Loud and Clear - Clarity English language teaching online

Using technology to teach writing
What is a blog
A blog is a webpage to which an
individual or a group periodically
posts thoughts, opinions,
weblinks - even video and audio.
Others are able to comment, and
these comments can be viewed
by anyone visiting the site. The
best way to find out about blogs
is to set one up yourself. It’s
astonishingly easy! Go to
www.Blogger.com, follow the
instructions to set up your own
blog and make your first post
within five minutes.
Technical and Upgrades
A technical upgrade to
Study Skills Success was
released in June 2007 and
has been made available
automatically to all online
accounts.
Business Writing was
released online and for
networks in August 2007 and
replaces The Report Writer.
An upgrade to Road to
IELTS including minor data
changes and an enhanced
screen size will be released
in October 2007. It is
available seamlessly to
online subscribers and on
request to users of the
network version.
‘Turn OFF the MSN! How can you possibly
concentrate on your work’ Thus the
fortysomething father to the teenage daughter
as she flicks between homework and chat at
20-second intervals. But she and her friends
are, after all, producing such compelling written
communication that it needs to be read literally
instantly. So how can we harness the power of
these new technologies and the enthusiasm of
students to use them to improve writing skills
Here are three ideas.
Any discussion of using ICT for writing must
begin with the word processor. A program
such as MS Word enables easy drafting,
editing and formatting, making it an ideal tool
for a collaborative writing project with an end
product that students can take a real pride in.
An Advanced class in Mumbai was doing a
short project on Indian independence. The
class was split into groups of four, and each
group was assigned four topics: the British in
India; Gandhi; the process of independence;
the results of independence. The project
followed these stages:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Word processors
Groupwork discussion on the
approach to the topic and the
allocation of responsibilities.
Writing. Each student wrote one A4
page on their topic.
Peer review.
Discussion of comments and
corrections, as well as presentation
issues. The work was then redrafted
and subsequently collated by a
volunteer member of the group.
Delivery to the class.
The power of the technology lies in the ease
with which the work can be redrafted –
rewriting by hand quickly kills enthusiasm –
and in the presentation.
This type of collaborative writing activity, which
requires fluency, accuracy, creativity and
teamwork, is completely transferrable to lower
levels. Learners as young as six can work
together to produce illustrated PowerPoint
presentations on, for example, the different
lifestyles of Singaporeans and Inuits. The
output can be posted on the school website for
parents to view.
Blogs
What is a blog See left.
Teachers used to be preoccupied by the
absence of real communication in the writing
tasks they set. Students would write a
dialogue, a letter or an essay, but ultimately
the only person who would ever read it was
the teacher; it was never an authentic piece of
writing. The Web changes that dramatically.
Students can now write for an audience that
potentially includes everyone in the world with
access to the Internet.
A good way into posting to the Web is through
blogs, and specifically, commenting on blogs.
By doing this, students can post as little as a
sentence or two and can build up their input as
they gain confidence. This helps students to
develop learner independence and enables
them to work in contexts that interest and
motivate them (football, dance, beekeeping –
there are blogs on every topic under the sun).
Start by teaching the functional language of
giving opinions. Print out some blog posts and,
in controlled activities, ask learners to
comment on them. For example, here is an
extract from a post on a climate change blog,
www.climateark.org/blog: “What is required is
massive reductions in energy use, achievable
only by shrinking human populations...” Do you
have anything to say about that Well I think...
It seems to me that... But isn’t that like
saying...
Students then locate blogs that interest them
by going to Google and searching for, for
example, ‘climate change blogs’. The final
stage of the activity is for them to write their
comments and click Post. This can be done as
an independent assignment, or students can
send links to their teachers (rather a
cumbersome process, admittedly).
Instant messaging
We end where we began, with MSN. Let’s
admit that no activity a teacher can set up will
be quite as entrancing as the teenage girl talk
referred to above, but a class discussion held
on the Web after school hours can generate
real passion, and be effective in encouraging
the more timid members of the group to
participate. A good example is a discussion
among a class of eight who were planning a
school trip. A number of practical matters had
to be solved: what time would they leave; what
were the study objectives of the trip; where
would they have lunch; which, out of a variety
of activities, would they choose. This was done
through the (written) chat function of the
school’s learning management system; it
could, with more organisation, be set up on
MSN or Skype.
This activity generated successful use of the
language of opinions and negotiation, even
though the language level of the students was
no higher than intermediate. All members of
group participated and, most importantly, real
outcomes were achieved.
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