TESOL 2.0
Joachim Castellano, Jacob S. MacLeod, & Tara E. Tarpey
Teachers College, Columbia University
The TESOL 2.0 project investigated the integration of media and technology in language learning classrooms at Teachers College, Columbia University. Below are steps that you can follow to incorporate blogging and other communicative technologies into your classrooms.
Step 1: Check to be sure that all of your students have computer access and collect their email addresses. Be prepared to assist students in finding the local library and/or helping them set up an e-mail account if necessary.
Step 2: Familiarize yourself with three uses for blogs and decide which style best suits your teaching goals and situation.
Class Blog: http://www.cepwizards.blogspot.com/
This is an informal blog where students post and reply freely to each other. Topics should be student-generated, and it is recommended that this blog is not corrected or graded. At the beginning of each class, students should be given time to discuss recent blog posts.
Vocabulary Blog: http://cepwordsimages.blogspot.com/
Here students teach each other new words and phrases, whether advanced, idiomatic, or colloquial, to their classmates. Students should take turns posting a word/phrase and provide hints to the definition by way of example sentences and digital photos they have taken themselves. At the start of each class, classmates try to guess the meanings of posted vocabulary entries by following the given clues.
Project Blog: http://timeoutcephome.blogspot.com/
This format involves the semester-long creation of an online magazine to which all of the students contribute on a regular basis. Students should be responsible for editorial decisions. The magazine should incorporate sound and images as well as text.
Step 3: Create a blog using a free service, such as Blogger, Wordpress, or Vox
Step 4: Invite students to the blogs via their email addresses, making sure they have permission to post entries and add comments.
Step 5: Introduce the concept of blogging and the types of the blogs that the students will maintain. Students should collaboratively make format, design, and content decisions, which should ideally reflect their level, interests, and backgrounds.
Step 6: For the next several classes, determine weekly assignments that increase gradually in linguistic difficulty. As the semester progresses, students should suggest their own weekly assignments.
Step 7: Each week, students should facilitate a “feedback session” in order to review recently submitted assignments, brainstorm ideas, make editorial decisions, and assign tasks.
Step 8: (optional) At the end of the semester, help students organize a launch party in which they unveil their website to a public audience (fellow students, friends, or family).
Sample semester-long timeline for creating a Project Blog
Week 1: Creation of the online magazine - Decide upon title, format, sections, and content with your students
Week 2: Conduct interviews (including Q&A, bio, direct quote, picture)
Week 3: Audio tour - students walk around a neighborhood they know well and describe what they see into a portable recording device
Week 4: Event promo (text, graphic, or both)- students promote an actual event they may attend
Week 5: Feature article on any topic using text and multimedia
Week 6: Three reviews using a rating system, pictures, and text- reviews can be about restaurants, museums, stores, or concerts
Week 7: Commercials- In small groups, students plan, film, and publish commercials to advertise the magazine
Week 8: Advice column- Each student provides advice on a different topic, answering fictitious letters from classmates
Week 9: Free contribution- Students publish something of their choosing
Week 10: Final editing, presentation, and preparation