Blogs and diaries

A blog is pretty easy to set up.  You can have one that your students can contribute to - the teacher is the administrator and invites the students to join as authors.  Homework tasks could include writing something on the blog. You can then comment on what has been written.  Or you could use it for the students to get support from each other and discuss language issues, assignment problems etc.  This article has some good ideas about how blogs can be beneficial for learners.



I've used blogger for my blogs (like this one!) - it's pretty easy to get your head around, and quick to get started.  As with many of these tools, you need to have a Google account.

Here are some examples of blogs that have been used in ELT


An alternative is for students to have individual diaries - Penzu is one example of this.  It's completely private so a student would need to allow you to read an entry by sending you an email invitation.  There is a classroom version that does a lot more, but it's $49 a year, You can check it out here.  I like the idea of students having a way to practise their writing in a 21st century way, although you'd need to have strict rules about submitting work otherwise you won't know they're using it at all!




And for some blogs about teaching English that are worth reading, check out this page.