This essay is about the educational usage of blogging in the EFL classroom and why blogging can be a useful educational tool. Since last March, I have been blogging and tagging. Through this experience, I could share my ideas with other classmates and my professor especially with the tool, Google+. There are so many blogs in the world, but if teachers create their own blog to communicate with their own students directly and have a special rapport with each student, it would be really great for some reasons.
First, within the limited class time, teachers can't have enough chances to build the more meaningful relationship with their students. Recently students don't enjoy speaking their ideas orally in front of others. Instead, they create their own chatting room in Kakao and enjoy exchanging the texts, which are much more comfortable to them. In this situation, blogging can be an effective tool to gather students' ideas. If teachers post a paddlet on their blog, students will pay more attention to the topic. As the writer of this essay says, "Blogs imply conversations". With this tool, teachers can open a much wider door to students.
Secondly, it's also because of the limited class time that teachers don't teach full contents and change them into smaller portion. Recently due to the development of technology, 'Flipped Classroom' is introduced in Korea and many teachers agree with the fundamental concept : teach students outside the classroom and let students do more educational activities in the classroom. Actually, I tried this for my students. I recorded my explanation with a screencast tool and asked my students to watch and study by themselves. And then, during the class, we can enjoy more activities which are designed for group work and are more interesting than boring lectures. When teachers do this, blogs can be effective tools for review because all the lectures teachers made are posted there. Therefore, students repeat the lecture video until they fully understand it. In conclusion, blog is an effective substitute for handouts. Good blogs offer lots of diverse information at any time and any place.
Lastly, one of positive impact of blogs in the language class is offering students a real, authentic place to use the language as a communication tool. Whenever they participate in blogging, students naturally pick up the new language expressions, collaborate with others, have opportunity to reflect on the given topic, examine the task from different perspectives using a variety of resources, and can be more motivated by sharing ideas with other classmates.
In conclusion, I strongly agree that blogging can be an effective teaching tool. But it needs lots of teachers' effort : "it doesn't simply happen". Over the traditional classrooms, building more learner-centered class is urgent and essential in this global, competitive world. I think blogging works well.
