facilitate english language learners' academic writing with blackboard blog tool
DESCRIPTION
The Blackboard blog is a valuable tool for teaching and learning which could be utilized in the language classroom as well as other subject areas.TRANSCRIPT
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Using the Blackboard blog as a tool to facilitateEnglish language learners’ academic writing:
Practice and perceptions.
Alicia [email protected] 28 August 2012
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Overview • Using the Blackboard Blog Tool• Characteristics of the blog tool and advantages for
teaching and learning• Our study• Conclusions
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Characteristics of the Blog tool• Familiar• Convenient• Archival • Date stamped • Public• Interactive
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Advantages for learners • Motivating
– Intrinsic power of technology – Anywhere/any time – Interaction – Sense of community
• Engaging– Enjoyment of reading other students’ posts and comments
• Positive impact on learning
Roberts, Foehr & Rideout (2005); Bakar (2009)Oblinger (2008)Davis (2006); Abu Bakar & Jemboja Isamail (2009)Barrios (2003)Camilleri, Ford, Leja & Sollars (2007)Ward (2004)
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The Blackboard Blog Tool• Blog as a genre of writing• Reflective• Interactive
• Blog as a toolAllows public posting of any type of writing
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Using the Blackboard blog tool with English language learners
• Pathways program: 2 semester program at Bond University
• Non-native speakers of English• Undergraduate and postgraduate
– Objectives: to develop academic reading, writing, and English language skills
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Using the Blackboard blog tool with English language learners
Blog used to submit writing skills practice as an alternative to traditional submission to teacher
– Semester 2, 2012 submission of 9 tasks requiredPersonal Introduction
Academic paragraphs on a given topic Summary Introductory paragraph Outline of essay topic and their research Sentences using cause/effect language
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Posting on the blog vs. traditional submission
• Preference– familiarity
• Audience– Attention – Accountability– Sociocultural learning theory
• Convenience– for teacher– for student
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The study• Research question:
What are students perceptions about using the Blackboard blog tool to submit written tasks in the Pathways class?
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Target group• 11 students from Pathways Level 2 Class
• 8 undergraduate• 3 postgraduate
Mixed nationalities:• I Colombian• I French• 1 Saudi Arabian• 2 Taiwanese• 6 Chinese
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Data collection• Week 11: Focus group– Preliminary study– 7 participants
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Data collection• Week 12: Online survey • Measure students perceptions – 9 respondents– 15 Likert scale items
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Findings from focus group• Enjoyable• Helpful• Some limitations
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Enjoyable– Easy and convenient to use– Liked seeing others’ work– Did not mind that their work (and teacher’s
comments) visible to others
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Helpful• Read other posts – gained ideas on content, style and language
• Read teachers’ comments on others’ posts– Avoid making same mistake
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Limitations• Lack of comments from other students • Technical limitations of the Blackboard blog
tool– Editing capabilities– Timed out
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Survey results• 93% enjoyable• 96% helpful• 83% beneficial for learning
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Conclusions and implications for teaching and learning
• Blackboard blog tool– Easy and convenient
• Writing for an audience– Increased attention to work– Learning resource
• Limitations– Minimal impact
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Therefore…• The Blackboard blog is a valuable tool for
teaching and learning which could be utilized in the language classroom as well as other subject areas.
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A final suggestion• Similar tool– Allows semi-public posting of students work
with archival and date stamped capacities– Improved capabilities for editing and
correction– Perhaps a different name
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Thank you for listening• Any questions?
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Results of surveyItems Strongly agree Agree Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree TOTAL
The iLearn blog is easy to use. 5 3 1 0 0 9
I enjoyed reading other students’ blog entries. 5 2 2 0 0 9
I liked receiving comments from other students on my blog entries.
5 3 1 0 0 9
I didn’t mind that other students could read my blog entries.
7 2 0 0 0 9
I didn’t mind that other students could read the teacher’s comments on my blog entries.
6 3 0 0 0 9
TOTAL 63% 30% 7% 0 0
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Results of surveyItems Strongly agree Agree Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree TOTAL
I found it helpful to read other students’ blog entries. 7 1 1 0 0 9
I learnt from reading other students’ blog entries. 6 2 1 0 0 9
I found it helpful to read the teacher’s comments on my blog entries.
8 1 0 0 0 9
I found it helpful to read the teacher’s comments on other students’ blog entries.
6 3 0 0 0 9
I got ideas from other students’ blog entries which helped me with my own.
7 2 0 0 0 9
Percentage of total possible responses 76% 20% 4% 0 0
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Beneficial for learningItems Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor
disagree Disagree Strongly disagree
Because other students could see my work I checked the vocabulary more carefully than when I submit my work to the teacher only.
4 3 1 1 0
Because other students could see my work I checked the grammar more carefully than when I submit my work to the teacher only.
4 3 1 1 0
Using the blog for the writing tasks helped me improve my English more than if I submitted my work to the teacher only.
6 2 0 0 1
Reading other students’ blog entries helped me improve my English.
5 2 2 0 0
Writing on the blog has increased my confidence in writing in English.
5 3 1 0 0
Percentage of total possible responses54% 29% 11% 4% 2%