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Using the Blackboard blog as a tool to facilitate English language learners’ academic writing: Practice and perceptions. Deb Smith [email protected] Alicia Vallero [email protected] 28 August 2012

Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

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The Blackboard blog is a valuable tool for teaching and learning which could be utilized in the language classroom as well as other subject areas.

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Page 1: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Using the Blackboard blog as a tool to facilitateEnglish language learners’ academic writing:

Practice and perceptions.

Deb [email protected]

Alicia [email protected] 28 August 2012

Page 2: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Overview • Using the Blackboard Blog Tool• Characteristics of the blog tool and advantages for

teaching and learning• Our study• Conclusions

Page 3: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Characteristics of the Blog tool• Familiar• Convenient• Archival • Date stamped • Public• Interactive

Page 4: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Advantages for learners • Motivating

– Intrinsic power of technology – Anywhere/any time – Interaction – Sense of community

• Engaging– Enjoyment of reading other students’ posts and comments

• Positive impact on learning

Roberts, Foehr & Rideout (2005); Bakar (2009)Oblinger (2008)Davis (2006); Abu Bakar & Jemboja Isamail (2009)Barrios (2003)Camilleri, Ford, Leja & Sollars (2007)Ward (2004)

Page 5: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

The Blackboard Blog Tool• Blog as a genre of writing• Reflective• Interactive

• Blog as a toolAllows public posting of any type of writing

desmith
Do you like this distinction of blog as a genre/blog as a tool? I was happy with it..and I think it clarifies the point we want to impress...
Page 6: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Using the Blackboard blog tool with English language learners

• Pathways program: 2 semester program at Bond University

• Non-native speakers of English• Undergraduate and postgraduate

– Objectives: to develop academic reading, writing, and English language skills

Page 7: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Using the Blackboard blog tool with English language learners

Blog used to submit writing skills practice as an alternative to traditional submission to teacher

– Semester 2, 2012 submission of 9 tasks requiredPersonal Introduction

Academic paragraphs on a given topic Summary Introductory paragraph Outline of essay topic and their research Sentences using cause/effect language

Page 8: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Posting on the blog vs. traditional submission

• Preference– familiarity

• Audience– Attention – Accountability– Sociocultural learning theory

• Convenience– for teacher– for student

desmith
not sure about thsi..I jsut thought of it as a tranistion to the reason for doing our study..
Page 9: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

The study• Research question:

What are students perceptions about using the Blackboard blog tool to submit written tasks in the Pathways class?

Page 10: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Target group• 11 students from Pathways Level 2 Class

• 8 undergraduate• 3 postgraduate

Mixed nationalities:• I Colombian• I French• 1 Saudi Arabian• 2 Taiwanese• 6 Chinese

Page 11: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Data collection• Week 11: Focus group– Preliminary study– 7 participants

Page 12: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Data collection• Week 12: Online survey • Measure students perceptions – 9 respondents– 15 Likert scale items

Page 13: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Findings from focus group• Enjoyable• Helpful• Some limitations

Page 14: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Enjoyable– Easy and convenient to use– Liked seeing others’ work– Did not mind that their work (and teacher’s

comments) visible to others

Page 15: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Helpful• Read other posts – gained ideas on content, style and language

• Read teachers’ comments on others’ posts– Avoid making same mistake

Page 16: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Limitations• Lack of comments from other students • Technical limitations of the Blackboard blog

tool– Editing capabilities– Timed out

Page 17: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Survey results• 93% enjoyable• 96% helpful• 83% beneficial for learning

Page 18: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Conclusions and implications for teaching and learning

• Blackboard blog tool– Easy and convenient

• Writing for an audience– Increased attention to work– Learning resource

• Limitations– Minimal impact

desmith
I envisage this will just be a wrap up of our main conclusions, but could be redundant if htis is covered in previous slide???
Page 19: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Therefore…• The Blackboard blog is a valuable tool for

teaching and learning which could be utilized in the language classroom as well as other subject areas.

Page 20: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

A final suggestion• Similar tool– Allows semi-public posting of students work

with archival and date stamped capacities– Improved capabilities for editing and

correction– Perhaps a different name

desmith
just ideas????
Page 22: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Results of surveyItems Strongly agree Agree Neither agree

nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree TOTAL

The iLearn blog is easy to use. 5 3 1 0 0 9

I enjoyed reading other students’ blog entries. 5 2 2 0 0 9

I liked receiving comments from other students on my blog entries.

5 3 1 0 0 9

I didn’t mind that other students could read my blog entries.

7 2 0 0 0 9

I didn’t mind that other students could read the teacher’s comments on my blog entries.

6 3 0 0 0 9

TOTAL 63% 30% 7% 0 0

Page 23: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Results of surveyItems Strongly agree Agree Neither agree

nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree TOTAL

I found it helpful to read other students’ blog entries. 7 1 1 0 0 9

I learnt from reading other students’ blog entries. 6 2 1 0 0 9

I found it helpful to read the teacher’s comments on my blog entries.

8 1 0 0 0 9

I found it helpful to read the teacher’s comments on other students’ blog entries.

6 3 0 0 0 9

I got ideas from other students’ blog entries which helped me with my own.

7 2 0 0 0 9

Percentage of total possible responses 76% 20% 4% 0 0

Page 24: Facilitate English Language Learners' Academic Writing with Blackboard Blog Tool

Beneficial for learningItems Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor

disagree Disagree Strongly disagree

Because other students could see my work I checked the vocabulary more carefully than when I submit my work to the teacher only.

4 3 1 1 0

Because other students could see my work I checked the grammar more carefully than when I submit my work to the teacher only.

4 3 1 1 0

Using the blog for the writing tasks helped me improve my English more than if I submitted my work to the teacher only.

6 2 0 0 1

Reading other students’ blog entries helped me improve my English.

5 2 2 0 0

Writing on the blog has increased my confidence in writing in English.

5 3 1 0 0

Percentage of total possible responses54% 29% 11% 4% 2%