Week 1

Blogging… well, this is not new to me, but still it is the first time I’ve fully built a blog using blogger because up until now I have always worked with wordpress and It`s been quite challenging since the two are very different.

So, this week I’ve learned how to work with blogger but I think I’ll have to spend some more time exploring all its potential so I can create something a little bit more different… As for the readings I found some new interesting articles to add to my list of bibliography related to blogging, and I think the discussions about blogging are developing well and all the participants are enjoying very much discovering all the potential of blogs.

When I specifically think of our classes and the advantages working with a blog can bring, I immediately point out the fact that students get a real audience, since their work is published for the others to read, (classmates, friends and family and the rest of the blogosphere as well) This promotes responsibility on the part of the students who will, normally, be more careful with what they do in terms of the content and the structure they use, this way improving their English proficiency.
I`ve worked with 8th grade students using a blog with podcasts in class (if you like you can check it out here), because many didn`t have access to the Internet and some did not even have a computer. This was a b-learning system which had very good results since in the end I concluded that students not only improved their writing and reading skills but their listening and speaking abilities as well thanks to the production of podcasts based on the comments they had written on the blog, and in fact they had better final results.

Let`s continue learning, unlearning and relearning!