This summary is based on the article
entitled “Blogging in teacher professional development: Its role in building
computer-assisted language teaching skills” written by Puvaneswary Murugaiah et
al (2010). The goal of the study is to reveal teachers’ involvement in
practicing the usage of multimedia and computer technology in assisting them in
learning and teaching processes. It aims to explain on how English language
teachers in Smart Schools[1] exposed to technical
skills that is required to teach in technology-enriched schools. This skill is
the process of teaching through blogging in an English community.
As
mentioned by Puvaneswary (cited in McLaughlin and Oberman, 1996) computer
functions as a teacher in gaining and understanding new concepts of content and
pedagogy as well as the new role of educator that it plays. According to Hampel
and Stickler (2005), their skills pyramid[2] explained that in Level 3,
the computer that plays the function as online teacher must be able to confront
any obstacles and possibilities of the approach that they use. Computer also
plays role as pupil when students are given the opportunities to engage in
knowledge exploration, information exchange and individual knowledge
enhancement when they utilize computer as partner in solving the given task
(Liaw et al, 2008). Farmer (2007) also agrees with this point when he explained
that computer users connect with each other by expressing their ideas and
emotions through blogging. On the other hand, computer functions as tool in
Level 1 of the skills pyramid (Hampel and Stickler, 2005) when it shows that
computer applications are used in order to assist students in competing their
tasks. For example, the usages of word processing and internet. In Level 2, the
skills acquired at this level are correlated with computer being product and
also process oriented. For example, the process of using specific software
resemble that computer can be a medium of process oriented while the outcome is
product oriented. It is proven by Barlett-Bragg (cited in Muwangga-Zake et al,
2010) that through product oriented, blogging is proven to have the potential
to enhance students’ higher order thinking skills (critical and creative
thinking). According to Snyder and Briggs (2003), computer can be a medium of
discovery learning in which students can solve problems, share ideas, build
strategies and develop relationships with other members. Through discovery
learning, computer helps students in their professional growth and also
professional development of teachers.
As pointed by Yang (2009), blogging
serves as a platform for student-centered learning. It means that
learner-centered approach encourages student to have multiple perspectives upon
a subject matter. Added by Farmer (2007), it is important that students have
multiple perspectives because knowledge is obtained from diverse nationalities,
cultures and characters. Authentic use of language is applied in blogging as
students exercise to express their personal statements through networks. This
is proven by Efimova and Fiedler (2003) that this exercise enriches the
collaborative learning process which requires the blogger to practice using
proper language.
Methodology
The method that this project used
involved twenty teachers from five Smart Schools located in the Klang Valley
and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. From twenty of the teachers, there
are five female teachers from the English language community. Their teaching
experiences had been ranged from five to eighteen years and four of them
experienced ten years of teaching. In order to make them know each other
better, two meetings had been arranged.
These meetings are arranged to specify their tasks in the group during
the project time. As the project is designed with its own aims, the number of
group members is smaller, for example, from five to eight people.
Teachers are invited to have
face-to-face meetings in order to form a strong relationships between them and
get to know each other. In this online project, specifically blogging activity,
participants are required to post blog entries on two tasks regarding their
teaching practices which are about the reflection of a lesson whether they are
good or poor. Then, teachers have to participate in a discussion forum to
discuss or give comments about posts that had been posted by their
friends. Basically this blogging
activity was conducted within five months time and there are moderators that
involved giving them mental and emotional supports.
Findings
The
three main findings that are highlighted in this article are the exposure to
skills, enhancement of existing skills and the other one is sharing and
collaborating through blogging. This
project assists the teachers to be exposed to new skills besides enhancing
their existing skills on online system. In addition, by sharing and
collaborating in blogging activity, they also can get the support from friends
of the group.
There are seven levels of skills that
they can get from the blogging activity which are the basic of ICT competency, specific
technical competence for the software, dealing with constrains and
possibilities of the medium, online socialization, facilitating communicative
competence, creativity and choice and the last one is acquiring own style. Teachers should have basic information
technology skills for example the emailing system and browsing skills. It leads
to the possibilities of the medium to bring positive emotions to the students.
Moreover, online socialization deals with interaction in which will develop
communicative competence. From the previous skills, teachers will produce
creativity and have choices for the interesting activity and it will leads to
the teacher’s own style.
Obviously, this project provides
teachers with an opportunity to learn about competence which is always expected
from the teachers nowadays. Besides, it polishes their existing competence thus
it helps them to build their self-confidence in implementing new technology in
educational system.
According to the article, the findings
of the project also consist of the enhancement of existing skills and sharing
and collaborating through blogging. This
project creates a common platform or as a medium for the teachers to share
their opinions, thoughts and feelings about computer assisted language
learning, for example, the methods to teach students by using computer or
internet. Through the entries in blog
and further comments or discussions, some solutions can be made and implemented
in teaching system. The ongoing interactions build strong connection between
the teachers involved in which they always share common feeling and give
support to each other. From that, they
will be more confident in making a decision about computer learning and
application.
The use of computer technology in
assisting language learning improves students’ participation and excitement in
learning language. It also requires the teachers to convey their knowledge in a
more creative way. Simultaneously, they may enhance students’ higher order
thinking skills in acquiring the knowledge of language learning. From this
article, we can clearly see that the writer agrees that computer can be made as
teacher, pupil and tool in teaching and learning processes. It promotes
different approaches in acquiring language and also improves their
understanding towards the subject that they are learning.
Implications
There
are some implications of blogging in computer assisted language teaching. First
of all, it provides opportunities for the teachers themselves to learn about
the computer, especially in blogging fields because computer is part of
technology. It is for the teachers to simplify their methods in teaching and
learning processes, either present or in the future. Another implication is it
enhances the interaction between teachers and students. Nowadays, blogging has
becomes one of the famous activities among youth and elder people. This enables
teachers to deliver their teachings well, and students are capable of asking
anything about the subject that they do not understand at any time.
Furthermore, it also enhances the interaction between the teacher and the
students. As a blogger, they are also known as community of practice and by
this, they are still in learning process and share their knowledge through
blogging, and this is one of the benefits that the teachers will get. Last but
not least, it can improve the teachers and students’ knowledge regarding the
technology itself through blogging.
[1] Smart School is a
school that is fully-equipped with facilities that are technology-supported for
students.
[2] Skills pyramid is
identified by Hampel and Stickler and it presents the competency of computer
application in assisting learning process by the teacher.
1 comments:
An interesting study. Well summarised.
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