06.28.07
Innovative use of blogs
As Professor in Charge of Languages and Cultures at the new Phoenix Downtown Campus, I will be thinking about the possible use of blogs in English as well as foreign language courses.
In Freshman composition courses my English instructors could use blogs to gauge progress in students’ writing ability (e.g., autobiographic writing on their Freshman experience–these data could be useful for informing adminstrators interested in factors affecting student retention).
In the Writing for the Professions course I want to gather authentic texts from the service professions (e.g., social work, nursing) and have students react to them in various ways on blogs.
In the foreign language classes, blogs can be used for journaling, which would form part of their online language learning portfolio. Students in study abroad programs would also create and maintain blogs about their language learning experience.
In addition students doing Spanish internships (in Arizona or abroad) could chronicle their experience learning the language in a workplace setting. (Firth & Wagner would be pleased!)
All of the above could be analyzed by OCAT (with CALPER’s help) in order to investigate the social and cognitive factors affecting linguistic outcomes in learning settings. I’m very interested in pursuing all of the above projects!
Bobbie