Introduction:
Good day everyone! The weather in Warwick is amazing today. Being in great mood, I feel like sharing with you my favourite blog ---Ozge Karaoglu's Blog (http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/).
In this blog, I will tell you what qualities a good blog should have by analysing Ozge Karaoglu's Blog.
In this blog, I will tell you what qualities a good blog should have by analysing Ozge Karaoglu's Blog.
This blog is aiming at educators for middle schools or higher levels of students. It includes 5 sections:
1.Qualities of a good blog
2.How do blogs support English learning
3.Ideas on blogging to improve English
4.Limitations of blogging for English learning
Qualities of a GOOD blog
EYE-CATCHING
Yes! EYE-CATCHING!
I fell in love with this blog at the first sight. Below is a screenshot of what I saw when I clicked into this blog. After I browsed numerous "1960s black n white"-style blogs, this colourful and lively picture immediately brought me back to 21st Century. To be eye-catching, the use of bright colour is vital. Many teachers' blogs are "simple" with the theme of "black and white" because they think teachers are supposed to be mature and serious. Therefore, in order to present these characteristics, their blogs are made to be dark and dull.
I fell in love with this blog at the first sight. Below is a screenshot of what I saw when I clicked into this blog. After I browsed numerous "1960s black n white"-style blogs, this colourful and lively picture immediately brought me back to 21st Century. To be eye-catching, the use of bright colour is vital. Many teachers' blogs are "simple" with the theme of "black and white" because they think teachers are supposed to be mature and serious. Therefore, in order to present these characteristics, their blogs are made to be dark and dull.
However, these teachers forget that readers would prefer interesting blogs. The "simple 80s" blogs can only kill their desire of knowing further about the bloggers. Actually, a lot of teachers fail to get students or other teachers to pay attention to their blogs because of the dullness of their blogs. Therefore, I believe that a good blog should be eye-catching.
USEFUL
No matter how eye-catching a blog is, it means nothing to its readers if it doesn't contain valuable information. This target of this blog is to share some useful online tools for both language learners and teachers, for example, its latest blog introduces a web tool called wheel decide, which helps teachers determine the theme of a class. All posts present useful information for target readers.
CONCISE
The blogger doesn't use a lot of words in his blog, which is one of the strengths of his blog. A reader who is looking for a useful tool doesn't come to the blog for a 2500-words paper. Just like what Ozge Karaoglu has done in his blog, he concisely gave out the usage and the instruction of the tool and showed the readers the URL of the tool. The conciseness of a blog can keep the audience interested and willing to discover more.
Of course, the points I have mentioned above may not be applied to all blogs. A blog with an aim to spread spooky stories might favour dark and cold colour. A blog dealing with difficult issues is more likely to elaborate more. Bloggers should adjust their blogs to their needs.
How do blogs support English Learning?
I made this part in a video. In this video, I have talked about my experience on writing blogs and how it has helped me with my English.
The benefits haven't been covered in the videos mainly manifests itself in three manners:
1. It reduces language anxiety
2.It promotes students' autonomy
Ideas on blogging to improve English
This blogging activity is advised to be used in English class of middle school students in Hong Kong or university students who major in English in any country.
1.Every week, students are asked to blog about an object which is randomly assigned by the teacher without giving out the name of it.
2.Students will go through some blogs. Then after class, they will choose and comment on at least 3 blogs of which they know the answers. Bloggers are welcomed to interact with students who leave comments.
2.Students will go through some blogs. Then after class, they will choose and comment on at least 3 blogs of which they know the answers. Bloggers are welcomed to interact with students who leave comments.
Limitations of blogging for English Learning
1. Time-consuming: As I mentioned in my blog, I spent at least 3 hours in writing a blog, which takes up 40% of my English learning time. It is hard to achieve for students, not to mention to teachers.
2. Hard to sustain: If it is not compulsory, students might not blog or they will use their own languages when blogging.
3. Use of informal language: Even if students blog in English, it would still be informal English, which might not improve formal writing.
Sources of information
My video is made with Screencast-o-matic: http://screencast-o-matic.com/account
The website of Ozge's blog: http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/
Hi Cindy, My blogger buddy! :) I've just read your first post and yours contains clear distictions of a effective blog. I do agree with your thought about the importance of simplity with less words and eye-catching design so that teachers can find what they want in a short time with interest. And the rest of posting were so impressive! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Yuna! Thank you so much for your compliments on my posts. As a matter of fact, I was rather unconfident when I was writing about the concise point as I feel like it is the part on which I need to improve. :) haha, but anyway, this is just what I think of a good blog instead of I have to reach at the present.
DeleteHi Cindy! Thank you so much for introducing us this great blog!
DeleteCan't agree more that this layout of this blog is easy-to-follow and tidy. It also introduces great ideas and tools for teachers which definitely make our lessons more fun and lesson preparation time more efficiently used!
If more step-by-step descriptions can be given on how to use the tools the blogger introduces will be much better (at least to teachers who are not tech-savvy like me! :P)
Laurie x