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 Smithdesmith@bond.edu.au

Alicia Valleroalvaller@bond.edu.au 28 August 2012

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

teaching and learning• Our study• Conclusions

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

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)

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

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

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

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

Posting on the blog vs. traditional submission

• Preference– familiarity

• Audience– Attention – Accountability– Sociocultural learning theory

• Convenience– for teacher– for student

The study• Research question:

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

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

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

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

Findings from focus group• Enjoyable• Helpful• Some limitations

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

comments) visible to others

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

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

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

tool– Editing capabilities– Timed out

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

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

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.

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

Thank you for listening• Any questions?

Deb Smithdesmith@bond.edu.auAlicia Valleroalvaller@bond.edu.au

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

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

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%