Blogs, Wikis and Forums - Training on 2 July 2008

Just to summarise yesterday's training. We examined the pros and cons of using Blogs, Wikis or Forums in order, among other things, to create communities of learners among our students.

Why use blogs or Wikis?

1. to give students a chance to express themselves in English to each other / the teacher/ another class/ an online audience

2. to provide students with extra-class support such as details of/ links to class work and homework

3. to provide students with some additional online tasks to do in or out of class

4. as a means of internal communication amongst colleagues – e.g. sharing INSETT sessions/ interesting articles

Which should I use - Blog or Wiki?

Use a Blog to send out information and attract reactions to it in the form of comments. A "tutor" blog in which the teacher gives extra support to students is a good example of this. See The Rome EFL Blog.

Use a Wiki to encourage collaborative writing, in which a single text can be edited by many people. The teacher can intervene at any stage in the process. See "English for Engineering, Kuwait University", by Buthaina Al-Othman. Choose 'English 123 Spring 2008' in the left-hand column.

Another example, using the 'PbWiki' site at Princeton, is the Book Lovers’ Wiki.

There is some overlap. A Blog 'owner', like a Wiki 'owner', can invite people to become editors and thus add and edit posts (you're reading a post now) instead of merely adding comments. A good example is The British Council Hub, created by Mark Appleby at the British Council Porto.

Fora (forums)
These are more like online notice boards in which messages are organised into threads, with replies displayed in proximity to the original message. All posts in a thread can be visible at once. An example is Mark Appleby’s Hub Forum in Porto. Another example is The Friday Blog, a forum set uplastautumn by a student of mine, Francesca, which has been used to post writing assignments, with the chance of peer reviews by other students.

General features
You should be able to regulate access to a Wiki, Forum or Blog in various ways. You can decide who can edit or create posts, and who can add comments. You can decide whether the blog or Wiki is visible to the public or not, and whether it can be listed by search engines.

How do I create a Blog or Wiki?
Choose the type of site you want to use, and go to its home page:

Blogger: http://www.blogger.com

Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/

Classpress: http://www.classpress.com/

Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com/

Pbwiki: http://pbwiki.com/

Lefora: http://www.lefora.com/

Some examples of how Blogs are being used in the British Council:

http://fcemasterclass.blogspot.com

http://web.mac.com/colin.hoy/UI2b/welcome.html

In Porto:

http://studentzone.blogspot.com

In Bilbao, Spain:

http://weseeandenjoy.blogspot.com/

http://lovingbilbao.blogspot.com/

http://fcebritishcouncilbilbao.blogspot.com/

In Barcelona, Spain:

http://encouraginglearnerautonomy.blogspot.com/

I hope all this helps. More for you very soon. Do write a Comment with your reaction.

- Mike

IWB self-training - session notes

Here's a short summary of a workshop we did yesterday, for those who couldn't make it
If you want to learn how to make flipcharts to use on the Interactive Whiteboards in rooms 7, 8 and 10, here's how:
1. Go to this site: http://www.prometheanlearning.co.uk
2. Click on the box labelled "English UK and Rest of World" - below on the left. It is rather difficult to see - a mistake in the page design. Look for the image of Big Ben.
3. To use the free tutorials, you must create an account. Simple: just click on "Create New Account" below the login window.
3. Fill in the onscreen form, inventing a user name and password for yourself and completing the other info. Make sure your e-mail address is correct, as it will be used to send you an account activation code.
4. On logging in, you'll see "My Courses" on the left. Choose "Activstudio Level 1 foundation Skills Course".
5. You'll now be introduced to the first of ten topics. Each topic has up to seven tutorials, each of which often takes no more than a couple of minutes to complete.
6. After topics 2, 5, 7 and 10, you have to take a mini exam. You must get 100 per cent to pass. But if you fail, you can review the topics you failed on, and you can take the tests as often as you like.
7. The whole operation from start to finish may take about three hours.
8. You can do this on any computer but it must have Adobe Flash installed. Otherwise the tutorials won't work. You could do this at home especially if you have ADSL (broadband). In the Council staff room, computers 1 and 6 (counting from the window on the far left) have Flash and you can do the tutorials. The other computers should soon be enabled.
I hope this helps. Ask me if there is anything you don't understand.
Kind regards,
Mike