2008. Not long ago I started blogging. It was 2005 just as I was taking my TESOL Principles and Practices of Online Teaching Certificate Program. That’s when I decide it was high time I started giving it a try. I first heard of blogging in 1999 in a workshop at my workplace. I was fascinated by the possibilities, but, at that time, blogging was still just a distant concept to grasp with a need for a bit of HTML knowledge that I had no idea where to start learning…Well, I did! I knew I could learn a bit online, but was it fear, time excuse, or just keeping myself in the comfort zone of known things? Why would I need to go even further? I was already doing too much in terms of technology compared to my colleagues. No need for comparisons. Otherwise, I’d still be sticking tons of flashcards on the blackboard and cutting hundreds of magazine photos as class realia. Comparing myself to the others was not what kept me going. So, in 2005 I was ready to give blogging a try, but I wanted to do something special. I started big. If I really had given it some thought, I think I wouldn’t have taken that huge step, but I decided to invite an online friend, Dennis Oliver, for an international exchange. If it were now, I’d start the other way around, from blogging for professional development, connecting to others, listening to other bloggers, to stepping into the classroom sphere. I guess I was just too anxious of a learner and felt blogging was an interesting addition to what I was already doing in the classroom (connecting with students through yahoogroups, for example). When we headed for our international interaction, I had been already blogging not with my students, but for my students. It was still a unidirectional informational space. I was replicating what I did in the classroom, except that I was using another medium. My intention was certainly good, as I knew my students were all into techie things and social network spaces. I realized there were just sporadic comments and I had so much work preparing posts for our class blog (in fact, my blog!). After giving it some thought, and by listening to other online edubloggers’ voices, it dawned on me that I was missing the great chance of having the blog as conversational, reflective, engaging spaces for my students. Why would they reply or say something if I was just posting homework and class grammar content?!
That’s when my International Exchange blog with Dennis was conceived. Dennis and I were just starting, testing, sharing, learning. I didn’t have easy access to computers in the classroom. Many times I had to print Dennis’ students messages and take them to the classroom to work there. At that time, my best option was to have teams of students working together. We had to manage classroom schedules with the great addition of the blogging conversations. We juggled, came up with different solutions to keep the conversation among our students flowing. Some of my students would even “risk” replying from home. They loved the experienced, we exchanged postcards and mementos from our countries. Yes, I started to understand what blogging was about, taking language learning, communication, and connections to another dimension. We kept experimenting with our new classes, Dennis’ colleagues joined us, we moved forward, innovated in tasks, looked for creative ways to engage our students.
http://internationalexchange.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.htmlAt that time, I didn’t know much about syndication, nor did I pay attention to the power of tagging. Still, nothing hindered us from developing communication channels within our classes.
We started to fearlessly explore the possibilities. I remember when I first tested with my students recording audio. After some class discussion, my adult students recorded and asked questions to Dennis. They were thrilled, I was exhilirating! Podcasts also became part of our blogging world. My shy, quiet students blossomed in the blogging classroom. I’ll never forget the kinds of conversations Emerson, a quiet student in class, engaged in our class blog: Emerson’s interactions with Dennis, and long after Emerson still participated in international conversations.
From the international exchanged, I expanded my blogging horizons indefatigably looking for options and possibilities that would fit my teaching principles and beliefs, my learner’s goals and needs, as well as balance with institutional curricular requirements. I went from Brazil and Brazilians connected, CTJ Online, Top 21, SambaEFL, to elearningCTJ. Even with some blogging road, there’s still a long way to go.
Now, I also keep this blog for personal reflections on teaching and learning, and my personal blog to write about my experience in Key West.
My 2.0 blogging concept is maturing. The conversations we’ve been keeping in the blogging4educators session, how we’re connecting, using syndication, exploring the power of tagging to aggregate online artifact as proposed by Vance Stevens and team, the chat with special guests like the Women of the Web2.0, Konrad Glogoswksy and Paul Allison, the open ears to online voices in the blogosphere are really shaping up my new perceptions of blogging as a dialogic tool. Carla Raguseo’s post on our distributed conversations summarizes the essence of our enriching blogging experience for the past weeks. 
Carla Raguseo via kwout
The possibilities are limitless. I simply need to keep exploring how to balance them in a way that I focus on my learners’ drives, my main teaching and learning goals and my institutional settings.
The big question: Which blogging practice would be a good balance for the different forces involved in the blogging classroom? I’m on the road to find the answers, but certainly agree with Konrad that “…good teaching is a subversive activity. We’ve been using external pressures as an excuse to do nothing for too long.” (Towards Reflective Blog Talk 02-04-2008). I’m exploring and sharing. No excuses for not moving towards some paradigm shifts that are essential for educators tuned in to a multiliterate flat world.
Dear Carla,
What a post!
Indeed there is a long road to ride along the blogsphere, but that is not a reason not to get onboard and start enjoying what can be a great journey.
You are right, learning is all about taking chances and travelling, be it through books and blogs, one’s and someone else’s experiences, in person or virtually. What matters is that we allow ourselves to try and gain new perspectives about a world we should not take for granted. Not all experiences will be easy and not all will be pleasent, but there is always a lesson to be learned. And the deeper we go into that learning path, the more we will know; yet the more we will realize of what still remains to be learned.
I have read somewhere that live is a journey, so you should travel it well.
I can’t agree more. For me travelling is to experience new things, to challenge myself through others’ approaches and visions. It is about sharing perspectives and trying to understand different sides of the same story. It is about being open to be challenged every single day! It is about daring… in that sense we may be rebels and subversive in our practice…. or are we just innovative educators?
Dear Carla,
Your post gave much to think about. Indeed, what a post! Unlike you, i’m a newbie here, and i mostly find it all overwhelming. I’m still trying to find my way IN the classroom, and i have all these methodological issues, and concerns… so when i start to think of the path to take when it comes to using techonology, well, it’s chaos in my mind. everything moves so fast, here! There are word-webs being built at the speed of light everywhere – it’s an accelerated comunication process. I know, or rather, i suspect that in time, i’ll get used to it, but for now, i still move at regular speed, my teaching mind moves at the same rythm as the minds of my very young students. And you know how children are like, they’re not at all synchronized with grown-ups times. So just like them, i take my time to reflect upon what people say, and it often happens that when i’m ready to say something, that time has gone. This is the most challeging aspect of blogging, for me. Everything is a time-saver, when it comes to blogging… But none of this is to say i don’t believe and agree with your own words “The possibilities are limitless. I simply need to keep exploring how to balance them in a way that I focus on my learners’ drives, my main teaching and learning goals and my institutional settings.” I’m now marvelling at the possibiities of voicethread, and how I can gather all the kids around this very unusual blackboard where they can see, hear, and write! Im my everyday teaching I try to take into the classroom a thought I learned from one of my teacher trainers: don’t explain, demonstrate. this is my guideline for almost everything i do with the kids. This is what I also want to do with the blog – help them to find the need for language, for natural language. Of course they’re very small, and I’m sorry if i’m a bit out of context here, since you all seem to have older students, but at this stage of L2 early learning, i’m really more focused on their learning process and it’s hard for me to imagine a way to ’send them out’ on the blogging world on their own whithout loosing track of the blogs’ esl educational purpose.
But i’m willing to expand my imagination!
Wow – Congrats on your reflections , Carla- I feel so much identified with many of your impressions when you started blogging.
I’ve been in the SMiELT08, and at the same time I’ve been peeping into your EVO 2008 group sessions on Blogging – I loved what I saw there, too.
With all this input that I’ve been having from these online research / training opportunities I’ve realised there are so many changes I have to undergo to really get the most out of my teaching for the benefit of students’ learning . Hope I can fulfill my brand new expectations with my online practice in my ELT world.
Dear Alicia,
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your views. It’s been happening the same with me. Through my blogging reflections and the conversation I’m attentively “listening to” and engaging in, I can see I’m getting a much better understanding of the potential blogging unleashes. Though I’ve been blogging with my groups for some time, the contexts change, we change. Nowadays, there are more blogging tools that not only help us keep the conversations, but are also visually appealing. Great opportunities for us to learn together with our learners. The process never stops.
Hey carla!
This was a great reflection. You know, since you recommended Konrad’s post (Towards Reflective Blog Talk), I’ve been thinking about ways of speeding up my way into blogging. The first blogs I had with students were with only one author, me, and my students were consumers of my content. Last semester, though, I decided to work with blogs where I had multiple authors – my students, and the experience was great. Now, with your encouraging reflection and some reading I’ve been doing, I decided to work with students blogs this semester. I’ve even already opened a portal at 21classes to have my 5B students (two different groups) interact. Of course I’ll need some help on my way…
=)
Hi Carla,
What a post! It really made me reflect on my journey as a blogger. When I think about the way I started doing things and the way I do them now, I see there is progress, but I still don´t know where it would take me. It would certainly be a place I have never been before. Reflecting on our practices is painful sometimes because it makes us see that there are things we need to work on. Every year, I take some time to reflect on my blogging journey and see that I need to make improvements in the ways I use web 2.0 tools. This year I want to promote more dialogue and integrate activities in a more efficient way. I am looking forward to seeing where this will take me.
Abraços
JA
Dear José,
I just mentioned to Ronaldo the importance of focusing, having a purpose for our blogs, as well as specific goals. I can see you have already set your own. Now, the next big question is how? How do you plan to engage students in more dialogue?
As for the “integrate activities in a more efficient way”, maybe you could narrow down your objectives and decide how you plan to address your class blogging according to your teaching style and goals and students’ needs and interests. Would love to keep sharing with you and learning with you!