Title: Blogging in teacher
professional development: Its role in building computer-assisted language
teaching skills
International
Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication
Technology (IJEDICT), 2010, Vol. 6, Issue 3, pp. 73-87.
Authors: Puvaneswary Murugiah (USM);
Hazita Azman, Azizah Ya’acob and Siew Ming Thang (UKM)
*This article
is based on a research project funded by a research grant provided by
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
The
research aims to explore how Smart School English language teachers are exposed
to technical skills and can build and pedagogical knowledge required to teach
in technology-enriched schools through blog interactions in an English
community of practice (CoP). The samples of the research are a CoP of five
female English teachers from five different smart schools in the Klang Valley. Before
the research was carried out, the teachers were gathered, briefed on the
research, and are introduced to each other. In the CoP, the teachers were
required to post blog entries regarding their teaching practices and
reflections of their lessons. Then, they are required to comment on other
teacher’s postings in the blog. Three research team members became the
moderators of the blog, providing technical assistance and also sharing their
own views. After a five-month duration, the blog postings were analysed (1) to
reveal teacher’ current CALL skills levels, (2) and to explore the extent of
which the teachers’ sharing experience through blogging effects the
technological and pedagogical skills necessary for teaching in a
technologically-driven teaching environment. The analysis of teachers’ CALL
skills is based on Hampel and Stickler’s skills pyramid (2005). The research
revealed findings that through blog interactions, Smart School English language
teachers: (1) are exposed to new CALL skills; (2) are enhanced of their
existing skills; (3) and are provided peer support through sharing and
collaborating with other CoP members.
The
research does interest me because it gives an insight to the challenges that
Smart School English teachers are facing, different from the experience I had
during my practicum session in a normal school. In a normal school, English
teachers are not expected to have a high literacy level of computers and
technological equipment. This is because of the limited amount of facilities
and equipment in a normal school. From the article, I found out that the proper
facilities maybe present in Smart Schools, but it does not mean that the
teachers or students know how to use them. This is evident from a blog post
from teacher N, stating that some of her students did not know how to create an
email account. The research has a good and valid aim to be explored but there
is an issue with the very limited number of blog entries. Over the span of
five-months, only 6 blog entries and 24 comments were recorded. This may be
caused by time constraints on the teachers’ side. It is understandable that the
teachers may have not much time to spend on blog postings and comments, due to
other more pressing teaching responsibilities at school. I recommend that the
research is to be extended for another five months – cover the whole teaching
year – so that more blog entries can be recorded. Though it does seem to be a
long time, it would provide more enriching data to the findings of the
research. Implications from the research include the development of teachers’
computer skills. The research revealed that some of the teachers are not as
computer savvy as needed to, despite being in a smart school. This indicates
that teacher training in CALL is still not very effective and still needs
improvement – especially for English smart school teachers. The creation of
community of practice in this study has proven to increase teachers’ computer
skills and also provide the appropriate support that the teacher needs. Computer
literacy in students also has to be monitored. As most students nowadays are very
familiar with social networking sites, we overlook that some of them do not
even know how to use email. From the blog postings of the teachers, we can also
see that they are very happy and excited to include new software or technology
in their lessons as it encourages students’ participation and creativity.
However, time constraints, bureaucracy, and technical difficulties can hinder the
use of CALL in the classroom. There needs to be a better system to support the
teachers in what they are doing as the benefits of CALL in the Malaysian
classroom can be very helpful and beneficial to both students and teachers.
