Motivation, engagement and quality of writing through blogs

Paula Hodgson
University of Hong Kong

Dora Wong
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hong Kong SAR, China

Language learning can be fun, as students have wide access to materials on the Web where they can take part in online grammar games and receive immediate feedback, and can have a learning space that allows them to post progress in their work with reflection through blogs. Using blogs enhances the learning experience in several ways, for example by strengthening students' 'digital fluency' (Witte 2007, 96). However, despite greater opportunities for students to write and provide peer comments through blogs, they do not just interact with each other -- they need more structure and guidance (West et al. 2006).

This paper discusses how a teacher integrated blogs with WebCT in a course on 'English for the Media'. In addition to the tools available in WebCT, the teacher provided teaching notes, extra multimedia resources and guidelines for assessment. The blog sites were set up to simulate a newsdesk setting and provide challenges and scenarios that allowed students to:

• apply theoretical learning to situations;

• develop creative and critical thinking skills;

• develop reading and writing skills in English;

• develop reporting skills through collection and research on factual data; and

• develop teamwork through a project on writing newspapers and news clippings.

Given structured guidelines, students were asked to post writing and useful images to their blogs and receive feedback from their peers. While some students reported that they encountered technical difficulties, others found it enjoyable and produced a variety of creative news writing through text, images and video clips. Students indicated a greater interest in writing when they had the opportunity to be more creative through the Web.

However, the issue of plagiarism in academic writing applies also to blogs. The teacher redesigned the writing tasks carefully in such a way that students had to write comments on currents news items that were linked through Real Simple Syndicate (RSS) feeds.

Overall, students benefited from the opportunity to produce creative work through blogs and the challenge of becoming more fluent digitally.