Web collaborator and EVO2005

I'm just finishing off an article for the IATEFL Computer sig journal on Web Collaborator, using my experience of collaborating on the Weblogging EVO2005 project.

Here's a taster:

"What I didn’t realise when I said 'yes' to EVO2005 was that my ‘yes’ was going to lead me feeling like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole on an exhausting (but very fulfilling) online adventure.

I now think she should have presented me with two pills:

‘Graham, you take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red EVO2005 pill and you stay in Blogging Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.’

Well, I took that red EVO2005 pill and have been plunged into a fascinating online adventure, with 179 registered members using an alarming array of online collaborative tools : There’s the email list, the course webquest, individual reflective blogs linked to a collective discussion blog, all of which feed RSS and Atom feeds to an aggregator that allows participants to keep on top of updates. And then there’s the course wiki (which we hope will become a more long-term resource) not to mention the online text chat and audio web-conference tools for our weekly guest speaker sessions."

And the great thing is that it's only just begun.

Change of direction

After reading about Bee's new live journal, I realised that I needed to rationalise my two weblogs.

I was going to use this one during the EV2005 weblogging course, but I've decided it's silly of me to have them both filling up with stuff about blogging and EFL/ESL.

So, I'm going to use blog-efl to post about blogging and efl/esl, and this one for reflections, etc about mt teaching.

Elluminate / Interwise - recorded demonstrations and events

Eluminate Live! is the tool that was used at Learning Times for the session with James Farmer, allowing participants to talk over the Internet, text chat and share a whiteboard and applications. I've just come back from taking one of the Elluminate recorded demonstrations entitled 'Getting the most from your online training', which I found fascinating.

If there's anyone else out there who (like I am) is new to this technology, then I recommend taking a look at some of these demos, not only for the content, but also to see how experienced moderators use these tools to best effect.

It just so happens that I've been involved in other sessions using a similar product, called Interwise, and this also has recorded demos available to watch, but this software seems to be targeted more at the private sector (in particular sales), although there are some sessions of interest (one, for example that I took a look at was about blended learning). What I didn't like was the necessity with Interwise of filling in a form before you can watch the recorded events. However, I did prefer the ease at which you can scroll through the presentation at Interwise by clicking on the slide title (this fast forwarded the auio at the same time) that interests you. This is not as effective using Elluminate.

Fascinating stuff!

This is a test post

Because of work, I missed the chat today with ...

Dana Watson in East Lansing, Michigan,USA,
Yu Hua Chen (Stella), in Changhua City, Taiwan
Jason Reagin in Suzhou, China

... but was able to read the transcript, and I decided to make a summary here about what was discussed, and add my own comments & observations. To make this read different to the transcript, I have tried to order what was said more thematically.

The three guests have recently started blogging and have been involved in some interesting projects.

Dana first started blogging when she first went to Japan to avoid sending out mass emails, and was more than happy when she realised she ended up with an excellent record of her time in Japan. she also realised that because she was blogging, she also started noticing things that she otherwise would have missed, while looking for something to blog about.

Stella came to blogging through her Masters course, and weblogs ended upbeing one of her research areas. She created a personal linguistic blog, and a Taiwanese community blog. She is now very interested in how blogging can improve proficiency in English (especially speaking and listening), especially as most of her classes are held online.

Jason was introduced to bloggign by the IATEFL Issues article 'Introducing your students to blogs' and also was invited to present a paper at a conference in Beijing, and decided to do so on blogging. He started his own professional / personal blog, and has been blogging ever since.


General comments and observations:

Dana commented that blogging has now become accessible to more people, and that blogging helped her learn more about computers in general.

Stella mentioned the difficulty in keeping interaction with students going without pressure and has experienced problems with student motivation because they are afraid of making mistakes.

Jason said he believed learners liked the idea of being published, and of having a voice, and that blogs give opportunities for learners to be individuals and to receive instant teacher feedback in the form of comments. another advantage was the increase in learner confidence and pride in student work.

Motivating students:

From the discussion that followed, it was clear that how students take to blogging was mixed. It might well depend upon their age (Stella's learners are college slackers, Bee's students were much younger, and more exctited about blogging).

Susan pointed out that students were motivated by the novelty of blogging and of CALL in general, and that this usually wore off.

Dana's way of dealing with this was by focusing on the content, as she got the students to turn their blogs into personal reporting projects.

The key, believes Bee, is in encouraging the students to be productive and active.

Aaron suggested centring the blogs on the students' interests to help keep momentum when the novelty factor disappears.

Correcting student writing:

The question of correction arose, and Bee stated that her learners preferred her to correct them, whereas Stella's learners seemed to fear correction.

Bee said this was a change from normal classes, when the student would not take notice of corrected written work. The difference is probably due to the fact that when the learners know that there's an audience for their written work, they pay more attention to mistakes, preferring the work that is published to be as correct as possible.

The pros and cons of compulsory blogging

This subject came up, and Stella said that her students were excited about blogging at first, but after a few weeks they stopped blogging if teachers did not give them assignments to do in their blogs.

Dana said she gives her students a standing assignment, expecting 3 posts per week. +

Other benefits of blogging

Stella believes that blogging benefits shy students, and is very happy that some of her students have found a voice through blogging.

Time constraints

Jason mentioned the time constraints of the teacher as being a problem, and that checking blogs and writing comments is very time consuming. RSS feeds, and aggregators have helped with this.

A suggestion for helping the teacher's workload was by getting outsiders involved in the blogging and encouraging the students themselves to write comments on their colleagues' posts.

Feedback

The importance of feedback was stressed, and how this contributes to keeping the students motivated in posting to their blogs.


zzzzzzzzzzzz

I don't have time to finish this now, but I will publish it anyway and come back to it tomorrw

Live blog - James Farmer at Alado

‘Communication Dynamics’ Web Presentation & Seminar

This is my first attempt at live blogging, so please excuse the mistakes, etc... I tried my best to get down all that I could, although I'm aware that I missed a lot as my typing is not that good...

James: Incorporated subversion is meant to embody the essence of the Internet, and is is the at the opposite end of the spectrum to WebCT and Blackboard (sorry for the paraphrasing, but I can't type very fast! :)

James: A Community of Enquiry : socail presence / cognitive presence and teaching presence.

James: Social presence : ability of teachers to project themselves and create a community. Teaching presence: the ability of the teacher to actually facilitate the development of sp and cp.

James: Often overlooked is the actual communication medium, and that's what we're going to have a look at now.

(slides of different communication environments) - James: There are a number of ways that the traditional classroom environment can be subverted to create an environment more conducive to groupwork and communication. One example is the corridoor - one argument is that an open plan environment is more conducive to a communicative environment.

James: Television - it's almost impossible to have an interactive TV without adding expensive equipment (set top box, etc) . Online environments - perhaps the most familiar to people.

James: How does a discussion board add to interactive communication? Can use avatars,etc. Can enter into conversation, but difficult for conversation to be sustained - don't know if a message posted to discussion board will be read by colleagues. Then they have to go and make a response - en fin, this requires people visiting and does not help a community enquiry model - it's hard to have a kind of discussion that can be had with a mailing list, and this is why a lot of teachers use email lists, etc, to try and promote a community of enquiry. It is, however, possible to develop a community of enquiry using a discussion board, but it's very difficult to do so.

James: There are lots of problems with email still.

James: I have been subscribed to Yahoo RSS feeds, but this has proved to be a limited communicative experience.

James: Moving onto the weblog environment. [6 images]. RSS is probably one of the most important part of the weblog phenomena, as using an aggregator, you're able to read hundreds of different weblogs from one area - and this is great as it avoids spam, and is far more a matter of choice than the email environment. You choose what you want to read.

James: Blogs are like organic cities that don't develop in neatly organised areas, unlike how a lot of VLEs are set up. A weblog environment is a very communicative environment. A weblog is a very individual, owned space. There are collaborative weblogs, but these more often than not these form a type of publication and an individual weblog is very much owned by one person and reflects their character, etc...

James: [different models of weblog environments] - online learning environment - each of the blogs are aggregated into the environment. Has a lot of potential - capitalises on the benefits of weblogs. Final diagram represents individual weblogs, individual aggregators (as well as having a central aggregator). Bloglines users will know how easy this model seems to be.

James: Weblogs may be able to develop sp, cp & tp. Communities of Enquiry. Weblogs are very much developed and sustained by individual weblogs - you are in essence projecting your real persona through your weblog. It promottes sustained reflection - for example, journalism, diaries. I believe that sustained discourse takes place, and as people know they are writing for an audience, this means that discourse is being created. Although a student may choose not to subscribe to a teacher's weblog, a similar model in a teaching environment will be that - a student will want to subscribe to a teacher's feed, and the teacher's voice coming through the student weblogs has much more influence than a post on a discussion board.

James: Trackback is also important.

James: [Final Slide] Where to from here? Drupal/Wordpress/Schooltool. What's exciting is thinking that a university may well give each enrolled student a weblog as they enroll, and a netwrok may well develop.

These open source tools allows institutions to develop sustainable learning environments - they are flexible because they are open source, and they can be developed and added to and they provide an exciting future of possibilities.

Aaron: I have a problem - the relationship between online learning and the communication relationships. Not explicit is the relationship between these environments and the there is a dependency. In what way can we use weblogs that are very dispersed and still be used by institutions that are not ready to accept them because of their mentality

James: Have these tools the capacity to change or develop people's approaches to learning? I use Drupal because of one of these...a Blackboard user would be more comfortable with am internal, closed weblog rather than an open, chaotic system that they best offer.

James: The design of online environments is very much like those of physical learning environments - design a place where people can relax and be who they want and you'll get a different kind of discussion than if the environment is ordered and strict, etc...the environment influences the communication dynamics.

Aaron: Using weblogs in Japan has meant that the students can have more freedom and they like this, although they are not used to been given this type of freedom, and this did not really work for some of the students.

James: We are products of traditional schooling environments, and things are different in business contexts often - they are perhaps more open. One question is how to empower individual teachers.

Cleve: It is possible to get the people who make these decisions involved in blogging?

Bee: When I started blogging from school, the children could do it from school or at home. The librarian was furious when she saw them blogging from school and told the technical department to close down the blogs. It took weeks for them to be reopened again. Also, Orkut has been used by the children, and the school closed this to stop students from communicating and having fun with others.

Susan: How do you incorporate blogs in your syllabus? How much class time do you devote to it, and is it a major part of the assessment?

James: Good question. How do you incorporate blogs into the curriculum? Reflective writing is a proven way of learners developing their understanding. The research backs it up. If you ask the majority of teachers how well they do this (traditional journals) - if they are not doing this every day, then learning journals are not particularly high quality. Blogging - it is socially motivating. People have an audience, and this is a very socailly motivating experience - in essence, if they are reflecting on their learning, then it's wonderful. It is an alternative curriculum tool for teachers interested in reflective journals.

James: A subverive approach to encouraging other teachers to use blogs

Bee: [Shows example of blog]- people commenting on other blogs.

James: Another way is through open questions. Can ask students to post responses to questions, and a teacher can comment on these in class.

Cleve: I have learned more in the last five days from the blogging than any other time. This is the strongest testimony that I can make about how that could be useful for students.

Bee: Aaron's post this morning talked about how people come through their blogs, and you get to know them.
James: [ìnc sub site] Inc Sub - aims to host, design and support teachers and content management systems. Will help teachers who need the help to promote open source for education. Can also try out a Drupal environment, a mid-way point between constrained management system and the wild world of blogging.

James: There's more here: incorporated subversion:

Technology, Design, Community, Pedagogy etc.
Communication dynamics: Discussion boards, weblogs and the development of communities of inquiry in online learning environments
posted on 5/10/2004

- the paper on which this presentation was based.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Edited Alado chat transcript:

Note for non-attendees: A lot of the comments here were reactions to the audio. However, I've left most of it as it is - I think it reads quite subversive :)

Susan Marandi ha ingresado en la sala
James ha ingresado en la sala
Cleve ha ingresado en la sala
Gerry ha ingresado en la sala
Bee ha ingresado en la sala
ale weser ha ingresado en la sala
aaronpc ha ingresado en la sala
brunao ha ingresado en la sala
Aladoadmin ha ingresado en la sala
Daf - Caracas ha ingresado en la sala
JoelB ha ingresado en la sala
blogefl ha ingresado en la sala
DannaW ha ingresado en la sala

[Susan Marandi] Sorry, I'm afraid i didn't get that
[Daf - Caracas] fine sound
[Susan Marandi] Where's synchronized browsing?
[aaronpc] it works
[Bee] ok
[brunao] it's fine
[Cleve] OK works
blogefl ha ingresado en la sala
[Bee] can you see the pages?
[aaronpc] hi graham
[DannaW] yes, works here.
[ale weser] it works here
[James] Great plan!
[blogefl] hi everyone
[James] Hiya
[James] Does everyone see the new page too
[Bee] Hi Graham
[aaronpc] yes james
[Aladoadmin] yes
[Bee] yes
hala ha ingresado en la sala
[ale weser] yes, with the photos ...
Sarolta ha ingresado en la sala
[aaronpc] brb
[hala] Oh I finally did it
[Susan Marandi] No, sorry if I'm being stupid; what should I do again?
[Bee] looks good
[brunao] are the link on these pages live?
[James] some of them
[brunao] very cool
[aaronpc] lookin good
[James] bad idea to have too many links... you'd all wander off!
[Bee] school tool took a long time to load
[brunao] no, we're good students! :-)
[James] heh, I'm not
[Bee] lol
[hala] cookies???
[Daf - Caracas] when you push a page, everybody goes to it so they will come back from their wandering, James ;-)
[James] Hurrah!
[aaronpc] lol
[James] Blogger-conscription
JeffC ha ingresado en la sala
[aaronpc] awfully quiet all the sudden!
[Daf - Caracas] hi, Jeff
[Bee] yes...people do not dare look up
[aaronpc] lol
[Bee] I saw bruna looking for her pencil under the chair
[Cleve] how would the livebolgging work...on blogspot?
[Bee] yes
[brunao] i was hiding behind Cleve
[Cleve] I noticed
Maggi ha ingresado en la sala
[Cleve] OK I'll try!
[Daf - Caracas] :waves hi to Maggi
[aaronpc] shameless!
[James] heh :O)
[Bee] absolutely
[Gerry] Are you recording for your next podcast James?
jchaupart-Colombia ha ingresado en la sala
[Daf - Caracas] :waves hi to JM
[Bee] bonsoir JM
[Aladoadmin] Hola JM,
[Maggi] waves to Daf
[Bee] Hi Maggi
[Daf - Caracas] fine
[aaronpc] fine
[James] hearing you loud and clear!
[Gerry] Toolow
[Maggi] Hi Bee
[James] OK, medium and clear
[JeffC] there's a slider at the bottom to adjust both microphone and speaker.
[Bee] very very low
[James] You're too quiet
[Daf - Caracas] very low, aaron
[Bee] better
[James] yes
[jchaupart-Colombia] Hi, hello, salut from Colombia
[Daf - Caracas] fine here
[brunao] yes
[Bee] but could be a bit louder
[Bee] a bit louder
[Daf - Caracas] yes, Susan
[Cleve] good susan
[James] Susan, you sound fine, a bit louder might be better
[Bee] I guess I am deaf
[aaronpc] yes..you are ok susan
[James] Hi hal you sound OK
[aaronpc] very scratchy
[Susan Marandi] thanks
[Daf - Caracas] some background noise, Hala
[James] a little noise but volume is OK
[Bee] no sound from Graham
[James] blogefl, declare yourself
[Daf - Caracas] no sound
[James] :)
[Bee] he blogs therefore he is
[hala] my husband snoring.no kidding
[Daf - Caracas] lol
[James] haha
[aaronpc] lol
[Bee] and give me two minutes to introduce you
[Bee] wonderful
[Bee] this is what I needed
[aaronpc] yea!
Daf - Caracas ha dejado la sala
[Bee] yes cleve
[Bee] impressions please
[Bee] first hand impressions
Chris Jones ha ingresado en la sala
[Bee] Hi Chris..
[Aladoadmin] Hi Chris
[aaronpc] try again graham
Daf - Caracas ha ingresado en la sala
[Bee] outer space alien
[aaronpc] not hearing anything
[Susan Marandi] you hit it, Bee!
[Bee] very strange
[Daf - Caracas] I was disconnected for a while
[Susan Marandi] Scary, huh?
[Gerry] No mic for my pc :<( [Gerry] Yikes [Chris Jones] Hi, Bee, Daf, and all, [aaronpc] hey chris! [Daf - Caracas] :waves hi to Chris [Chris Jones] Hi, Aaron, [James] hehe, very appropriate! [blogefl] OK, that's a good idea :) [hala] i think i need 100 years to have a blog like yous,james!! [Bee] lol [aaronpc] subversion [Gerry] Don't worry, only flight attendants and MS employees get fired [Gerry] Right [James] OK, let's go [Susan Marandi] Hear, hear! [Aladoadmin] Hi [Aladoadmin] www.digibridge.org [blogefl] Hi andrew [aaronpc] hi andrew [blogefl] Hi James, it's great to have you with us [James] Great to be here [Bee] :-) [aaronpc] yes [Bee] yes [Cleve] yeah! [blogefl] yes [brunao] yep [Gerry] Yes Karen Garcia ha ingresado en la sala [Daf - Caracas] hi K. [Aladoadmin] yes [blogefl] yep [aaronpc] looks good [Aladoadmin] we see it clearly [Bee] the third one is my school [brunao] nice doors! [hala] yes [Bee] and partitions [Karen Garcia] Karen says hi, is happy to hear James and wonders what I should be seeing on the [Karen Garcia] board [Karen Garcia] oh good!!! [Karen Garcia] yes [Daf - Caracas] yes [Chris Jones] http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=208 [Karen Garcia] nice pictures... thanks AzzamP ha ingresado en la sala [Aladoadmin] James, some of the remote audience is on a dial up connection and the webpages you send us will load onto their browsers slower than those who are broadband high speed connections Bee] HI Azzam [Bee] welcome [Karen Garcia] yes, my dial up is taking forever today... [Susan Marandi] I'm lost? exactly where should I be now? AzzamP ha dejado la sala [Karen Garcia] hi Susan.... [Karen Garcia] you are here and now.... [Karen Garcia] looking at pictures... [Karen Garcia] which just changed... [aaronpc] fine [Susan Marandi] Hi Karen! [Cleve] yes! [Bee] no pb [blogefl] great [Karen Garcia] yes... nice diagram [Aladoadmin] yes [Karen Garcia] I like circles... [Bee] what a pity Dennis is not here [Karen Garcia] social, cognitive and teaching presence... [Karen Garcia] hummmm [Karen Garcia] educational presence... yes!!! [Bee] you do not work together but side by side paddy ha ingresado en la sala [Karen Garcia] anonimity.... how? [Daf - Caracas] :waves hi to Paddy [Karen Garcia] humm [Karen Garcia] 6th sense? [paddy] :waves and relievd to have make it [JeffC] hi karen [Daf - Caracas] :-) [hala] yes [hala] very difficult [Karen Garcia] winks at jeff ;) [blogefl] I agree - I've never really liked discussion boards much [Chris Jones] I've used it in the past. [Cleve] as a student, not as a teacher [Gerry] Very poor if the "group" is small and if there is continual uptake in say a course. [JeffC] i use them socially [Daf - Caracas] i use it with other tools, never alone [Bee] they feel like cold empty shells [Chris Jones] I used it for journaling. [aaronpc] very linear [jchaupart-Colombia] with Yahoo Groups [Karen Garcia] I lost audio [blogefl] I didn't picki up the audio for the last question [Daf - Caracas] Moodle forums are good for a course [Cleve] Oh my yeas! [Bee] yes susan [aaronpc] lol [Bee] lol [Karen Garcia] emails, we have not moved to forums yet [Gerry] Yahoo is supplemented by RSS as well [Bee] yes...you just check [Bee] whether there is something that might interest you... Daf - Caracas ha dejado la sala AzzamP ha ingresado en la sala [aaronpc] yes...for purposes of notification Daf - Caracas ha ingresado en la sala [blogefl] yes [Daf - Caracas] yes [Bee] nope [brunao] fine [Cleve] yes. [hala] no [ale weser] yes [Chris Jones] yes [Bee] ok...got it [Susan Marandi] partly [Sarolta] yes [hala] yes now [Aladoadmin] James, some of our remote audience are on a dial up connection and it will take time for them to load the graphics in their browser [Bee] so the groups having to comment on the others do not have to refer to the blogroll anymore :-) [Karen Garcia] yes, we want a how to session.... [Bee] chaotic, organic [aaronpc] intelligent [Bee] just like our everyday lives [hala] whrer is this? [JeffC] I use http://www.bloglines.com/ to keep track of blogs Karen Garcia ha dejado la sala [Gerry] Can you explain what trackbacks are please?? [aaronpc] when someone links to your post, you are notified about it and can follow the link to their post. [aaronpc] ie trackback Karen Garcia ha ingresado en la sala [Bee] are they on a linux server? ale weser ha dejado la sala [James] little quiet [Bee] very very low [hala] clap.well done [Daf - Caracas] too low, aaron [Susan Marandi] can hardly hear you aaron [Bee] the tools formatting the mentality [Bee] create dependency [Bee] isolation [Gerry] can't hear [hala] good point [Chris Jones] If you can't hear, you can possibly turn up your speakers or the spaeker at the bottom of this page. [hala] traditional decision makers [Bee] to what extent can institutions deal with these collaborative tools when they are not open for them [hala] in inistitutions [blogefl] I come across this in the places where I work too [Bee] Mario Asselin in Canada [Susan Marandi] Interesting point. nolowell ha ingresado en la sala [Bee] yes [aaronpc] interesting [Bee] the architecture in schools should be changed as well...if schools are to continue [Susan Marandi] How change, Bee? [Bee] bring down the walls [Susan Marandi] :-D [AzzamP] Schools like control, which goes against this perspective [nolowell] oh. is this where the text part goes? [nolowell] cool! [hala] convinced [Susan Marandi] Same as Iran. [aaronpc] yes...environment can really change the way we interact [James] unlearning our own teaching experiences, I know what you mean! [Susan Marandi] It's not just that; the students have to meet the standards of the society [blogefl] At my academy there are lots of legal blocks to me using weblogs with students (they are young learners) [James] go for it, please do! [James] The floor's open [Bee] people do not want to open their secrets [James] Firewall's are possible with younger learners [Bee] they fear exposure [aaronpc] wow! [blogefl] At the university, the attitude is very different - I'm getting a lot of interest from the school and other teachers...partly through introducing Erasmus students to weblogs [hala] the topic has changed to obstacles [paddy] I'm lucky too working in a private langugae school - no barriers,just lots of questions - what are blogs? Here anyone can use just about any tool or technique [AzzamP] Assessment is always an issue - how to provide easy quantifiable methods of assessing learning in weblogs [AzzamP] this is from the admin point of view [Susan Marandi] Just wondering: Is teaching always so bad, though? [Gerry] I was ready somewhere in the discussions that student motivation was impossed by assessment. [Susan Marandi] Or assessment, for that matter? [James] Assessment is not the motivator, it's social and individual [Bee] yes [aaronpc] excellent suggestion [Susan Marandi] I think so [hala] what? [brunao] good idea, but my powers that be are not tech driven at all. [AzzamP] assessement is key for admin, though jchaupart-Colombia ha dejado la sala [Susan Marandi] But it's uphill work and takes time [Susan Marandi] and patience [hala] again plz [paddy] I can't see blogs being formally adopted as part of a course here but we can certainly use it in out teaching freely [Gerry] For k-12, at least in our jurisdiction, it would not be correct to assess for "blogging" itself, except maybe in an IT course. [brunao] it could be kept within a Intranet, no? [nolowell] we have courses in our program that require blogging [Gerry] The bloggins activities need to facilitate the students meeting prescribed learning outcomes. [nolowell] *public* blogging at that Chris Jones ha dejado la sala [nolowell] but they're adult learners in graduate school [blogefl] I agree Aaron - it is a fear of losing control often (in my case) that prevents the academy from thinking about the use of tools such as blogs [Bee] mine do not even know they exist...lol...so I am taking advantage of their ignorance [brunao] i like that [hala] lol [paddy] I hope to add a blog to our website to contact ex-teachers ans students, and then impress the boss [AzzamP] subversion, yeah! [James] good plan paddy [nolowell] the "Grace Hopper Rule" bee :D [James] Similar experiences! [hala] by leting ex teachers really practise it,they will help in chnging the mentality [James] grief [Susan Marandi] Can I ask a question? Maybe you discussed it before, I don't know. [nolowell] Good GRIEF!! Students talking to each other in SCHOOL?? how horrid! [nolowell] :D [hala] no voice [Bee] yes Susan? [aaronpc] i missed that. [James] good [Bee] yes [aaronpc] yes [hala] yea [blogefl] yes [brunao] yes [Gerry] yes [Bee] go on Susan [AzzamP] was the libraiarian not more upset that the students were noisy, bee? [Aladoadmin] Susan is on a dial up connection in Iran and she has some trouble with her audio but this last part came through very clear [paddy] and some of my students have already gone to find my blog out of hours - even one v. weak student took the trouble to write me in English after we'd had a 30 min session writing on my blog. Will show that to the boss! [Bee] we are going to see it this week [Aladoadmin] yes [aaronpc] yes [Aladoadmin] very clear Susane [paddy] can hear some of it [Susan Marandi] thanks (finally) :-) [Bee] like their personal diairies, reflective journal [Susan Marandi] right [nolowell] the reflection is even MORE powerful when that reflection is shared among students [nolowell] instead of just buried in the teacher's inbox [Bee] this is the most important thing [aaronpc] that's for sure [Susan Marandi] I agree [Bee] and being able to re-read them [aaronpc] self-evaluation should be implemented as well [AzzamP] audience and purpose [Susan Marandi] Yes, we do that [Bee] ok..going to project an example [blogefl] I think portfolios is as another way [Susan Marandi] Mhm. [James] Blogs can integrate with portfolkios very well [Susan Marandi] right [Susan Marandi] thanks a lot [nolowell] they work well in conjunction with aggregators in small group work [AzzamP] don't some teachers object to seeing grammar and spelling mistake in written form on the internet? [James] yes [nolowell] team up 3-4 students to aqggregate each others [James] tough :) [James] My spelling is awfol [nolowell] some teachers object to seeing writing they haven't approved on the internet Azzam .. i try not to let them bother me :D [aaronpc] cannot see it [Daf - Caracas] cannot see anything yet [Susan Marandi] me neither [blogefl] it was a lot of fun - it's probably the thing that really got me interested in blogging [James] naw, share share share [Susan Marandi] That leads up to another question i have ... Maggi ha dejado la sala [blogefl] thanks Bee [Susan Marandi] about whether the connection speed... [Susan Marandi] has anything to do with the usefulness [Susan Marandi] and practicality of using blogs [Susan Marandi] Right! [Bee] yes...I have not yet learnt that... [Susan Marandi] right [Gerry] Peer editing or peer review of writing assignments may also work. The examples of peer review at fanfiction.net shows it is meaningful. [Susan Marandi] True [nolowell] sigh . i have to leave ... see y'all in the blogosphere nolowell ha dejado la sala [Aladoadmin] http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm [Aladoadmin] here is the current speed of the Internet worldwide [James] you're a VETEREN! [aaronpc] fantastic! [aaronpc] yes [AzzamP] thank you for the talk [Susan Marandi] Thank you for the talk, James. [AzzamP] got it [Daf - Caracas] yes [Susan Marandi] And thanks everyone else for their help. [hala] thank you [Susan Marandi] got it (whew!) [AzzamP] a great read, James [aaronpc] thanks so much James! [Bee] Thank you very much James for giving us your perspective [Daf - Caracas] :claps claps [Cleve] Thanks James! [DannaW] thank you [Aladoadmin] clap, clap, clap [Bee] claps [paddy] thank you! [aaronpc] see you at incsub [Susan Marandi] thanks [hala] thank yoy [brunao] thank you very much [blogefl] Thanks James - that was great [AzzamP] muchos gracias, james [hala] you very much [Sarolta] Thank you, James! [James] It's a pleasure
[Daf - Caracas] Great pres James
[Daf - Caracas] I just got the comment feature on my blogger :-)
[Susan Marandi] thanks bee
[Gerry] thanks
[hala] bye
[James] See you later all!
DannaW ha dejado la sala
[James] Byeeeeeeee
[aaronpc] bee your mic is still on
[Sarolta] Thanks, bye.
[Aladoadmin] you can stay in the portal and chat with one another if you like
[Susan Marandi] It's 3 am here, and i have to be at work at 8 :-(
[Bee] sorry
Cleve ha dejado la sala
[Susan Marandi] Bye everyone!
[AzzamP] ok, bye
[aaronpc] bey
[Aladoadmin] bye Susan
[aaronpc] bye
James ha dejado la sala
[brunao] bye all
Karen Garcia ha dejado la sala
Gerry ha dejado la sala
Sarolta ha dejado la sala
[aaronpc] adios!
[Susan Marandi] Bye and thanks!
AzzamP ha dejado la sala
[Bee] thank you for coming...I must go now
Susan Marandi ha dejado la sala
aaronpc ha dejado la sala
[Bee] husband and children waiting to have diner
JoelB ha dejado la sala
[blogefl] bye bye!
Bee ha dejado la sala
[Daf - Caracas] thanks, Bee, Aaron, and Graham
brunao ha dejado la sala
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
More links mentioned during the session:
http://incsub.org/association/
http://incsub.org/
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm
http://madas.blogspot.com/
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=213
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=214
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=212
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=211
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=210
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=208
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=198
http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?page_id=207

The nature of Blogging - published draft

I've just posted a comment on Rashundi's blog that I thought I'd like to think more about , expand upon.


Here's the post, which I'll be coming back to edit later :

"Hi Rashunda

I think you're right that blogging appeals to people because it gives them a "voice", although I see blogging as far less a permanent thing than writing a book, or even publishing something on a normal website.

I think blogging falls inbetween chatting online and publishing on a normal website. For me, it falls somewhere between synchronous and asynchronous CMC, having some of the immediacy of the former, and also some advantages of the latter (it lasts longer).

In order, I would place blogging here:

Chat - synchronous - temporary - very communicative

Blog - almost synchronous - semi-permanent - very coimmunicative (potentially!)

Forum - mostly asynchrous - semi-permanent - not very communicative

Email - asynchrous - temporary - communicative

Website - asynchronous - permanent - one-way

I don't know if you agree with me or not. I must admit, that this has just ocurred to me, so I haven't really thought it out, but I think I'll continue this discussion by opening a post on my blog : http://mirandoami.blogspot.com

Hope you're having fun blogging, and great to see a stimulating discusssion starting here."

Three sorts of blog

Ms Joubert posted these interesting definitions as a comment to one of the posts on Rashunda's ESL blog, and I think they would be interesting to comment on:

"1) utilitarian ... which is what I am most interested in. By this I mean communicating in a way that enhances relationships and serves a useful function in a community of people who are already doing something together ... such as a teacher and students."

This is one of the things about blogging with student that really appeals to me. I have found that blogging with students has brought me closer to them, and them closer to both me, and I hope, the other students.

One course I used a class blog on was with an Erasmus group studying Catalan Culture in 2003, and this group blog proved to be useful for communicating with the students to tell them what was happening, and for them to share things they had been doing, photos,etc with everyone else.

The course was only ten sessions long (September/October 2003), and I thought the blog would be a nice idea to keep things going while they were in Barcelona (until the end of December 2003) - I also set short assignments (to be posted to the blog) during this time, to give them something specific to post about.

I found that some of the students kept using the blog long after the course had finished (the last post is April 2004), to keep in touch with other students and let them know what they were up to.

There was one problem, however, with students posting assignments to this collective blog - it was difficult for me to assess their work, and as many posts were sometimes added during a short space of time, they would sometimes disappear off the front page before people had time to read them.

For this reason, the year after (2004) I decided to give each student a personal, "portfolio weblog", as well as having a group weblog. This Catlan Culture 2004 weblog linked to individual blogs, and it was much easier organisational-wise. At the end of their time in Barcelona, the students seemed to appreciate using the weblog, and it was also appreciated by other teachers of the Erasmus students, who (they told me) visited the blog to get to know the students better.

Perhaps the only problem with this system of individual blogs was that I thought less of the students read the individual student blogs (despite my encouragement), and so perhaps missed out on some of the things the students had to say, which on the whole were very interesting. This conclusion is only my guess, based on the fact that none of the students used the commenting feature on the individual blogs.

I am going to analyse this in order to improve the system for next year's group.

"2) confessional ... 'I blog therefore I am' ... Blogs that seem to exist only to express thoughts or feelings on no particular subject of no obvious interest to others. I don't mean to be harsh, it's just that I don't understand any other purpose than the owner's need to appear on the web in order to be convinced of existing as much as anyone else. What these remarks really show is my need to see a practical use for everything, I suppose."

"3) knowledge sharing ... I'm amazed at the quality of thought, and information about things that I'm eager to learn about, that is shared on some blogs. In writing ... oops, blogging ... one's own thoughts are informed and clarified too ... so I guess in fact I've answered my own question in 2) to some degree."

Week 1 Cartoon Comments

One of the individual tasks of participants was to comment on this cartoon:




Here is a selection of comments, with links to their weblogs:

"Honestly, I think the phrase "I blog therefore I am" gives a little too much power to the blog and not enough power to the person who created the blog. Blogging doesn't "make" you anything. It's only on of the many forms of self-expression that humans choose.

I think the phrase should be "I create therefore I am."

Rashunda.

Tourism blog in Spanish

Looking through the blogroll of the participants of the course, I came across Alfredo Ascanio's "collective blog about Tourism System", which I'll be taking a more detailed look at later (when I have more time!) as I teach at a university school of Tourism.

URL: http://askain.journalspace.com/

Week One Webquest Tasks:

Chat:What are weblogs?
by Anne Davies

at Tappedin on Friday
January 21st at 14:00 GMT

Reviewing Last Year

Last year's ESL/EFL Weblogs coursehttp://anvil.gsu.edu/EV/ is a great place to start for newcomers to blogging.

Introduction - Week One

Summary of Introductory/Week One Tasks:

a) Introductory Tasks:
http://www.beewebhead.net/Evo05/welcome.htm

b)Week 1 Schedule:
http://www.beewebhead.net/Evo05/week.htm

1. Check to make sure you have completed all points in the checklist.
2. Check and become familiar with the various environments where the chats will be
taking place:
-Tappedin
- Alado
- Learning Times
3. Create wiki account:
http://www.opensource.idv.tw/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Userlogin&returnto=Main_Page

c) Check out the Webquest :
http://www.beewebhead.net/Evo05/introduction.htm : Focus on Week 1.

1. Investigate the recommended readings list

2. Complete the individual and collective tasks.

The collective tasks are divided into five different groups.
- Please volunteer for one of the groups by writing your name in the wiki:
http://www.opensource.idv.tw/wiki/index.php/Groups

Introduction

Hi! This is my self-reflective weblog, opened especially for the TESOL EV2005 course 'Using Weblogs in ESL/EFL Classes: New Developments, Uses and Challenges'