Week 1: Introduction & Orentation to the Course; Previewing the Course Material

My first week in the course entitled "Building Teaching Skills Through the Interactive Web" offered by University of Oregon has been a wonderful discovery for me to know how blog can be used to teach our learners English. We have had a good start here and have classmates across the world to share our views, thoughts and experiences with. We have also found our course instructor much friendly and helpful.

In this week we have specially learned the importance of maintaining a blog in TEFL or TESL class. Graham Stanley (2005) and Aaron Patric Campbell (2003) rightly consider blog as "an online journal." I come to know from Campbell's article a blog is an online journal "that an individual can continuously update with his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts through software that enables one to easily do so." Unlike traditional 'paper' and 'pen' journal, this online journal through blog is one of the best way to make a portfolio of our information and documents and store these in decorated way.

I come to know we can use blog in productive way with our learners in our ELT class. We also can teach them English meaningfully and contextually through it. It is one of the best way for developing students' reading and writing skills. Reading information in English also helps our students to enrich their vocabulary and many language forms. Blog can also help learns develop their critical skills when they are asked to comment on other writings which represent one's idea. It is also a good way to encourage introvert and shy learners to participate and express themselves in a blogs (Graham Stanley, 2005). It also builds a sense of community and relationships with the class. Of course, a blog brings in positive and effective result for an English language teacher only if a blog is properly used with the learners. Blogs should be maintained with adequate innovations and is decorated with the effect of arising learners' motivation in TEFL or TESL class. A teacher should thinks critically in using blog to teach a rich language like English. Larry Ferlazzo (2008) rightly says, "I believe that technology can be a huge asset specifically in second-language learning."

We were asked to make a blog as a week task and panic seized me at first. I thought that it would be much challenging for me. However, I was properly guided to make it happen. After all, it was a great discovery for me to make a blog. I am thinking to use it as soon as possible with my learners in order to teach them English in an innovative way and teach them with fun .