In my home university (Sichuan International Studies University), although a lot of lessons are conducted in the multimedia classroom, mostly it’s due to the shortage of classrooms with the expansion of enrolment. Most lessons are no different from the traditional ones in the teaching mode except the location of lectures. Only a few courses are conducted integrating IT-related tasks, but such tasks are still quite restricted and closed: the teacher of Advanced English simply turns to the electronic resources in the form of CD-ROM devised by the textbook publishers; the teacher of translation simply takes advantage of the convenience brought about by the intranet to display students’ version and an authoritative version. Teachers are quite in control, pausing for his or her convenience during the class presentation through the show of the PPT slides to highlight some instantly-presentable information, thus saving time in writing with chalk. In addition, some utilitarian students under heavy pressure from exams and job-seeking at certain stages seek more practice corresponding to the question types in the test to come, denying the access to some time-consuming IT-related tasks. It can be seen that mostly the use of the multi-media classrooms is for its own sake to expose students to the computer screen instead of the traditional blackboard. With the shortage of capital due to the university status of being only municipality-owned, the teachers’ lack of proficiency at computer skills, as well as the consideration of students’ factual needs, the really liberated and free tasks are hard to be incorporated in teaching in my teaching context.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
EFL IT learning tasks in my university
In my home university (Sichuan International Studies University), although a lot of lessons are conducted in the multimedia classroom, mostly it’s due to the shortage of classrooms with the expansion of enrolment. Most lessons are no different from the traditional ones in the teaching mode except the location of lectures. Only a few courses are conducted integrating IT-related tasks, but such tasks are still quite restricted and closed: the teacher of Advanced English simply turns to the electronic resources in the form of CD-ROM devised by the textbook publishers; the teacher of translation simply takes advantage of the convenience brought about by the intranet to display students’ version and an authoritative version. Teachers are quite in control, pausing for his or her convenience during the class presentation through the show of the PPT slides to highlight some instantly-presentable information, thus saving time in writing with chalk. In addition, some utilitarian students under heavy pressure from exams and job-seeking at certain stages seek more practice corresponding to the question types in the test to come, denying the access to some time-consuming IT-related tasks. It can be seen that mostly the use of the multi-media classrooms is for its own sake to expose students to the computer screen instead of the traditional blackboard. With the shortage of capital due to the university status of being only municipality-owned, the teachers’ lack of proficiency at computer skills, as well as the consideration of students’ factual needs, the really liberated and free tasks are hard to be incorporated in teaching in my teaching context.
Monday, February 26, 2007
The Use of Blogs to Facilitate Peer Review in L2 Writing
Nowadays, with the development of information technology, there has emerged an urgent need to integrate IT to facilitate classroom teaching to engage students from a new perspective. In an EFL writing class, it is hoped that IT can be utilized, for instance, to help improve the collaboration between students on the traditionally slow and inconvenient mode. This page contains a list of websites related to the topic of Using Blogs for Peer Review in an EFL Writing Class, which may greatly accelerate students’ interaction in the development of their self-reflectivity and so as to achieve higher study efficiency in an EFL writing class.
1. Berkeley Campus of University of California--- http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej35/m1.html
This website, carrying a journal article entitled “Weblogs Applications for EFL/ESL Classroom Blogging: A Comparative Review”, is actually not providing information specifically related to the integration of blogs for peer review in teaching writing. It presents some preparatory knowledge about blogging to the intended audience of teachers new to this regard. As the initiator of the new mode of teaching and learning, quite a number of teachers have little experience with blogging. Therefore, this webpage is the right place for them to establish how to select the right software among the multitude of software applications and how to solve the problems emerging in the process, such as the blog breakdown. In addition, the article provides a lot of hyperlinks for readers keen on this topic to explore for a lot more related information. There are also a lot of reader-friendly downloaded web pages to vividly show to the green hands.
This article was published in TESL-EJ Journal in December, 2005, and the website is related to Berkeley of University of California. Therefore, the article communicates authoritative and current information. However, one thing to note is that this webpage may not work well for those who are already knowledgeable about blogging.
2. TEFL web---- www.teflweb-j.org/v3n1/blog-ward.pdf
This webpage carries an article entitled “Blog Assisted Language Learning (BALL): push button publishing for pupils”. It is not exclusively devoted to using bogs for peer review in writing, but it indeed touches upon the use of blogs to develop writing as well as the positive and negative potential of its application, from which not only can both the teacher and students find some impetus for using blogs for peer review in EFL writing; more importantly, the two parties can also find some precautions against the application of blogs in writing, which can to a very large extent reduce the potential harm it may bring. In addition, the article demonstrates how the author uses weblogs in a writing class for non-native English speakers in the first year of university study, with feedback from these students considered. This is of great significance to the teacher and students in their actual operation of blogging.
It was published in TEFL Web Journal in 2004, so it contains current information. Besides, the source of the author is retrievable.
3. Teaching and Learning Center, University of Calgary, Canada--- http://tlc.ucalgary.ca/resources/library/itbl/improving-writing-through-peer-review/improving-writing-through-peer-review
This webpage deals right with the chosen topic: improving student writing through peer review in a blended or online course. It elaborates in great detail on the benefits of peer review in an EFL writing course, as against the old-fashioned mode of teacher-reviewing system. Institutions and teachers may seek from the webpage unprecedented drive for teaching reform in writing. Then the article demonstrates linearly how online peer review can be conducted. Next the article offers a very detailed example in terms of how the teacher can plan the peer review process and also the follow-up activities. The webpage also provides a lot of hyperlinks for keen readers to search for more information in this regard.
It is clearly seen that the webpage casts more light on the issue of peer review than on the blog issue. In fact, it does not matter much as it is better to see blogging as a modern platform for students to more conveniently and swiftly realize the advantages of peer review so long as both teachers and students have a basic mastery of the blogging skill. Therefore, this webpage is still very much worth reading.
The content on this webpage is part of teaching strategy series of the Teaching and Learning Center of University of Calgary, Canada, so the research result is reliable.
4. http://techsophist.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=the_blended_classroom
http://techsophist.net is the personal website of Dr. Lanette Cadle, an assistant professor of English of Missouri University, specializing in teaching writing by interecting digital spaces. This webpage deals with a roundtable discussing different approaches and elements of the blended classroom, where technology is integrated into the writing and other learning process. Despite the varied topics, the readers can very easily locate what they want to read about because the sequencing of the topics is available. The second facilitator, Lanette Cadle, addresses the issue of using blogs for peer review in writing teaching. Again, such an endeavor in teaching writing in a new mode is very beneficial to other teachers. Some open source and other Low-to-no cost alternatives are also provided so that the teacher readers may turn to some other possibilities when constructing a weblog for teaching writing. Also, the webpage is considerate enough in providing the various questions from the roundtable participants for readers to foresee some potential questions in their involving blogs in teaching writing.
This webpage was last modified in August, 2006, which shows the research findings are still up-to-date.
5. Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~tec/07journal/200607/10e.doc
This is the official website of Chung-Hua University, Taiwan. This webpage carries a journal article entitled “The effect of blog peer review and teacher feedback on the revisions of EFL writers”, which is quite relevant to the chosen topic: the effect of blog peer review. It reports the latest research done by the author, in which he or she investigated EFL adult learners’ reaction to online peer review via the web to their blog. The research results display the negative effects of peer review. Although this study is not specifically aimed at exploring the use of blogs in peer review, teacher readers can still detect very constructive insights into the use of peer review, which may very likely be adapted into their own teaching writing with blogs for peer review.
This study is especially meaningful for teachers from Asia with students of the similar psyche in peer reviewing others’ work. Therefore, after reading this article, teacher readers can try to figure out some relevant measures to prevent negative effects of online peer review.
This article was published in Journal of Education and Foreign Language and Literature in 2006. Therefore, the psyche reflected among students still prevails among the current students so that the research results still carry sense to present-day EFL writing teachers in their consideration as to how to maximize the positive effects of peer review.
6．Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/conferences/05.pdf
This webpage, carrying an article entitled “Using blogs in an EFL writing class”, comes from the official website of Chung-Hua University of Taiwan. It gives very detailed instructions on how to set a personal blog, discusses the advantages of blog in an EFL writing class, displays some survey findings about students’ reaction to blogs in two English classes, and also presents some suggestions on blogs in writing. The author also attaches the survey he or she did, which may push the teacher readers to consider their students’ needs in their own educational settings. Therefore, this article is especially meaningful to teachers who are considering initiating the use of blogs in EFL writing.
The author of this article is consistently interested in integrating IT in EFL teaching as he or she has authored some other publications of the similar topic. In addition, since the author comes from Asia, some of the research findings may be applied in other Asian countries, such as China.
7. Curriculum Corporation, Australia--- http://www.curriculum.edu.au/SCIS/connections/cnetw06/59wikis.htm
This webpage carries a journal article entitled ‘Wikis and blogs in the classroom’, comparing and contrasting the uses of wikis and blogs in teaching, especially in teaching writing. The author thoroughly introduces what blogging can do in teaching, including its power in peer review in teaching writing, in contrast with the traditional means of teacher review of students’ essays. Readers may have a better idea of how they can make best use of the advantages of blogs for peer review in writing after getting to know the comparison and contrast both horizontally with wikis and vertically with the old-fashioned teacher reviewing mode. This webpage also provides some hyperlinks for the readers to know more resources about wikis and blogs.
This webpage comes from the official website of Curriculum Corporation, which holds a unique position in Australia education as an independent education support organization owned by Australian education ministers. Therefore, this article contains authoritativeness.
1. Berkeley Campus of University of California--- http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej35/m1.html
This website, carrying a journal article entitled “Weblogs Applications for EFL/ESL Classroom Blogging: A Comparative Review”, is actually not providing information specifically related to the integration of blogs for peer review in teaching writing. It presents some preparatory knowledge about blogging to the intended audience of teachers new to this regard. As the initiator of the new mode of teaching and learning, quite a number of teachers have little experience with blogging. Therefore, this webpage is the right place for them to establish how to select the right software among the multitude of software applications and how to solve the problems emerging in the process, such as the blog breakdown. In addition, the article provides a lot of hyperlinks for readers keen on this topic to explore for a lot more related information. There are also a lot of reader-friendly downloaded web pages to vividly show to the green hands.
This article was published in TESL-EJ Journal in December, 2005, and the website is related to Berkeley of University of California. Therefore, the article communicates authoritative and current information. However, one thing to note is that this webpage may not work well for those who are already knowledgeable about blogging.
2. TEFL web---- www.teflweb-j.org/v3n1/blog-ward.pdf
This webpage carries an article entitled “Blog Assisted Language Learning (BALL): push button publishing for pupils”. It is not exclusively devoted to using bogs for peer review in writing, but it indeed touches upon the use of blogs to develop writing as well as the positive and negative potential of its application, from which not only can both the teacher and students find some impetus for using blogs for peer review in EFL writing; more importantly, the two parties can also find some precautions against the application of blogs in writing, which can to a very large extent reduce the potential harm it may bring. In addition, the article demonstrates how the author uses weblogs in a writing class for non-native English speakers in the first year of university study, with feedback from these students considered. This is of great significance to the teacher and students in their actual operation of blogging.
It was published in TEFL Web Journal in 2004, so it contains current information. Besides, the source of the author is retrievable.
3. Teaching and Learning Center, University of Calgary, Canada--- http://tlc.ucalgary.ca/resources/library/itbl/improving-writing-through-peer-review/improving-writing-through-peer-review
This webpage deals right with the chosen topic: improving student writing through peer review in a blended or online course. It elaborates in great detail on the benefits of peer review in an EFL writing course, as against the old-fashioned mode of teacher-reviewing system. Institutions and teachers may seek from the webpage unprecedented drive for teaching reform in writing. Then the article demonstrates linearly how online peer review can be conducted. Next the article offers a very detailed example in terms of how the teacher can plan the peer review process and also the follow-up activities. The webpage also provides a lot of hyperlinks for keen readers to search for more information in this regard.
It is clearly seen that the webpage casts more light on the issue of peer review than on the blog issue. In fact, it does not matter much as it is better to see blogging as a modern platform for students to more conveniently and swiftly realize the advantages of peer review so long as both teachers and students have a basic mastery of the blogging skill. Therefore, this webpage is still very much worth reading.
The content on this webpage is part of teaching strategy series of the Teaching and Learning Center of University of Calgary, Canada, so the research result is reliable.
4. http://techsophist.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=the_blended_classroom
http://techsophist.net is the personal website of Dr. Lanette Cadle, an assistant professor of English of Missouri University, specializing in teaching writing by interecting digital spaces. This webpage deals with a roundtable discussing different approaches and elements of the blended classroom, where technology is integrated into the writing and other learning process. Despite the varied topics, the readers can very easily locate what they want to read about because the sequencing of the topics is available. The second facilitator, Lanette Cadle, addresses the issue of using blogs for peer review in writing teaching. Again, such an endeavor in teaching writing in a new mode is very beneficial to other teachers. Some open source and other Low-to-no cost alternatives are also provided so that the teacher readers may turn to some other possibilities when constructing a weblog for teaching writing. Also, the webpage is considerate enough in providing the various questions from the roundtable participants for readers to foresee some potential questions in their involving blogs in teaching writing.
This webpage was last modified in August, 2006, which shows the research findings are still up-to-date.
5. Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~tec/07journal/200607/10e.doc
This is the official website of Chung-Hua University, Taiwan. This webpage carries a journal article entitled “The effect of blog peer review and teacher feedback on the revisions of EFL writers”, which is quite relevant to the chosen topic: the effect of blog peer review. It reports the latest research done by the author, in which he or she investigated EFL adult learners’ reaction to online peer review via the web to their blog. The research results display the negative effects of peer review. Although this study is not specifically aimed at exploring the use of blogs in peer review, teacher readers can still detect very constructive insights into the use of peer review, which may very likely be adapted into their own teaching writing with blogs for peer review.
This study is especially meaningful for teachers from Asia with students of the similar psyche in peer reviewing others’ work. Therefore, after reading this article, teacher readers can try to figure out some relevant measures to prevent negative effects of online peer review.
This article was published in Journal of Education and Foreign Language and Literature in 2006. Therefore, the psyche reflected among students still prevails among the current students so that the research results still carry sense to present-day EFL writing teachers in their consideration as to how to maximize the positive effects of peer review.
6．Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/conferences/05.pdf
This webpage, carrying an article entitled “Using blogs in an EFL writing class”, comes from the official website of Chung-Hua University of Taiwan. It gives very detailed instructions on how to set a personal blog, discusses the advantages of blog in an EFL writing class, displays some survey findings about students’ reaction to blogs in two English classes, and also presents some suggestions on blogs in writing. The author also attaches the survey he or she did, which may push the teacher readers to consider their students’ needs in their own educational settings. Therefore, this article is especially meaningful to teachers who are considering initiating the use of blogs in EFL writing.
The author of this article is consistently interested in integrating IT in EFL teaching as he or she has authored some other publications of the similar topic. In addition, since the author comes from Asia, some of the research findings may be applied in other Asian countries, such as China.
7. Curriculum Corporation, Australia--- http://www.curriculum.edu.au/SCIS/connections/cnetw06/59wikis.htm
This webpage carries a journal article entitled ‘Wikis and blogs in the classroom’, comparing and contrasting the uses of wikis and blogs in teaching, especially in teaching writing. The author thoroughly introduces what blogging can do in teaching, including its power in peer review in teaching writing, in contrast with the traditional means of teacher review of students’ essays. Readers may have a better idea of how they can make best use of the advantages of blogs for peer review in writing after getting to know the comparison and contrast both horizontally with wikis and vertically with the old-fashioned teacher reviewing mode. This webpage also provides some hyperlinks for the readers to know more resources about wikis and blogs.
This webpage comes from the official website of Curriculum Corporation, which holds a unique position in Australia education as an independent education support organization owned by Australian education ministers. Therefore, this article contains authoritativeness.
Monday, February 5, 2007
webography
Nowadays, with the development of information technology, there has emerged an urgent need to integrate IT to facilitate classroom teaching to engage students from a new perspective. In an EFL writing class, it is hoped that IT can be utilized, for instance, to help improve the collaboration between students on the traditionally slow and inconvenient mode. This page contains a list of websites related to the topic of Using Blogs for Peer Review in an EFL Writing Class, which may greatly accelerate students’ interaction in the development of their self-reflectivity and so as to achieve higher study efficiency in an EFL writing class.
1. Berkeley Campus of University of California---
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej35/m1.html
This website, carrying a journal article entitled “Weblogs Applications for EFL/ESL Classroom Blogging: A Comparative Review”, is actually not providing information specifically related to the integration of blogs for peer review in teaching writing. It presents some preparatory knowledge about blogging to the intended audience of teachers new to this regard. As the initiator of the new mode of teaching and learning, quite a number of teachers have little experience with blogging. Therefore, this webpage is the right place for them to establish how to select the right software among the multitude of software applications and how to solve the problems emerging in the process, such as the blog breakdown. In addition, the article provides a lot of hyperlinks for readers keen on this topic to explore for a lot more related information. There are also a lot of reader-friendly downloaded web pages to vividly show to the green hands.
This article was published in TESL-EJ Journal in December, 2005, and the website is related to Berkeley of University of California. Therefore, the article communicates authoritative and current information. However, one thing to note is that this webpage may not work well for those who are already knowledgeable about blogging.
2. TEFL web---- www.teflweb-j.org/v3n1/blog-ward.pdf
This webpage carries an article entitled “Blog Assisted Language Learning (BALL): push button publishing for pupils”. It is not exclusively devoted to using bogs for peer review in writing, but it indeed touches upon the use of blogs to develop writing as well as the positive and negative potential of its application, from which not only can both the teacher and students find some impetus for using blogs for peer review in EFL writing; more importantly, the two parties can also find some precautions against the application of blogs in writing, which can to a very large extent reduce the potential harm it may bring. In addition, the article demonstrates how the author uses weblogs in a writing class for non-native English speakers in the first year of university study, with feedback from these students considered. This is of great significance to the teacher and students in their actual operation of blogging.
It was published in TEFL Web Journal in 2004, so it contains current information. Besides, the source of the author is retrievable.
3. Teaching and Learning Center, University of Calgary, Canada--- http://tlc.ucalgary.ca/resources/library/itbl/improving-writing-through-peer-review/improving-writing-through-peer-review
This webpage deals right with the chosen topic: improving student writing through peer review in a blended or online course. It elaborates in great detail on the benefits of peer review in an EFL writing course, as against the old-fashioned mode of teacher-reviewing system. Institutions and teachers may seek from the webpage unprecedented drive for teaching reform in writing. Then the article demonstrates linearly how online peer review can be conducted. Next the article offers a very detailed example in terms of how the teacher can plan the peer review process and also the follow-up activities. The webpage also provides a lot of hyperlinks for keen readers to search for more information in this regard.
It is clearly seen that the webpage casts more light on the issue of peer review than on the blog issue. In fact, it does not matter much as it is better to see blogging as a modern platform for students to more conveniently and swiftly realize the advantages of peer review so long as both teachers and students have a basic mastery of the blogging skill. Therefore, this webpage is still very much worth reading.
The content on this webpage is part of teaching strategy series of the Teaching and Learning Center of University of Calgary, Canada, so the research result is reliable.
4. http://techsophist.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=the_blended_classroom
http://techsophist.net is the personal website of Dr. Lanette Cadle, an assistant professor of English of Missouri University, specializing in teaching writing by interecting digital spaces. This webpage deals with a roundtable discussing different approaches and elements of the blended classroom, where technology is integrated into the writing and other learning process. Despite the varied topics, the readers can very easily locate what they want to read about because the sequencing of the topics is available. The second facilitator, Lanette Cadle, addresses the issue of using blogs for peer review in writing teaching. Again, such an endeavor in teaching writing in a new mode is very beneficial to other teachers. Some open source and other Low-to-no cost alternatives are also provided so that the teacher readers may turn to some other possibilities when constructing a weblog for teaching writing. Also, the webpage is considerate enough in providing the various questions from the roundtable participants for readers to foresee some potential questions in their involving blogs in teaching writing.
This webpage was last modified in August, 2006, which shows the research findings are still up-to-date.
5. Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~tec/07journal/200607/10e.doc
This is the official website of Chung-Hua University, Taiwan. This webpage carries a journal article entitled “The effect of blog peer review and teacher feedback on the revisions of EFL writers”, which is quite relevant to the chosen topic: the effect of blog peer review. It reports the latest research done by the author, in which he or she investigated EFL adult learners’ reaction to online peer review via the web to their blog. The research results display the negative effects of peer review. Although this study is not specifically aimed at exploring the use of blogs in peer review, teacher readers can still detect very constructive insights into the use of peer review, which may very likely be adapted into their own teaching writing with blogs for peer review.
This study is especially meaningful for teachers from Asia with students of the similar psyche in peer reviewing others’ work. Therefore, after reading this article, teacher readers can try to figure out some relevant measures to prevent negative effects of online peer review.
This article was published in Journal of Education and Foreign Language and Literature in 2006. Therefore, the psyche reflected among students still prevails among the current students so that the research results still carry sense to present-day EFL writing teachers in their consideration as to how to maximize the positive effects of peer review.
6．Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/conferences/05.pdf
This webpage, carrying an article entitled “Using blogs in an EFL writing class”, comes from the official website of Chung-Hua University of Taiwan. It gives very detailed instructions on how to set a personal blog, discusses the advantages of blog in an EFL writing class, displays some survey findings about students’ reaction to blogs in two English classes, and also presents some suggestions on blogs in writing. The author also attaches the survey he or she did, which may push the teacher readers to consider their students’ needs in their own educational settings. Therefore, this article is especially meaningful to teachers who are considering initiating the use of blogs in EFL writing.
The author of this article is consistently interested in integrating IT in EFL teaching as he or she has authored some other publications of the similar topic. In addition, since the author comes from Asia, some of the research findings may be applied in other Asian countries, such as China.
7. Curriculum Corporation, Australia--- http://www.curriculum.edu.au/SCIS/connections/cnetw06/59wikis.htm
This webpage carries a journal article entitled ‘Wikis and blogs in the classroom’, comparing and contrasting the uses of wikis and blogs in teaching, especially in teaching writing. The author thoroughly introduces what blogging can do in teaching, including its power in peer review in teaching writing, in contrast with the traditional means of teacher review of students’ essays. Readers may have a better idea of how they can make best use of the advantages of blogs for peer review in writing after getting to know the comparison and contrast both horizontally with wikis and vertically with the old-fashioned teacher reviewing mode. This webpage also provides some hyperlinks for the readers to know more resources about wikis and blogs.
This webpage comes from the official website of Curriculum Corporation, which holds a unique position in Australia education as an independent education support organization owned by Australian education ministers. Therefore, this article contains authoritativeness.
1. Berkeley Campus of University of California---
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej35/m1.html
This website, carrying a journal article entitled “Weblogs Applications for EFL/ESL Classroom Blogging: A Comparative Review”, is actually not providing information specifically related to the integration of blogs for peer review in teaching writing. It presents some preparatory knowledge about blogging to the intended audience of teachers new to this regard. As the initiator of the new mode of teaching and learning, quite a number of teachers have little experience with blogging. Therefore, this webpage is the right place for them to establish how to select the right software among the multitude of software applications and how to solve the problems emerging in the process, such as the blog breakdown. In addition, the article provides a lot of hyperlinks for readers keen on this topic to explore for a lot more related information. There are also a lot of reader-friendly downloaded web pages to vividly show to the green hands.
This article was published in TESL-EJ Journal in December, 2005, and the website is related to Berkeley of University of California. Therefore, the article communicates authoritative and current information. However, one thing to note is that this webpage may not work well for those who are already knowledgeable about blogging.
2. TEFL web---- www.teflweb-j.org/v3n1/blog-ward.pdf
This webpage carries an article entitled “Blog Assisted Language Learning (BALL): push button publishing for pupils”. It is not exclusively devoted to using bogs for peer review in writing, but it indeed touches upon the use of blogs to develop writing as well as the positive and negative potential of its application, from which not only can both the teacher and students find some impetus for using blogs for peer review in EFL writing; more importantly, the two parties can also find some precautions against the application of blogs in writing, which can to a very large extent reduce the potential harm it may bring. In addition, the article demonstrates how the author uses weblogs in a writing class for non-native English speakers in the first year of university study, with feedback from these students considered. This is of great significance to the teacher and students in their actual operation of blogging.
It was published in TEFL Web Journal in 2004, so it contains current information. Besides, the source of the author is retrievable.
3. Teaching and Learning Center, University of Calgary, Canada--- http://tlc.ucalgary.ca/resources/library/itbl/improving-writing-through-peer-review/improving-writing-through-peer-review
This webpage deals right with the chosen topic: improving student writing through peer review in a blended or online course. It elaborates in great detail on the benefits of peer review in an EFL writing course, as against the old-fashioned mode of teacher-reviewing system. Institutions and teachers may seek from the webpage unprecedented drive for teaching reform in writing. Then the article demonstrates linearly how online peer review can be conducted. Next the article offers a very detailed example in terms of how the teacher can plan the peer review process and also the follow-up activities. The webpage also provides a lot of hyperlinks for keen readers to search for more information in this regard.
It is clearly seen that the webpage casts more light on the issue of peer review than on the blog issue. In fact, it does not matter much as it is better to see blogging as a modern platform for students to more conveniently and swiftly realize the advantages of peer review so long as both teachers and students have a basic mastery of the blogging skill. Therefore, this webpage is still very much worth reading.
The content on this webpage is part of teaching strategy series of the Teaching and Learning Center of University of Calgary, Canada, so the research result is reliable.
4. http://techsophist.net/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=the_blended_classroom
http://techsophist.net is the personal website of Dr. Lanette Cadle, an assistant professor of English of Missouri University, specializing in teaching writing by interecting digital spaces. This webpage deals with a roundtable discussing different approaches and elements of the blended classroom, where technology is integrated into the writing and other learning process. Despite the varied topics, the readers can very easily locate what they want to read about because the sequencing of the topics is available. The second facilitator, Lanette Cadle, addresses the issue of using blogs for peer review in writing teaching. Again, such an endeavor in teaching writing in a new mode is very beneficial to other teachers. Some open source and other Low-to-no cost alternatives are also provided so that the teacher readers may turn to some other possibilities when constructing a weblog for teaching writing. Also, the webpage is considerate enough in providing the various questions from the roundtable participants for readers to foresee some potential questions in their involving blogs in teaching writing.
This webpage was last modified in August, 2006, which shows the research findings are still up-to-date.
5. Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~tec/07journal/200607/10e.doc
This is the official website of Chung-Hua University, Taiwan. This webpage carries a journal article entitled “The effect of blog peer review and teacher feedback on the revisions of EFL writers”, which is quite relevant to the chosen topic: the effect of blog peer review. It reports the latest research done by the author, in which he or she investigated EFL adult learners’ reaction to online peer review via the web to their blog. The research results display the negative effects of peer review. Although this study is not specifically aimed at exploring the use of blogs in peer review, teacher readers can still detect very constructive insights into the use of peer review, which may very likely be adapted into their own teaching writing with blogs for peer review.
This study is especially meaningful for teachers from Asia with students of the similar psyche in peer reviewing others’ work. Therefore, after reading this article, teacher readers can try to figure out some relevant measures to prevent negative effects of online peer review.
This article was published in Journal of Education and Foreign Language and Literature in 2006. Therefore, the psyche reflected among students still prevails among the current students so that the research results still carry sense to present-day EFL writing teachers in their consideration as to how to maximize the positive effects of peer review.
6．Chung-Hua University, Taiwan--- http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/conferences/05.pdf
This webpage, carrying an article entitled “Using blogs in an EFL writing class”, comes from the official website of Chung-Hua University of Taiwan. It gives very detailed instructions on how to set a personal blog, discusses the advantages of blog in an EFL writing class, displays some survey findings about students’ reaction to blogs in two English classes, and also presents some suggestions on blogs in writing. The author also attaches the survey he or she did, which may push the teacher readers to consider their students’ needs in their own educational settings. Therefore, this article is especially meaningful to teachers who are considering initiating the use of blogs in EFL writing.
The author of this article is consistently interested in integrating IT in EFL teaching as he or she has authored some other publications of the similar topic. In addition, since the author comes from Asia, some of the research findings may be applied in other Asian countries, such as China.
7. Curriculum Corporation, Australia--- http://www.curriculum.edu.au/SCIS/connections/cnetw06/59wikis.htm
This webpage carries a journal article entitled ‘Wikis and blogs in the classroom’, comparing and contrasting the uses of wikis and blogs in teaching, especially in teaching writing. The author thoroughly introduces what blogging can do in teaching, including its power in peer review in teaching writing, in contrast with the traditional means of teacher review of students’ essays. Readers may have a better idea of how they can make best use of the advantages of blogs for peer review in writing after getting to know the comparison and contrast both horizontally with wikis and vertically with the old-fashioned teacher reviewing mode. This webpage also provides some hyperlinks for the readers to know more resources about wikis and blogs.
This webpage comes from the official website of Curriculum Corporation, which holds a unique position in Australia education as an independent education support organization owned by Australian education ministers. Therefore, this article contains authoritativeness.
"Distractions in the wireless classroom"
"Distractions in the wireless classroom" reminds me of what happened among us PGDELTs during the first semester, when lecturers complained about, or even, got irritated by, students surfing on the Internet or chatting online with their faraway friends. Also as university teachers, these PGDELT scholars know about etiquette: they know clearly how much offense they would feel if their students back in China are doing their own stuff instead of listening attentively to the their lecture. However, the Internet is so colorful and attractive that these scholars simply can't help. Such a group of students are not able to exert sufficient self-control over themselves, let alone those young undergraduates.
Both luckily and unluckily, such things are not likely to happen in my current teaching institution since laptops are not widely available among students or wireless Internet is inaccessible on campus. But distractions in the classroom do exist: teachers often complain about students' sending SMS or having cellphones ringing in class, which is very distracting, especially in classes conducted in the language lab, where the teaching equipment reacts to the incoming calls by buzzing even before the phone rings. The whole class is ruined and students really get annoyed.
Solutions:
1. Whenever a phone rings in class or the teacher notices students sending SMS, the teacher stops lecturing. Everything stops so that the involved student may feel very guilty or embarrassed. In the end, nobody would do the same thing.
2. The teacher should serve as a model, never receiving or making any call in class except in emergency.
3. For those wireless classrooms, the teacher should set some rules and regulations beforehand to prevent in-class surfing or chatting or even playing of online games. If the class performance accounts for a certain percentage in the final grade, the students may be seen more attentive in class. Meanwhile, the teacher should also try to improve his or her own teaching methodology so as to engage the students better.
Both luckily and unluckily, such things are not likely to happen in my current teaching institution since laptops are not widely available among students or wireless Internet is inaccessible on campus. But distractions in the classroom do exist: teachers often complain about students' sending SMS or having cellphones ringing in class, which is very distracting, especially in classes conducted in the language lab, where the teaching equipment reacts to the incoming calls by buzzing even before the phone rings. The whole class is ruined and students really get annoyed.
Solutions:
1. Whenever a phone rings in class or the teacher notices students sending SMS, the teacher stops lecturing. Everything stops so that the involved student may feel very guilty or embarrassed. In the end, nobody would do the same thing.
2. The teacher should serve as a model, never receiving or making any call in class except in emergency.
3. For those wireless classrooms, the teacher should set some rules and regulations beforehand to prevent in-class surfing or chatting or even playing of online games. If the class performance accounts for a certain percentage in the final grade, the students may be seen more attentive in class. Meanwhile, the teacher should also try to improve his or her own teaching methodology so as to engage the students better.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Posts for Week 3
Country involved: China
Values given to education and IT in China's education policies
“English teaching has been identified by senior educational policy-makers as one of the areas where the use of IT is mostly likely to make a breakthrough in changing the traditional teaching mode.” There is a wide-spread belief among Chinese politicians and education agencies that the use of IT in classroom teaching caters to the needs of modern education reform, and it also serves as the hallmark of the modernization of China's education. The integration of IT and scientific teaching methodology can contribute not only to the imparting of knowledge to the students and the cultivating of students’ intelligence and capability, but also to students’ access to the enjoyment of art. Such a classroom environment helps to maintain students’ strong interest and active thinking so that they can participate whole-heartedly in classroom activities. Such a teaching mode refreshes students and arouses students’ curiosity towards knowledge through the combination of the multimedia so that students can get highly motivated by involving both their vision and hearing, resulting in high study efficiency.
Sources of information:
http://www.pep.com.cn/200406/ca492759.htm
http://youxicat.bokee.com/4079775.html
http://www.pep.com.cn/200406/ca492798.htm
Towndrow, P& Vallance, M. (2004). Using IT in the language classroom. Singapore:
Pearson.
Values given to education and IT in China's education policies
“English teaching has been identified by senior educational policy-makers as one of the areas where the use of IT is mostly likely to make a breakthrough in changing the traditional teaching mode.” There is a wide-spread belief among Chinese politicians and education agencies that the use of IT in classroom teaching caters to the needs of modern education reform, and it also serves as the hallmark of the modernization of China's education. The integration of IT and scientific teaching methodology can contribute not only to the imparting of knowledge to the students and the cultivating of students’ intelligence and capability, but also to students’ access to the enjoyment of art. Such a classroom environment helps to maintain students’ strong interest and active thinking so that they can participate whole-heartedly in classroom activities. Such a teaching mode refreshes students and arouses students’ curiosity towards knowledge through the combination of the multimedia so that students can get highly motivated by involving both their vision and hearing, resulting in high study efficiency.
Sources of information:
http://www.pep.com.cn/200406/ca492759.htm
http://youxicat.bokee.com/4079775.html
http://www.pep.com.cn/200406/ca492798.htm
Towndrow, P& Vallance, M. (2004). Using IT in the language classroom. Singapore:
Pearson.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
similarities and differences
There are both similarities and differences in the use of IT in classroom teaching and learning between my university and the picture depicted in Gates’ The Road Ahead.
Similarities:
1. Multimedia classrooms are accessible to teachers and students.
2. Teachers are able to use texts, images, sound and video as part of their curriculum.
3. Students welcome the use of IT in the classroom. Differences:
1. In The Road Ahead, teachers use animation in their presentation.
Whereas in my university, not many teachers are so proficient in
computer use as to develop animation in teaching.
2. In The Road Ahead, students present their report using multimedia.
Whereas in my university, personal computers are not widely available
among students and the campus computer room is mostly crowded. In
addition, students are quite busy attending classes. Therefore, despite
students’ access to broadband in their dorm, not many students are able
to use multimedia to prepare their presentation, which is really time-
consuming.
3. It is presumed that the scene depicted in The Road Ahead is quite
typical of a futuristic classroom environment. In contrast, in my
university, only a minority of lessons are conducted in multimedia
classroom. As mine is a specialized foreign studies university, students
need to firstly focus on the basic skills of English learning, in addition to
their extensive exposure to the language itself, students need a lot of
intensive guidance on the part of the teacher. For example, in the
teaching of writing, teachers need to frequently call students’ attention
to the contrast between English and Chinese in terms of the essay layout
and the language issue so as to avoid or at least reduce the possibility of
negative transfer in their essay writing. Therefore, the application of IT,
at least among the freshmen and sophomores in my university, is not
so productive, which has also been testified by reality.
Similarities:
1. Multimedia classrooms are accessible to teachers and students.
2. Teachers are able to use texts, images, sound and video as part of their curriculum.
3. Students welcome the use of IT in the classroom. Differences:
1. In The Road Ahead, teachers use animation in their presentation.
Whereas in my university, not many teachers are so proficient in
computer use as to develop animation in teaching.
2. In The Road Ahead, students present their report using multimedia.
Whereas in my university, personal computers are not widely available
among students and the campus computer room is mostly crowded. In
addition, students are quite busy attending classes. Therefore, despite
students’ access to broadband in their dorm, not many students are able
to use multimedia to prepare their presentation, which is really time-
consuming.
3. It is presumed that the scene depicted in The Road Ahead is quite
typical of a futuristic classroom environment. In contrast, in my
university, only a minority of lessons are conducted in multimedia
classroom. As mine is a specialized foreign studies university, students
need to firstly focus on the basic skills of English learning, in addition to
their extensive exposure to the language itself, students need a lot of
intensive guidance on the part of the teacher. For example, in the
teaching of writing, teachers need to frequently call students’ attention
to the contrast between English and Chinese in terms of the essay layout
and the language issue so as to avoid or at least reduce the possibility of
negative transfer in their essay writing. Therefore, the application of IT,
at least among the freshmen and sophomores in my university, is not
so productive, which has also been testified by reality.
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