Freedom in Writing OR Reflection on Blogging
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on
producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
- Brian Clarke
Blogging is one of the newest approaches of
improving writing ability in terms of posting ideas on internet where it is
published for larger audience. In spring semester several cohorts of GSE were
introduced by our instructor using blogs with some requirements such as writing
in half academic style, connecting topics with education, using academic
sources and etc. Even though students had free writing style and active online
interaction, there was less effective impact on improving my academic writing
skills as blogging does not correspond with the purpose of the course “English for
Research”.
As
one of the main goals of blogging was improving English language proficiency by
writing a post - was great opportunity for students to choose the topic they like
and develop their ideas. Similarly, Bloch (2007) and Rezaee & Oladi (2008)
stated that blogging helps students to enunciate their ideas who become also
part of writing community and balance their voice on their own writings as
contributors (as cited in Warschauer, 2010, p. 1). For instance, I was posting
the topics on village school, giving definition for reflection, raising the
importance of ECA in mainstream school of Kazakhstan and etc. Ostensibly, I had privilege to designate my
own topics at least I submitted them on time.
Several
authors pointed out that interactive learning such as blog helps to increase
the level of communication between teacher and students, also communication
among students themselves (Montgomery, 2015a; Chen, 2011). It
was an opportunity for group of people to share ideas and get feedback from
their peers as well. According to blog survey, the majority of students (approximately
80%) were eager to get feedback from their peers and instructor which is very constructive
and valuable for their further writings (Montgomery, 2015b). However, the posts
were not regularly read and commented by students and instructor. Here is the
example of one student in blog survey (Montgomery, 2015b) “Also, the teacher
should comment more, sometimes I feel like nobody reads my posts”. On the next
half of the semester instructor started to comment on writing style and grammar
errors of how to improve writing while hitherto he gave feedback only at the
end of the term.
Another essential point of blogging is
improvement of academic writing skills. However, I don`t think that my writing has
improved now than at the beginning of the semester since there was no
correlation between the research and blogging. Undoubtedly, writing the posts
according to APA style and considering paragraph organization were elements to
practice of academic writing. Maybe blog is more appropriate for online
conversational interactions which is also described as “social interaction” (Vygotsky, 1978 as cited in Warschauer, 1997,
p. 3), “bridge between writing and speaking skills” (Chun, 1994, as cited in Warschauer,
1997, p. 6 ) and “equality student participation” (Warschauer, 1997, p. 5)
while we need more practice on writing our researches.
Considering that EDUC 502 “English for Research”
class was full of useful classroom academic writing activities, it can be
concluded that blogging remains as remedial tool for improvement students`
writing. Students can experience freedom in writing by choosing any interesting
topics in educational sphere; they interact by expressing their ideas on
different topics. As for improvement of students` academic writing in terms of
research I would suggest to develop further ideas how students can practice
their writing skills through blogging. Maybe it can be pivotal motivation for
students to share how to write thesis or discuss other issues on writing
thesis.
References
2.
Montgomery, D.P. (2015a, April). Did
you read my new post?: Improving autonomy, English and engagement through class
blogs. Paper presented at The International Conference for Building
Cultural Bridges, Suleyman Demirel University. Kaskelen, Kazakhstan: ICBCB.
3.
Montgomery, D. P. (2015b). [Blogging and
Academic Writing]. Unpublished raw data. Retrieved from htt://goo.gl/PX8wv7
4.
Lai, H. M., & Chen,
C. P. (2011). Factors influencing secondary school teachers’ adoption of
teaching blogs. Computers & Education, 56(4), 948-960.
5.
Warschauer, M. (1997).
Computer‐mediated collaborative learning: Theory and practice. The
Modern Language Journal, 81(4), 470-481.
6.
Warschauer, M. (2010).
Invited commentary: New tools for teaching writing.Language
Learning & Technology, 14(1), 3-8.
Zhuldyz, very interesting reflection on blogging. I think it was cute of our course instructor to give such a great opportunity for master degree students to express their ideas on internet which in turn facilitated active online interaction. Personally, I found our instructor's initiative in combining two different notions such as "academic" and "blog" important because this combination has given positive results: students started to collaborate with each other, students' writing and thinking have been improved to some extend due to different feedback from their peers or instructor and at least students tried something fresh. I recommend this activity - academic blog writing for school teachers on a pilot basis.
ReplyDeleteWell, academic blogging is now a buzzword among master students not just because of submitting writing assignment but more about their reflections on what they really gained from this practice. For me personally, unlike traditional paper - based essay writing, online blogging with all the advantages described in the given articles, has positive impact on producing natural and fluent piece of writing as online writers are given the room and space whatever topic they are competent or interested to write without focusing on academic vocabulary only. This proves blog writing to be an enriching experience. Especially, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that blog writing versus essay writing has positive contribution. We tend to put off writing essays, as we have to think over the topic, structure, word choice, grammar and cohesion of the whole point. However, blogging helps me to summarize what I have read, remember important points, and organize my own arguments. When I take the time to write down my thoughts regarding the piece of reading, it really helps in increasing level of self-reflection. One more point that is important is that since our writings based on the reading of the same course materials, reading other students' perspectives in the blog can influence yours and lead you to understand some opposing positions. Therefore, I would recommend organizing the blog writing with compulsory provision of support and gradual engagement of students to writing blogs as regular and effective use of these tools is sure to bring positive results.
ReplyDelete