Hi Prof
I have started a new project with my other group. It is basically using the same lessons but getting them involved in blogger.com instead of wikispaces. I will start this session in 10 minutes! I wish to see how different they can approach the same taks using two diferent modes of technology! I am sure they will enjoy writing better through the blog. I will send you the invitation in a second!
That’s it for today!
Tomorrow will be the wikispaces class next session..I will see how things are.
Cheers
Fatima
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Françoise Blin said,
November 16, 2009 @ 9:55 pm
Interesting idea!
Now that you are all set, don’t forget to document what happens and continue reading
. I think you may want to review your research questions as they may not be as relevant now that you are using different technologies. Don’t change them completely, but make sure that you will get the data you need to answer any question, old or new.
Re: blog, try to develop what you are saying in your post. Why do you think that they will enjoy writing better through the blog? Is that because your students prefer to work individually than collaboratively? If so, why? How could you find out? Do you think that students are going to comment on each other’s blog? You could ask yourself similar questions about the wiki. One thing that could be interesting to look at, especially if you give the two groups similar essays to write is if the outcomes in terms of accuracy and fluency (as well as text organisation, etc.) are different between the two platforms. And if so, why? Etc….
It would also be good if you could write something, with references to the literature, on the differences between blogs and wikis, in general and for language learning. That may help you to focus what you are doing for your thesis. Be careful not to be completely taken over by the teaching aspect (which is exciting) and forget about the research part of it. Otherwise, iit may be difficult to bring back everything together in a coherent manner.
So while you’re doing all this, do write about what happens in class (and outside), try to be as detailed as possible and include your reflections and questions, but also write about what you read so that a story can start to emerge. And use this blog as if posts could potentially be re-used in a chapter (i.e. not as messages to me). This way, I can give you regular feedback and push you to go further in your reflection and analysis of what you are observing.
Tell me what you think… and keep on the good work!
All the best,
Françoise
fawali said,
November 17, 2009 @ 7:55 am
My observation on the first session:
1. Students were very excited about the projecect and one of them said: I LIKE THIS!
2. They got busy writing the task I asked them to do but we were eager to know add their personal posts about anything they wish. I added a general video for them to comment on to feel free to add anything they wish.
3. They got relaxed when they knew they can save the draft they started and can get back to it and finish at time anywhere.
4. They started adding their personal information.
fawali said,
November 23, 2009 @ 9:27 am
I have been having trouble accessing my account from different computers. I can only access the blog from a non-organisational PC!!! This is the strangest experience I have ever had. My username is right and so is my password but I can’t get into the account. This happened last week after I logged off from this lab but I tried again from home and I got through.
Today I had my second session with group 2 and I can’t log in :$ !!!! I asked them to log in and explained the situation. They all had access.
I asked them to propose a topic that we can all write about without limiting themselves to writing essays about course related topics.
We decided that we will change the topic every half an hour if possible. The first student proposed to write about ‘Who are our friends?’
I can hear them giggling as they type and read the others’ replies
I can see that they are still talking to each other and writing on paper what they wish to type in the post!
One of them is reading his personal blog in Arabic and trying his best to hide from me
Another one is trying to download a clip from youtube about the same topic and attach it to her post.
I wanted to stop them after the first hour but they refused to do the coursebook and insisted on continuing online so we went on!
When they finished talking about the first topic, I got them to watch an inspirational speech by Al Pacino to his soccer team!
They loved it and analysed it later on in a class discussion before writing about it in a blog. I can see that they are writing more about than they have already spoken. All I can hear now is typing! I wish I could see what they are writing now