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Dudeney and Hockly 2007: 90 suggest some other ways of using blogs with learner as listed in the following table.
Table 2.3. The Use of Blog in the Classroom
Tutor blog Student blog
Class blog
• Set homework.
• Provide a summary of class
work. •
Provide links to extra readinglistening material.
• Question and answer e.g.
about grammar, material work.
• ExamStudy tips.
• Personal and family
information including photos.
• Extra writing practices on
class topics. •
Regular comments on current affairs.
• Research and present
information on a topic e.g. an English-speaking
country. •
A photoblog on learners country, last holiday,
town. •
Reactions to a film, article, class topic, current
affairs. •
Things learners likedont like doing in class.
• A class project on any
topic.
This research focuses on the use of student blog in writing class. Students have authority to own and manage their blogs in order to complete the writing
tasks. They could also share experiences, thoughts, or anything they interested in. Meanwhile, teacher blog is used only as a complementary tool to publish
materials so that the students can access it whenever they want.
3. Blog in the Classroom
The use of blogs in the classroom will be discussed in this section. Blogs are commonly found in form of short articles, journals, or personal diaries. Thus,
blogs can be utilized to teach language, especially writing skill. Like the other media, blogs also have some strengths that promote the learning and weaknesses
to overcome.
a. Blog as Teaching-Learning Media
Teaching is not merely about transferring knowledge. Teachers need to consider about the most suitable way of engaging students to be actively
participate in the process. A good combination of method or technique and media to impart learning materials will support the effective teaching-learning activity.
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Therefore, media have a significant role in order to accomplish the objective of teaching and learning. In teaching writing, supporting to Brown 1994, Appel
suggests the use of authentic materials in writing classroom as follows: “For communicative language teaching writing had to be authentic, which
meant it was supposed to be used in the classroom in the same way as in outside life—hence the emphasis on information processing, such as note-
taking or filling in forms.” Appel, 1995: 96
Teachers can use blogs to upload learning materials, including the later issues, and let the students to share their opinions in form of short articles or
comments. Although it belongs to written media, it allows two-way communication between the writer and the reader. Warschauer 2010 states
“blogs thus represent a particularly effective tool to combine the publishing and discussion of student writing in a single medium”. In addition, Cranmer in
Matthews, Spratt, and Dangerfield 1989: 94 says that learning writing without reading examples of written communications which provide a model or guide is
not easy. The students need to have a plenty of models to differentiate and write certain text types.
b. Teaching Writing Using Blog
Blogs can be set up to teach writing skill in more communicative way. It has been utilized in many writing courses. Johnson 2004 says in his article:
Blogs have been successfully implemented into journalism, political science, and various junior high to university English writing courses for
native English speakers. However, the use of blogs in teaching EFL appears to still be in its infancy but has much potential, especially in teaching
written communication skills.
The students are supposed to master the ability of writing in order to have the things done. They have to be able to communicate in written form and send
the message to the intended readers. Practicing writing in the classroom, the students may work collaboratively within groups to make a project and use the
blog to publish it. In this term, teachers had the role to guide them and it will give them more chance to explore their creativity.
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In order to give better understanding about the use of blogs, there is suggestion of a complete classroom activity to use blog in the writing class see
appendix List of Activities. It is stated as follows: a.
Teacher posts some blog links for the resources. b.
Teacher asks students to access the teacher blog form their personal computer. Students work individually.
c. Students read the task on teacher blog and follow the link.
d. Students then write their personal comment on teacher blog and the
teacher does too. e.
Students then write a learning journal about what they have read in previous activity and post the works on their own blogs.
f. After posting the task, students have to visit other friends’ blog pages to
post some comments. g.
During the lesson, teacher may follow the students’ activities online or as the facilitator in the classroom.
c. Advantages and Disadvantages of Blog
