What's a blog?

blog (noun)
to blog (verb)
blogger (person)

A blog is a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies.

A blog is a free and very simple website.

Blogs provide an opportunity for self-reflection and therefore are popular with the young.

Blogs vary in quality from the inane to the profound. (Remember: the internet has no editor)

Below are a selection of blogs for your perusal.

To access these click on the title.

To return back to this page, use the 'back' button.

Smoke and Mirrors

Landscape photography from Banks Penninsula.

Baghdad Burning

"Girl Blog from Iraq... let's talk war, politics and occupation."

Post Secret

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.

Marimari the lullaby

The diary of a young woman in Iran

The Sartorialist

Street fashion from New York

New Zealand Story

The diary of a young British man travelling around New Zealand.

Yellow Peril

The blog of Tze Ming Mok, who is now writing for the Sunday Star Times.

Plunge Pontificates

A political blog with strong opinions on Japan.

Search for your own special interest

Body building? Stamps? Wine? Italy? MC Hammer? Enter keywords into 'blogger search' and find something you're interested in.

How can I use blogs in the EFL classroom?

I have experimented with a number of different ways of using blogs. If you think of any new ideas please email me.

The first choice depends on your reason for blogging. What do you want your students to write about? Are you teaching an exam course? In this case, practice exam texts can be posted. Are you teaching general English? You may choose to set a topic that will encourage the students to use this week's target language. Do you want creative writing? Diaries? (Great for pastoral care). Is the blog for rapport building? Do you want photos? (Yes, you do.)

The second choice is whether to have a group blog (the whole class together) or individual blogs. Both work well.

Finally, do you want a discussion, where students compose on the spot? Or do you want accuracy, where students go through a writing process, posting the final copy on the blog?

Please see below for examples of EFL student blogs.

Super Cat

The diary of a Chinese EFL student, now studying design at Christchurch Polytech.

Diana

First Certificate Examination writing. This student was quite strong. Having her work online was great for the weaker students as they were able to use her work as a model text.

Martin's World

Another FCE blog.

New Zealand Memories

This blog was set up for a Korean holiday group. I think there are possibilities here for posting before they get on the plane and after returning home. I also think it's a good marketing tool.

No Problem Fours

Pre-intermediate writing from two classes. I think this blog might be a bit too big.

Poetry

Comparatives at Elementary level

Class Photos

A great way to make photos accessible to everyone. Good for rapport building too.

Fantastic Threes

Work from my Elementary class 2006. Note that students are still blogging their classmates after retuning to their home countries.

What are the benefits?

Being published on the internet for all to see is a great motivator. Especially with regards to accuracy.

A blog is Attractive: No more scrappy notebooks

A blog is a valuable resource for weaker students because they can copy the stronger students work.

It is easy to edit a misteke out of a post.

Individual responsibility: The student owns the blog

Pastoral care: Like a diary, you find out about their personal lives and are able to step in if appropriate.

Rapport building: This was an unexpected side effect. I find that my students discuss food and end up going out to dinner together. This happens every term. Weird.

Another unexpected side effect: Blogs provide an equal voice for quieter students

Less marking: There is not the expectation that the teacher will go through the writing and mark every mistake. When you do point out a mistake they rush to correct it because everyone can see it. Students feel validated when their classmates leave comments on their work, reducing the need for teacher input.

Cut and paste error feedback: In 5 minutes you can cut and paste a selection of student sentences into Microsoft Word and have an instant error feed back lesson.

What are the challenges?

Technology: Something always goes wrong. Always.

Blogs are very simple and this can be frustrating. For example, I had to write this whole blog backwards because the most recent post pops up first.

Feedback: Everyone can see it so it's not OK to leave comments such as "Sky, rewrite this with articles and check your tenses"

Student errors: Will the others copy?

Internet distractions: "Irene, please stop checking your email"

Students can post terrible photos of you

So set up your own!