"European Centre for Modern Languages."
Also available in French as "Blogs dans l’enseignement des langues vivantes".

Includes bibliographical references.

"Weblogs (or blogs) are possibly the most visible of the web 2.0 technologies, described by some as "push-button publishing for the people". One commentator describes blogs as "impressive spontaneous acts of decentralised journalism", while another talks of the power of blogs to "transform both writers and readers from audience to public and from consumer to creator". This publication is one of the outcomes of an ECML project which, over the course of three years, investigated the design of an educational blogging platform and its use in the language classroom. It is intended for the adventurous language teacher who wishes to harness the potential of the writable Web in his or her language class, the teacher trainer who promotes a social constructivist paradigm, and the educational software designer who seeks to create flexible educational tools which incorporate "subversion".

The accompanying CD-Rom contains the entire corpus of blogs - warts and all - produced by project participants (over 4000 posts and 9000 comments), as well as the educational blogging platform prototype developed for this project, which is an open-source release under the GNU General Public License". (Book Cover)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction / Mario Camilleri

Reflections on the effective use of blogs in the classroom / Peter Ford
Blogging as activity or genre?
Building community – the first steps
Explicit building
Building techniques

Writing experiences in a second or foreign language classroom: from theory to practice / Valerie Sollars
Introduction
Purposes and functions for writing
Traditional approaches to teaching writing
Blogs
Blogs in practice
References

Improving writing skills in foreign language classes / Helena Leja
The challenges inherent in producing a piece of writing
Blogs as a means of expression for learners
Blogs as a response to psychological needs
Advantages of project participation vis-à-vis the challenge of writing
Topics addressed
Blogs and intercultural exchanges
So why write?
References

A feature set for an educational blogging platform / Mario Camilleri
Blogging platform
Design brief
Deconstructing weblogs
Blogspace navigation
Workflow model
Blog moderation
User accounts and school-safe blogging
Promoting dialogue and community
Personalisation and other features
References

About the authors