the blog involves the students in a process-based writing. But I doubt with Susan's question (in her posting) – whether blogging can be art. Yes, it can be an art as you can upload photographs and make it more attractive with different designs and images. However, when students focus more on the art they might be focusing on technology which may not help in language learning as Santana (2010) argues that 'technology doesn't help you learn; interaction helps you learn' and ' [we should] focus on the activities, not on the technology'. This clearly indicates that Stanley's article lacks a comprehensive discussion on how the blog can be more interactive and activity focused. What sort of task should be designed to make the blog more interactive is an important issue at this point.

I also agree with all of the previous postings especially of Naveda that we can integrate all four language skills through the blog. Moreover, we can also teach different aspects of a language e.g. vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation through the blog. We can create different class blogs where students have to find out the meaning of the new words from their course and make one meaningful sentence of their own using the words. When they put their example sentences in the blog other students come up with different sentences for the same word. This develops students' vocabulary and grammar simultaneously through collaboration.

Among the three blogs (Teaching ESL to Adults, ESL Class Blog and Larry Ferlazzo's blog) the first two are better than the third one. It is because the first two blogs provide more varieties of tasks so that students can interact each other. At the same time, they have a lot of reflection on the lessons both from the teachers and students which I think is useful for improving our teaching for better students' learning. But, as others have already commented in the blog, the third blog tends to make only a list without providing any practical tasks for the students. This comparison indicates that if the blog or any technology does not make learners active, social, and it is not learner-centered, there is no point in using technology in the calssroom (Oblinger and Oblinger, 2005). Based on this, I argue that I should use the blog not only for information sharing but also for engaging students in a meaningful interaction. For this, I use post the task for the students in the blog along with some sample activities and invite their concrete comments on them. And then, I ask all of them to reflect on the usefullness the tasks they were involved in.

Sincerely yours
Prem

References
Oblinger, D., & Oblinger, J. (2005). Is it age or IT? In D. &. Oblinger, Educating the NET Generation. Washington, DC: EDUCAUSE.
Santana, D. (2010) Points to consider when using technology in the classroom. Available online at http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2010/sessions/2010-04-08/points-consider-when-using-technology-classroom-1.