EFL Blogging
Now that spring has finally arrived, it’s time for all furry animals to come out of hibernation. That includes The New Tanuki
of course, where things have been silent for a while. Unhappy
with the software, I’d been contemplating moving the site to a new
location. I decided, though, to stick it out another year and see
what happens. Besides, my experience with the EV Online session
this year really got me thinking about some new possiblities for use
with my students. My idea at the moment is to get my
reading/writing students signed up with Livejournal,
which is a nice piece of software for facilitating social interaction
between other community members. The usability of the interface
seems less confusing for newbies than Xanga
and the best part is I can keep track of all 40 journals in my
aggregator via RSS. And if I have any problems, I can consult our resident Livejournal expert.
I’m hoping that the kind of authentic interaction they’ll have with
Livejournal will motivate them to read and write far more than by just
by doing assignments. They might even make a few foreign friends
too. I’ll use The New Tanuki to showcase interesting student
posts, report on community happenings, post important classroom management information, and provide links to all
student sites. If the content on the main page is more focused on them, they are far more likely to read it.
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