Task 2: Article Review

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.

http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=1047

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.