(Credit: ICT in language classes blog)
As a blogger, I love expressing my thoughts on my hobbies and make them public. I used to own a Blogger's address about 10 years ago. At that time, Blogger's interface was too simple, even Vietnamese users were not supported Vietnamese fonts. Its limited theme and some unfixed bugs forced me to be back to Wordpress. Then, this ICT course gave the chance to re-use Blogger. I got surprised to its new and friendly interface. Google developers must have been working so hard to reform Blogger. Firstly, Google users have ability of creating their own blogs with only one account. It would be easy if you use a normal Google account and have not combine it to another. I have a problem with sign-in part because my institution email does not include Blogger and I combined both that email and the email creating my old Blogger address. If anyone meets this issue, delete the combination in email's Setting. Secondly, more blog theme has been added. Those new themes make blog's interface more professional. Last but not least, Blogger user's dashboard looks really different from the old one. They can earn money from blogging and the blog's statistics work well with Google' support. After changing theme and title, I am now ready to explore more ways to apply technologies to my English classes.
After reading Stanley's article (2005), I really have a better understanding of how to use a blog at my English class. A blog is a pleasant learning environment for me, a teacher of English, to publish assignments, provide useful Internet resources and keep students up-to-date on their due dates and the content covered at class. Moreover, I can use a blog to help students' improve their writing skills.
Module 1's discussion inspired me to apply some of ideas to my upcoming writing class. At my class, I used to evaluate my students' reflection via tests and examination. An online reflection on blog would be easier to express, then teachers we might collect more information to evaluate our students' progress. The idea of "blogging buddy" is quite interesting. Students are facilitated to interact and reflect on their skills development. Besides, I would apply online discussion and grading in my class blog. As Ms. A blog is an objective tool to evaluate students' on-time hand-in assignments.
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