Meeting the World through 'UO WebSkills'

 

The week is coming to an end and after taking a look at all of the blogs, I feel like I´ve been travelling around the world already. I have never had the chance to be in such an international group. People from neighboring countries (my case) like Paraguay and Uruguay and from so far away places like South Korea and Taiwan. I believe this is the perfect formula to see what´s the world doing regarding technology into the classroom. In this regard, I would love to sense the pulse of the degree of implementation that you are actually doing. Specifically the way you are using not only blogs but other web tools as well. In my opinion, blogs are 'work spaces' on which other web tools can be adapted. Blogging should not be seen as the final goal but as the beginningof the stepladder, setting the ground for cooperation, participation and mutual learning, whereby other web tools could be used, specifically web 2.0 tools. We have seen already, that we can network our blogs by using Blogger’s gadgets. Just click on your Layout, then on Add Gadget and you will be amazed at how many options you can get for your blog. Needless to say those gadgets are cosmetic elements to liven up the dynamics of a blog whereas Web 2.0 tools involve the operation of software to achieve certain tasks. For example, a talking tool like Voki (avatar maker) can be posted on a blog. I am pretty sure we are going to cover these tools in the near future. 

On the other hand, it took me just a bit to adapt to the 3 work platforms that are being used for running this 'Web Skills' course.  We have a lobby page (run by adm) and 2 activity sites (with user privileges) which required either password or authorization. Three separate spaces + participants' blogs. This whole bunch may require a dashboard :D I like the way it is. Likewise, I found it very thoughtful to have us debate about our own Grounding Rules for Discussion. That´s an excellent idea and it shows a very democratic approach to deal with this issue, and I am very grateful for participating. How wonderful would it be if many of our proposals as teachers were conducted like that.  This is something worth looking up to.

Also, I must acknowledge the efforts made by our core instructor , Janine, to be able to guide such a diverse group so smoothly and effectively. I can´t but imagine being on hers shoes. I have enjoyed being a student and tried to be on the side of the learner, but sometimes I just can´t resist to switch my view from a teacher perspective. Janine has been able to cope with such a demanding circumstance. Being able to read and post messages and answering through the 2 platforms + many blogs must not be so easy. I, respectfully, picture her like the following pic ;) And believe me, I have been there!!

What have I learn so far? I have experienced first-hand how it is to embrace a new learning environment from the point of view of a student. Metacognitively speaking, I am taking notes on the steps and procedures a teacher must follow when implementing an online course. UO people have set an excellent example. What kinds of e-mails to send first, how to present the information, how to keep participants from cognitive indigestion and the types of praises to deliver to promote a healthy learning atmosphere. 

Being a teacher I couldn´t resist making a list of my classmates and add some bio based on the information from their introductions. I did it to have a “big picture” and be able to track my postings on the blogs by the weeks. I have seen them all, they are all great, but I have not been able to give an answer to everyone yet. I hope to do that as the time goes by. By the following weeks I should be able to pay a visit to each one of you. Please, feel free to use this table if you find it useful. I plan to check-mark my postings so that I make sure not to leave anyone behind.  As for today, these are the blogs I have visited, skimmed and replied. Am I missing anyone? I appologize if I do.

	Name	Country/ level	Blog visited	Reply posted
1	Janine Sepulveda	USA – Core Instructor	√
2	Chiara Morandi	Paraguay - Elementary
3	Hyesun LEE	South Korea – High School	√
4	Mohini Bachani	India – University	√
5	Batool Albashier	Sudan- University	√	√
6	Erika uribe	Mexico – High School	√
7	María del Carmen Serrano Fernández	Spain- Secondary School	√
8	Ilham Zeroual	Morocco – High School
9	Andrea Argüelles	Mexico – High School	√
10	Maria de Fátima da Costa da Silva	Portugal – Teacher for 20 yrs.
11	Dzemal Spago	Bosnia - University	√
12	Naif Salem Alabri	Oman – Junior High	√
13	Juan Garcia	? – H.School/Univ
14	Fernando Baiza	Mexico – Univ/Teens	√
15	Diana Lira	Mexico – Basic level
16	Roxana Sordo	Uruguay – ?	√	√
17	Po-Yu Pen (yorpong)	Taiwan - Elementary	√
18	Samira Bakr	Egipt - University	√
19	Shirish Krishnarao More	India - Tertiary

Kick Off (Week 1)

Hello everyone out there! I am so glad to have started this course and be able to write my very first blog, even though I have been familiar with blogging. The instructions from blogger.com were very easy to follow for a digital immigrant like me. I take it that for younger students (digital natives) it must be very intuitive and instantaneous. That in itself is a tremendous advantage for teachers when it comes to ask them to open a blog for class. As for its purpose, I find the idea of reflecting on my learning progress as an outstanding strategy that will lead to mutual understanding and support besides setting a legacy for our followers and a nourishing place to come back often. I hope to learn as much from my classmates’ experience as I expect to from the syllabus. And I am certain this will be the case.

After reading the materials for week 1, these are my reflections. First off, I really like Campbells´article in that it takes the reader to the very root of blogging. This document may be considered as the one that set the principles of using a weblog in terms of categorization of its implementation as a pedagogic tool. It gives a clear picture of a blog usage from the point of view of the teacher, the student, and the class. Later it was cited and expanded by the BBC providing insightful ways of exploiting a weblog with students in an ESL context. I couldn´t agree more with all these recommendations. 

However, taking in consideration the swiftness of technology evolution which basically doubles its transformation almost every year, I might dare to say that the weblog that Campbell described and envisioned in 2003 may be a bit different of what a blog is today. Back then, a blog was considered a personal, individual victory for a separate space in the World Wide Web. A private place to ventilate your own being that was transformed, as time went by, in an interconnected, socially networked, and partly-owned place that is today. Just think of the new term ´micro-blogging´and wait to see what comes to your mind. 

Of course, the classic blog is still alive and kicking and this blog is a perfect example. In no way I am against it. I just want to highlight the fact that it has evolved and its presence in the cyberspace remains more of a permanent place for a topical matter or special interests. See, for example, the proliferation of blogs for teachers using technology into the classroom; there you could make a list that goes on and on every day. On the other hand, I think is a bit hard to find a student blog which remains active longer after his/her class has finished. There are exceptions though, but I think it will be the general rule. It is my hope to keep nourishing this one for the years to come, since edtech is one of my passions nowadays. This has also inspired me to write one in my native language on the same topic as well. There´s a great gap or need for information on technical support for educators in Venezuela, especially among those who speak Spanish only. 

Can a classic blog be used a class blog? Yes. Today many weblog softwares, including Blogger.com offer features and gadgets that make a blog suitable for running a classroom blog. Especially permanent pages that remain displayed in a toolbar or sidebar that could be used for showing steady components of a class like resources, teacher bio or specific content links and these will not be archived as regular postings. This is an example, Mr. C´s Class Blog. With time, patience and discipline we can build up a class blog like this, but today technology offers a way to achieve a level of complexity like Mr. C´s in less time. I will explain what I mean next.

Recall Campbell´s categorization. Wouldn´t it be nicer to have a tutor blog + a learner blog + the class blog in the same space? Today technology is moving more towards integration of these platforms and this equation is a reality as for today. LMS (Learning Management Systems) like Edomodo offer that possibility, where there are micro-blogs of the kinds described above, all intertwined and specifically bound to a class. The main characteristic of these student blogs in LMS is that they are time spanned to the length of the course they support but the contribution of the students in terms of creativity and participation in not undermined because of this constrain. Another form of merging blog evolution that call the attention of teachers and special interest groups as well is a Ning, where there is an integration of members’ blogs joined together around a topic or class. 

Form my point of view of as an ESL teacher, blogging offers limitless opportunities for engaging students in tasks like Larry Ferlazzo describes in his article. A space to encourage creativity and promote participation and socialization as well. How would I use blogging for class? Based on an article I read from The Teaching Professor Blog, Weimer recommends thinking developmentally when designing activities. She argues, and I agree entirely, that in order to promote deep learning on a subject, we as teachers should plan ways to develop skills in a progressive manner to achieve skillful stages of performance. Her article was aimed at curriculum developers and I think it could also be applied to blogging. A good idea for ESL/EFL teachers could be designing a progression of activities for reading, writing, speaking and listening in English in a meaningful way for students. Motivating and engaging activities that are aimed at improving performance in linguistic behavior. Of course, these skills should be planned according to their needs and context. It could be up to the teacher´s discretion to decide whether these tasks are implemented simultaneously for all linguistic skills or scaffolding progressively with each skill in a separate manner.  In my personal case, since I work for young adults in college whose main need for EFL is basically reading material for academic purpose, I would design tasks for such demand, without overlooking the rest of the kills, of course. 

There are other platforms to engage students in the creation of blogs besides Blooger.com. Posterous, for example, is a web space for blogging that offer many benefits in terms of easiness and compatibility with a wide range of multimedia. But for the purposes I described above, I will definitively go with a Ning. It gives me blogging promotion with students and total interaction, communication and teamwork in the same place!! It is, in my opinion, the best option to promote group learning in a collaborative environment; it is something I have used it in my own teaching.

To wrap up, weblog provide opportunities for creative thinking and information 

dissemination in particular ways. It could be thought of as a tool to expand, explore or develop ideas on a topic or freelance thinking. For teachers it could be thought of as a reservoir of resources, special links, and a reflection space. A place to interact permanently with students and world visitors as well on a given topic. And for students, it is a sandbox for creativity and inspiration.  As an instructional tool, it should be used as support axis for teaching and learning developmentally, following a well-designed program for achieving successful performance on a given skill practiced in a collaborative environment; in our case, the goal is reaching linguistic performance for communicative competence.