Here are three of my favorite ESL blogs and brief introductions of them.
ESL-Learning English Culturally
In this blog it got many labels such as “useful expressions”, “Useful English Openers” or “Daily English” for learners to click in to read the article. You can learn some basic usage of English in different context. And you can get a general understanding about holidays around the world by reading the “Holidays” section. Also funny comic and pictures about blogging is provided for visitors to laugh while learning.
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day for Teaching ELL, EFL&ESL
Actually this is more suitable for teachers. The blog is so great because it provide so many materials. The categories contain almost every subject: Math, Geography, Science, etc. And also it has categories on basic English learning skills like listening, writing, grammar, etc. In the articles the blogger provides many more website that is useful for different subjects of teaching. Games and videos that can be encouraging to learners are provided, too. I guess I won’t introduce too much to you because I would like you to explore for yourself! I believe you will find it really useful!!
Inspiration Lane
Wow! This is the MOST special blog I have ever seen!! "Inspiration Lane" is an online, classroom magazine for all levels of ESOL, ESL and EFL classes. And it is really unique because it will change automatically every day. Created and edited by an ESOL certified teacher in Florida, USA. For teachers, this blog can be projected onto whiteboard every day after the lesson to share with the whole class. Students can visit it everyday to learn new stuff!! I just love the way it is!! It has new things to learn every day, such as “Quote of the day” or “The day in history” I think it is a really great ESL blog for both teachers and students.
2007年6月24日 星期日
2007年6月15日 星期五
Class Discussion on Weblog
Discuss principles for designing English teaching and learning weblogs with team members
Our group thinks that the principles of an English learning weblog should be the use of “multimedia”, the “links” of wide range of information, a platform for posting and receiving “comments” from other participants, and a way to “evaluate” the effectiveness of their learning.Compared to the traditional classroom learning, English learning weblog has the characteristics of online learning, which provides more time and space for learners to think, offers hypertexts for learners to absorb more information if they want, works with multimedia contents to attract learners’ attention.Besides, using the form of weblog, learners can receive immediate articles from that English learning weblog through “RSS.”For example, when an English learner gets into a weblog, he/she will browse a lot of online articles with links and multimedia contents to learn English. Then, he/she is allowed to post his/her personal opinions there, he/she can even give the response to other postings, certainly, he/she can receive the feedback for other participants, so that the learning process involves a kind of interaction of knowledge, instead of just one-way input for a learner. Finally, after learning from the weblog, he/she can receive the updated information from that weblog immediately in their personal blogs.
Discuss criteria for evaluating ESL/EFL weblogs with team members.
**Multimedia : This is a very basic and important component for a weblog because students can find the most appropriate way of learning. That is, the weblog provide various media to facilitate students’ English learning. If there is no multimedia in a weblog, then, it just has a few differences between those traditional learning materials.
**Comments : To judge whether a weblog is good or not, we can take a careful look at the comments from the visitors. These feedback can provide more objective views of the weblog. In other words, we can also know the advantages and disadvantages of this weblog. Besides, comments can inspire the designer of the weblog to make his or her weblog better.
**Information links(hypertext) : The greatest difference between traditional learning materials is that hypertext can make student’s reading much more efficient. Students do not have to flip through many books to obtain knowledge. They just have to click on the links, than, they can explore as many as other websites or weblogs they want.
**Quizzes/ Tasks : It’s very important for an English learning weblog to have such criteria. In that way, students could have the opportunities to check what they have learned. Most importantly, by taking some quizzes or tasks, students can get to know what else they need to put more emphasis on.
Our group thinks that the principles of an English learning weblog should be the use of “multimedia”, the “links” of wide range of information, a platform for posting and receiving “comments” from other participants, and a way to “evaluate” the effectiveness of their learning.Compared to the traditional classroom learning, English learning weblog has the characteristics of online learning, which provides more time and space for learners to think, offers hypertexts for learners to absorb more information if they want, works with multimedia contents to attract learners’ attention.Besides, using the form of weblog, learners can receive immediate articles from that English learning weblog through “RSS.”For example, when an English learner gets into a weblog, he/she will browse a lot of online articles with links and multimedia contents to learn English. Then, he/she is allowed to post his/her personal opinions there, he/she can even give the response to other postings, certainly, he/she can receive the feedback for other participants, so that the learning process involves a kind of interaction of knowledge, instead of just one-way input for a learner. Finally, after learning from the weblog, he/she can receive the updated information from that weblog immediately in their personal blogs.
Discuss criteria for evaluating ESL/EFL weblogs with team members.
**Multimedia : This is a very basic and important component for a weblog because students can find the most appropriate way of learning. That is, the weblog provide various media to facilitate students’ English learning. If there is no multimedia in a weblog, then, it just has a few differences between those traditional learning materials.
**Comments : To judge whether a weblog is good or not, we can take a careful look at the comments from the visitors. These feedback can provide more objective views of the weblog. In other words, we can also know the advantages and disadvantages of this weblog. Besides, comments can inspire the designer of the weblog to make his or her weblog better.
**Information links(hypertext) : The greatest difference between traditional learning materials is that hypertext can make student’s reading much more efficient. Students do not have to flip through many books to obtain knowledge. They just have to click on the links, than, they can explore as many as other websites or weblogs they want.
**Quizzes/ Tasks : It’s very important for an English learning weblog to have such criteria. In that way, students could have the opportunities to check what they have learned. Most importantly, by taking some quizzes or tasks, students can get to know what else they need to put more emphasis on.
Get to know Weblog
Understand the weblog and its applications What is the weblog? What are some popular English learning weblogs?
Well, the meaning of weblog is not so easy to explain. I tried to find answers in the two following places.
– Yahoo Knowledge - Wikipedia
The word “blog” is the short term for weblog. The word “weblog” was invented around 1997 by a person named Jorn Barger. The meaning of it is to use web to create personal log with periodicity. Blogs provides commentary or news on different subjects, such as food, traveling, local news, etc. Another function of blog is that it is the personal diary. People write about everyday life in their own blogs to keep a record or let out their emotions. Blog contains not only text, but also images, link to other blogs, favorite web pages and other media. The special thing we should notice about blog is that it can create forum for others to interact with the owner of the blog and leave comments. Due to these special features blog can also be used as a place to provide class material online: related websites, medias, or articles can be put on to the blog for students to click for self learning. Also teacher and students can communicate through interactive format.
Here I listed some of the ESL weblogs.
English ESL Weblog from Using English.com
ESL- Learning English Culturally TOP THREE!!!
AFE-American Film English
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day For Teaching ESL& EFL TOP THREE !!!
Inspirational Lane TOP THREE !!!
Understand specific weblog features and functions. What can the weblog do compared to the traditional English learning website? What are RSS/ permalinks/ trackback?
For RSS/permalinks/trackback, I tried to find answers in two places as same as the last question.
RSS is a kind of XML format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries or news headlines. That means you can use RSS to subscribe for news, blogs, or message boards. If there are new articles, news or messages being created, you will receive a notice, and you will not have to spend time looking for new postings, it will tell you automatically.
- Yahoo KNowledge
- Wikipedia
Permalinks (permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific blogging entry and remained unchanged. It avoids link rot. By providing this kind of links, the visitors would not click into a link and discover the content they wish to see are replaced by something else.
- Wikipedia
Trackback can be simply explained as to “cite”. When you see interesting articles in one’s blog and want to make comment or evaluate in your own blog, you can use this function. Just go the article you would like to discuss about and click “response”. You will then see a cited web address for the article. Edit your article as usual and paste the cited web address in to the column. The blog you are evaluating will receive a notification to know you have cited something from it. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles.
- Yahoo Knowledge -Wikipedia
After explaining about the three functions and features of weblog, we can clearly see the differences between traditional websites and weblogs. While traditional website can only display material they prepared and provides links to other related web resources, weblogs can do more. RSS enables teacher/student to receive new postings or other things from blogs they think are useful to them without spending time surfing. They can get new things immediately. Permalinks allows teacher/student to always visit their favorite websites or blogs without having to worry that next time the material would disappear or displaced. And trackback let teacher/student know who are visiting their weblogs and make record to decide what kind of materials should be provided.
Explore blog features and use them in your blog. How can team blog functions (e.g., comments, moderation, trackback, and pingback) support English reading and writing?
Those functions are used to send notification to the blog where the article being referred to. In this way the two authors would know that they have some common interests and would read each other’s ideas then keep giving feedbacks. In the exchanging, the ability of reading and writing are practiced. The functions enable people to get connect together and share thoughts through reading and writing online.
How can multimedia presentation (e.g., pictures, and videos, and audio) support English listening and speaking?
Listening and speaking require lots of practice. Often there are some students who are not confident enough to make a speech in class therefore lose the chances of practicing. Multimedia presentations provide practices that allow those to practice by themselves at any time. As for listening, we can never have someone talking every minute to train our listening ability. Designed exercises in multimedia trains our listening in different contexts and also let us practice anytime.
Well, the meaning of weblog is not so easy to explain. I tried to find answers in the two following places.
– Yahoo Knowledge - Wikipedia
The word “blog” is the short term for weblog. The word “weblog” was invented around 1997 by a person named Jorn Barger. The meaning of it is to use web to create personal log with periodicity. Blogs provides commentary or news on different subjects, such as food, traveling, local news, etc. Another function of blog is that it is the personal diary. People write about everyday life in their own blogs to keep a record or let out their emotions. Blog contains not only text, but also images, link to other blogs, favorite web pages and other media. The special thing we should notice about blog is that it can create forum for others to interact with the owner of the blog and leave comments. Due to these special features blog can also be used as a place to provide class material online: related websites, medias, or articles can be put on to the blog for students to click for self learning. Also teacher and students can communicate through interactive format.
Here I listed some of the ESL weblogs.
English ESL Weblog from Using English.com
ESL- Learning English Culturally TOP THREE!!!
AFE-American Film English
Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day For Teaching ESL& EFL TOP THREE !!!
Inspirational Lane TOP THREE !!!
Understand specific weblog features and functions. What can the weblog do compared to the traditional English learning website? What are RSS/ permalinks/ trackback?
For RSS/permalinks/trackback, I tried to find answers in two places as same as the last question.
RSS is a kind of XML format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries or news headlines. That means you can use RSS to subscribe for news, blogs, or message boards. If there are new articles, news or messages being created, you will receive a notice, and you will not have to spend time looking for new postings, it will tell you automatically.
- Yahoo KNowledge
- Wikipedia
Permalinks (permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific blogging entry and remained unchanged. It avoids link rot. By providing this kind of links, the visitors would not click into a link and discover the content they wish to see are replaced by something else.
- Wikipedia
Trackback can be simply explained as to “cite”. When you see interesting articles in one’s blog and want to make comment or evaluate in your own blog, you can use this function. Just go the article you would like to discuss about and click “response”. You will then see a cited web address for the article. Edit your article as usual and paste the cited web address in to the column. The blog you are evaluating will receive a notification to know you have cited something from it. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking to, or referring to their articles.
- Yahoo Knowledge -Wikipedia
After explaining about the three functions and features of weblog, we can clearly see the differences between traditional websites and weblogs. While traditional website can only display material they prepared and provides links to other related web resources, weblogs can do more. RSS enables teacher/student to receive new postings or other things from blogs they think are useful to them without spending time surfing. They can get new things immediately. Permalinks allows teacher/student to always visit their favorite websites or blogs without having to worry that next time the material would disappear or displaced. And trackback let teacher/student know who are visiting their weblogs and make record to decide what kind of materials should be provided.
Explore blog features and use them in your blog. How can team blog functions (e.g., comments, moderation, trackback, and pingback) support English reading and writing?
Those functions are used to send notification to the blog where the article being referred to. In this way the two authors would know that they have some common interests and would read each other’s ideas then keep giving feedbacks. In the exchanging, the ability of reading and writing are practiced. The functions enable people to get connect together and share thoughts through reading and writing online.
How can multimedia presentation (e.g., pictures, and videos, and audio) support English listening and speaking?
Listening and speaking require lots of practice. Often there are some students who are not confident enough to make a speech in class therefore lose the chances of practicing. Multimedia presentations provide practices that allow those to practice by themselves at any time. As for listening, we can never have someone talking every minute to train our listening ability. Designed exercises in multimedia trains our listening in different contexts and also let us practice anytime.
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