Why do I have this website? Don't teachers have enough to do with lesson planning, teaching, marking and meeting with students? Well, I decided to design this site as an experiment; in other words, to see whether a platform like this can enhance my students' language learning. As a matter of fact, I've been inspired by a colleague and friend of mine, Nathan Hall, to include and to effectively utilize technology in my classrooms (we did a well-received edtech workshop together at the TESL Canada conference last October). Another aspect is that while teaching Level 300 Writing last term, I felt that my students didn't get enough writing practice, in particular practicing extensive writing skills. For this reason I've been looking for a program that allows learners to keep a blog - where the focus is on writing rather than perfect grammar - and to design ePortfolios enabling them to showcase their work to friends and family back home. I also wanted a site for which the students didn't have to register, and a platform that allows me to access and monitor their work. Weebly.com seems to meet these criteria so far, and I am looking forward to using the program and, at the same time, to learning with my students. The students' ePortfolios are currently password protected, but they will be made available to the public once the writing course is up and running. As for this blog, I will keep posting blog entries as a means to reflect on the use of my website and ePortfolio sytem this November/December term.
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I am a Senior Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Wollongong in Australia. This blog is a reflection of my journey as a researcher, L2 teacher educator, and language teacher. Archives
June 2021
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