Convention Follow-up!

Dear Educators,

First of all, we would like to thank you for coming to our workshop on the 12th Braz-Tesol National Convention last week.
We would like to share with you some steps that may help you get more familiar with blog creation.
Don´t hesitate to get in touch with us either to ask for help or to tell us about the pedagogical blogs you´ve created.
Have a wonderful time in the blogosphere and hope to hear from you soon!
Cláudia Amorim and Elaine Miguel
claudia.amorim@escolamobile.com.br
elainemiguel@yahoo.com

Steps to follow:
1. To visit our blog as a reader: http://braztesol2010whyblog.blogspot.com/
2. To log in and visit our blog as an administrator:
Go to http://www.blogger.com/
Write the username and password you have (the ones we shared with you in our workshop)
3. To download our Powerpoint Presentation:
Check the post Workshop: Why blog? - PowerPoint Presentation
4. Do Task 1 - Your views on technology. Read the statements, choose one and write a comment. Remember that to write a comment you don´t have to log in. All readers can write comments.
5. Explore the blog: take the poll, sign the guestbook, check the links, watch the video (Blogs in Plain English - Wanna know more about blogs? Take a look at this video! Click here!)
6. Listen to a beautiful song (With a little help from my friends.)
7. Log in and try to add a gadget.
8. Log in and add a poll.
9. Write a post. Start a reflexive conversation!

Workshop: Why blog? - PowerPoint Presentation

Click on the link below and see the Powerpoint Presentation for the Workshop:

Why Blog?

Why blog?

Task 3 - Searching for information

Follow the instructions below to create a Poll.

• Go to Design.
• Click on Add a Gadget at the bottom of the page.
• Search for Poll. Click on the + sign.
• Add a Poll.

Task 2 - About your colleagues' views

Read your colleagues' posts and comment on them.

Task 1 - Your views on technology

Read the quotations, choose one and write your views about it.
Don´t forget to mention which quotation you chose.


1. Newer generations of social software have made it more commonplace for educators to publish course descriptions and syllabi on the Internet as well as build professional development communities. However, the use of Web-based publishing tools to share student work is not yet as widespread. (Kristen Kennedy, 2003)


2. If your objective is to create a learning community, weblogs can help you achieve it by giving students a space to share their writing with other students in the class, who have the opportunity to leave comments under their classmates' posts. Weblogs are also a powerful tool for teaching students about writing for an audience, as they are public, and they reach an audience of not only the teacher and the other students in the class, but also readers outside the class who leave comments. If your objective is to help students synthesize information and make connections through writing, weblogs can help you meet this objective by allowing students to take advantage of the Web. Weblog software makes it easy for students to create content for the Web without knowing much HTML, find online articles related to topics discussed in class, and share them easily with other students. In my experience, blogging encourages associative thinking. (Clancy Ratliff, 2004)


3. Blogs are both individualistic and collaborative. Blogs promote selfexpression, a place where the author can develop highly personalized content. Yet blogs connect with an online community—bloggers can comment and give feedback to other bloggers, and they can link to fellow bloggers, creating an interwoven, dynamic organization. In the classroom, students can have a personal space to read and write alongside a communal one, where ideas are shared, questions are asked and answered, and social cohesion is developed. ( David Huffaker, 2005)


4. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. (Nelson Mandela).


5. Weblogs offer students the opportunity to actively participate in collaborative learning in a number of ways:
• Knowledge sharing. Students can easily post their thoughts, ideas, and opinions, and interact with other
students right from the start of the exercise.
• Collaboration and group work. Students have the opportunity to comment/respond, and possibly write a
log jointly as a group. ( Helen S Du & Christian Wagner, 2005)


6. The Read/Write Web promises to transform much of how we teach and learn. We are no longer limited to being independent readers or consumers of information; we can be collaborators in the creation of a large storehouse of information. (Will Richardson, 2006)


7. Digital Natives are well versed in the uses and etiquette of computers, digital cameras, cell phones, text messaging, weblogs, and the like. These students have been born into a world filled with gadgets and online communication, and to most of them, it’s a way of life.
(Mark Prensky, 2001)


8. Difference between writing and blogging.

Writing stops.                         Blogging continues.
Writing is inside.                     Blogging is outside.
Writing is monologue.             Blogging is conversation.
(Will Richardson, 2006)

Welcome to our blog!

Once upon a time there were two educators who believed in spreading knowledge through technology.
And that´s what they are here for: encouraging other educators to join them on a trip to the blogosphere!

Claudia and Elaine