Unit 7 (Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts)

Name : Nurasiah Hilmi

NPM : 06211210284

Class : B/IV

Subject : Media Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris

Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

· Social Software

Blogs, wikis and podcasts are all examples of social software, computer tools which allow people to connect, to communicate and to collaborate online. All of these tools are easy to set up and use, with no specialist technical knowledge required. These tools engender a sense of social responsibility, with learners working collaboratively on content. Also, the public nature of the content created using these internet tools ensures that accuracy and appropriacy become more important to learners.

· Blogs in Language Teaching

Blog used in education are known as edublog. An edublog can be set up and used by a teacher, by individual learners or by a class. A teacher may decide to use a blog to provide their learners with news and comments on issues, extra radign practice or homework, online links, a summary of a class for learners who were unable to attend, study tips and so on. A teacher may encourage their learners to each set up and maintain their own individual blogs. Learners can be asked to post to their blogs once or twice a week, or however often the teacher judges convenient, and content can range from comments on current affairs to descriptions of daily activities.

· How to Start Using Blogs with Learners

1. Setting up a sample blog (1-2 hours)

2. Setting up student blogs (1 hour)

3. Posting to and visiting blogs (1 hour)

4. Follow up (2-3 hours or several lessons)

· Wikis in Language Teaching

A wiki lends itself especially well to collaborative writing. The mechanics of using a wiki are relatively simple: Learners can add new pages to a wiki, as well as edit previous entries/pages. One of the advantages of a wiki is that when a web page in a wiki is edited, changed or even deleted by mistake, previous versions of the page are automatically saved.

· How to Using a Wiki with Learners

1. Preparation before lesson (approximately 30-60 miutes)

2. Description (approximately 1 hour)

3. Corrections (approximately 1 hour)

· Podcasts in Language Teaching

There are two main uses of podcasts in teaching. Firstly, learners can listen to podcasts made by others and secondly, they can produce their own podcasts. The language teacher can direct their learners to podcasts already available on the internet, for self-study purposes, or even use them for listening in class via a computer. These can be EFL/ESL podcasts made especially for learners, such as those found at the Englishcaster directory or authentic podcasts.

· How to Create Learner Podcasts

1. Setting up a podcast page (approximately 30 minutes)

2. Creating learner podcasts (approximately 45-60 minutes)

3. Listening to learner podcasts (approximately 45-60 minutes)

4. Follow up (3-4 subsequent lessons)