In the article, the authors discuss how students created e-journals as a response to the speech acts they were assigned. Students were given some structure on the assignment, and generally enjoyed the activity. Although students may have enjoyed the experience, it may have been sort of a stretch in terms of a CALL tool, but rather, a way to incorporate technology into the classroom without adding any significant improvement to the lesson. It's nice to include technology into activities, but students need to feel that they're using the technology for a purpose, and not just for the name.
One suggestion for e-journaling is to create a scavenger hunt activity where students are required to visit locations around town, then create e-journals on their experiences. The journals will be available to their classmates, so that students who were assigned to different locations will have the opportunity to read and comment about what his or her classmates experienced while visiting the given location. This way, students are using technology in a way that they cannot use paper and pen.
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1 year ago
Deena, I like your idea of a scavenger hunt and using that as a way for students to create e-journals. It would be great way to motivate students to both read and write as well as introduce them to some of the local culture.
ReplyDeleteI loved your idea about doing a scavenger hunt, but why couldn't they use a pen and paper to write about their experiences and then share those with their classmates. I guess it would be nice to have a central location for all of them to post their work. Are you talking about using e-mail or like a class wiki page where they all can work in the same area?
ReplyDeleteI guess I was picturing a blog similar to this one, where students journal about their experiences, and classmates can comment, just like this. I would prefer that they do it on a computer rather than paper, because it'll be easier for students to revise online rather than paper--it's cleaner :)
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