Blog #7

Bibliography 7

Arena, C. (2008) Blogging in the Language Classroom: It Doesn’t “Simply Happen” [Electronic Version].  Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 11, 4, 1-7. Retrieved on November 27, 2010 from

http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/hww/results/external_link_maincontentframe.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.43

This is a peer-reviewed article.  The author of this article is Carla Arena a Brazilian EFL teacher, explorer of the potential of technology integration into language learning.

The article’s focus is on how important it is to teach students the importance of the use of blogs and how effective they can be in education.  The article focus is on how teachers need to address the best practices’ for the use of blogs.  According to the article, many understand that blogs can be used to construct knowledge and are used to post material online, however there is much more to blogging.  The article states that blogging can be used for professional development, class blogs, and students' individual blogs, (Arena, 2008, p1).  The article states that blogs can be used as conversations.  When blogs are used for conversations, the teacher has to define his or her role as the communicator and their particular position they play in blogging.  The educator should be monitoring the conversations amongst the students.  Students can use blogging to answer posts and learn how to properly cite sources. 

The article suggests that students can use blogs as a way to establish their own blogging voice.  Blogging can be used to develop thinking skills.  Students should be writing about a topic that is sincere to them, which allows them to stay engaged in the writing.  The teacher has to support the students in this process of finding their tone by commenting on the dialogue.  Additionally, the article states that blogging can be used for Authentic Audience.  Blogs allow for relationships to build beyond the instructor (Arena, 2008, p4).  Blogs allow for students to open up and establish relationships with other students in the class.

The article suggests that blogging can be used as a tool for tagging.  In the article Arena carried out a study on a group of teachers.  The study's focus was on the use of tagged blogs.  The study was called Blogging for Educators.  Many teachers participated in a blog discussion.  The study had all teachers tag there content with the tag Blogging for Educators.  The educators then did a search and found that their searches were already tagged with Blogging for Educators.  Arena created a new tag each week.  Although the participants were falling behind, they still were able to communicate by following their tagged colleges. 

The article covered the various use of blogging.  The author points out that learning via blogs does not just happen over night.  Blogging doesn't "simply happen" (Arena, 2010, p6).  It happens when the educators and learners completely put forth the effort to establish and participate in meaningful conversations.

Blog #6

Bibliography 6

Gibson, D. (2001). The Way We Were…Education on the Fly [Electric version].  Technos Quarterly, 10, 3. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from http://www.ait.net/technos/tq_10/3gibson.php.

This article’s focus was on the change that has occurred in Distance Learning Programs from the past to the present, and how driven educators can make a difference in our education system.  The article was about the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction (MPATI), which was a distance learning program back in the 1960’s.  MAPTI was an instructional television program that provided high quality instruction to students through out the Midwest.  To increase its audience, the recording occurred on an airplane. The instruction was recorded on videotape and broadcasted in six different states: Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and Wisconsi (Gibson 2001).

The article stated that MPATI had its troubles with staying functional.  Many times the electronic equipment was vacuum-tube and would constantly burn out.  However, this did not stop MPATI.  MPATI continued to carry out television transmissions for over 20 years.  MPATI provided effective instruction to many schools (Gibson 2001.) The Airplane was eventually taken over in the late 1980’ by interactive satellites, which delivered the distance learning.  Today schools have the capability to videoconference school-to-school and network with each other.

What the article was trying to point out is that an individual with instructional needs will always find a way to overcome its barriers.

Blog #5

Bibliography 5

McCarthy, J. (2010). Blended learning environments: Using social networking sites to enhance the first year experience. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 26, 6, 729-740.

This article focuses on the social and academic interaction between peers at the university level.  The study was done to determine if social network sites are meaningful in the learning environments.  The researchers studied to see if engaging students with their peers on the online site Facebook was just as effective to learning as traditional teaching mechanisms.  In the article, 120 students had to create an account on Facebook, interact with their peers and build relationships with each other.  Additionally, students had to submit work online and take an assessment on Facebook.  Students then had to attend an in class lecture to discuss their experience on Facebook.  The students had to take a survey to answer various questions to their experience on Facebook.  The questions assessed the students attitudes towards ‘on-line’ and ‘in class’ communication with their colleague. 

The article found that many of the students thought the opportunity to interact with their peer on Facebook was an effective tool for the learning experience.  They preferred the online interaction instead of being singled out in a classroom.  Furthermore, students thought the assessment was a good learning tool.

In general, I thought the article was meaningful for Facebook.  However, this article does not provide adequate generalizations for all social networking sites.  To be more comprehensive, more research should be completed on the other social networking sites.

Blog #4

Bibliography 4

McKenzie, Jamie (2010). Over-Equipped? Is it possible to have too many laptops? [Electronic version]. from now on: the educational technology journal 20, 1.  Retrieved on November 6, 2010 from http://fno.org/sept2010/overequipped.html.

This article’s focus was to determine if it is necessary for every single student in the classroom to have a laptop.  The article states that it has been assumed that all students should have their own laptop.  Each student having his or her own laptop can be beneficial when working on a personal assignment.  However, a single laptop amongst a group of students working coherently provides a more effective learning experience.

In the article, six teachers in Tasmania attended a Professional development program.  The teachers were to interpret a painting.  Each teacher used their own laptop for a given assignment, and later used 1 laptop when interacting with each other on the assignment.  The use of the single laptop was more beneficial to the learning process because the teachers were able to interact with each other.  The article also suggested that having a laptop does not necessarily make students better readers, writers, or thinkers (Mckenzie 2010, 1).  It depends on how the students are using the laptop that makes a difference.  Many teachers have discovered that activities work better when students are interacting with each other instead of being isolated.  Students isolate themselves when working on a single laptop, but are interactive with each other when working in a group on a single laptop.

This article does not provide adequate generalizations for students. The article shows limitations because it provides research on the use of laptops by teachers only instead of students.  The focus of the article was student interaction with laptops in the classroom, not teachers.  I think that the article should have more evidence for student interaction and not just teacher interaction, if the overall viewpoint is student interaction on laptops.