Blogging and Microblogging

Whether or not you are ready to implement blogging and/or microblogging in your own teaching. 

To answer to the posted question I have read the following research papers: 

Blog writing integration for academic
language learning purposes: towards an
assessment framework
Liam Murray, Tríona Hourigan & Catherine Jeanneau
University of Limerick (Ireland)

liam.murray@ul.ie, triona.hourigan@ul.ie, catherine.jeanneau@ul.ie

and 

Microblogging for Language Learning: Using Twitter to
Train Communicative and Cultural Competence
Kerstin Borau1, Carsten Ullrich2, Jinjin Feng1, and Ruimin Shen2
1 Distance Education College of Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
3/F No. 500 Jiangsu Road, Shanghai 20050, China
2 Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Hua Shan Road, 200030 Shanghai, China


IN the first research project is discussed how during the last years for learning purposes students were required to write and ‘complete’ their academic blog as it represents one compulsory element –with due weighting, given its importance– of a language module assessment. This compulsory blog writing task has raised a number of pedagogical questions which are explored in this study, such as: effective integration, assessing and rewarding student creative expression within the blog medium, self-reflection as a language learner and ultimately the role and value of academic blog writing in language
acquisition. Such resources as blogs represent the current proliferation of generic tools onto the
market which, if exploited appropriately, may provide learners with additional aids which can be integrated into their studies.The main challenge for teachers lies in identifying the L2 potential of these tools in order to create a meaningful context for their appropriation within the language learning
classroom. For a language learner examining such a generic tool, the difficulty in creating the necessary order and structure required for classroom exploitation is one of the main challenges associated with this approach.The most important factor for consideration here involves the establishment of an effective teaching approach which outlines the practitioner’s specific aims
and objectives. This should also present an appropriate assessment framework in relation to the task which is being set. Thus, the paper shall discuss specifically the question of outlining a viable pedagogical framework which proposes a set of guidelines for the assessment of L2 academic blogs.

The current wave of assessment (1986 to present) is by and large associated with portfolio-based work (Little, 2002;Hirvela & Sweetland, 2005). Indeed, this present trend is regarded as helpful for making learners more accountable for their own work (Herter, 1991) and as such, reveals a more detailed account of learner development and progression. Hence, writing assessment can be viewed in terms of measuring reliability and validity, with both concepts now dominating the current approach (Huot, 1996). In fact, this question will be discussed more specifically later in this section when we examine the impact of the process and post-process approaches to academic writing.

To summariz its worth to mention that the establishment of a viable blog integration framework is dependent on a number of different issues. Firstly, in terms of assessing academic writing, the teacher should be aware of the following:

•Issues of validity and accountability in evaluating the written
content.
•Their personal objectives and aims in terms of written skill
development.
•The specific aspect of writing to be targeted (for example, discourse
specific, self-expression, grammatical testing).
•The context of the task (for example single-authored (expressivist)
or collaborative approaches (socio-cognitivist)).

Accept from the above mentioned it is also important to consider a number of issues relevant to the integration of this generic writing tool which is being adapted for specific CALL purposes. These may include:

•Learning environment (classroom-based or self-study).
•Learner profiles (covering their previous exposure and experience to more general ICT use in their studies and in their online social networking, and of course their current language attainment levels).
•Creation of a relevant, meaningful and authentic context, including 
the justification for using the tool in question.

In the context of th research and assessment, the blog represents the academic writing process method in which the student composes in an admittedly enforced medium of self-expression and analysis. The blog writing also represents aspects of a post-process method with opportunities to rationalise and reflect upon the “expressions of the self”. The formal academic essay also corresponds to the post-process approach, offering to the teacher an academically-valid assessment framework for providing
effective feedback; and to the student an academically-endorsed acknowledgement of the quality of their self-analysis and possible discovery of their most effective LL strategies. From our data we have found that most students understood the potential of blogs as a reflexive tool on LL and the benefits thereof. Yet, some remained who did not. This may require an improved integration technique on our part. The main task for researchers interested in this LL approach will be to improve upon the pedagogical and writing processes involved in turning future “masterpiece[s] of scattered thought and random concepts” into better quality academic essays.


The next research analyzes the usefulness of microblogging in second language learning using the example of the social network Twitter. Most learners of English do not require even more passive input in form of texts, lectures or videos, etc. This input is readily available in numerous forms on the Internet.
What learners of English need is the chance to actively produce language and the chance to use English as tool of communication. This calls for instructional methods and tools promoting ‘active’ learning that present opportunities for students to express themselves and interact in the target language. In this paper we describe how we used Twitter with students of English at the Distant Col-
lege of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We analyze the students’ messages and show how the usage of Twitter trained communicative and cultural competence.

Twitter was selected as a research experiment tool because it provides the Chinese students the opportunity to practice the target language as well as their communicative and cultural competence.

According to the authors of the second research paper, Twitter seems to be a perfect tool to support learning English, especially in blended classrooms, for the following reasons. First, Twitter is easily accessibly from almost everywhere, so the students can practice at any time by sending and receiving messages either on the computer or the mobile phone. They can also decide how much time they spend reading and writing these messages. This is an essential feature for busy students. Second, Twitter is suitable for any level of English because in writing the messages, the students can chose a topic and grammatical structure fitting their level. Third, the use of Twitter as an online learning community can help to integrate students in the community who could not attend classroom.

The suitability of Twitter for language learning was often postulated, but to the knowledge of the authors until now never investigated in detail. The second work explores Twitter as a tool for active learning in the EFL classroom and provides the first detailed analysis of how Twitter was used to learn specific aspects of language. The main finding is that it is suitable to train communicative and culture competence anytime anywhere with out face-to-face interaction. In a broader scope, this work contributes to the research on using Web 2.0 services and tools for learning, so called e-learning 2.0. We show that the social, collaborative principles of Web 2.0 are reflected in its usage by learners, if used in the appropriate way. In this case, students clearly like using the service; one student even asked to continue to use Twitter after the project: “Would you please

do not close the twitter online? It offers us a free space to put ourself in English.”

To finally answer the question, I would again state, that indeed, I would like to use blogging and microblogging as teaching methodology in line with other methods. "In any case, microblogging might seam and from my point of view is a little more narrow type of blogging, however, such tools as Twitter give the students room for communication, using the language for active interaction with the peers and the instructor. I might not be using Twitter, but maybe for the reflective journals which are more of my interest, LiveJournal would be the best choice. Otherwise, I will have to think of creating something new alike Moodle.