By: C. S.

The Arabic Blog بلوق اللغة

Redesigning a Learning Activity

تحسين نشاط تعلم

Disclaimer: I am not a Teacher

Assignment three follows this work by outlining how I would

improve and redesign this online activity.

I do not currently teach.

In Assignment 2 I reviewed a recent activity from my time as a student: A blogging activity used in one of my

Arabic courses..

Snapshot of the Course

Context•Set within an intensive Arabic course within a Masters program in the UK.

•One-year course with 20-25 hours of class time a week, much of it immersive, with additional coursework completed outside of class time.

•Two separate teachers delivered the course ‘George’ and ‘Qasim’).

•George led the core teaching modules. Qasim led the corresponding workshops

•Workshops: • Where students participated in varied activities to further apply

what they had learned in modules. • These often involved further readings and translations, role-plays,

debates, discussions of films or current events, etc. 

Snapshot of the Course

Delivery•Classes and workshops were delivered face-to-face.

•The foundation of the classroom learning was that lessons were flipped.

•Technology entering the classroom mainly in the form of online content such as Arabic news broadcasts or clips of Arab films and music.

•PowerPoint presentations were also utilized for presentation assessments.

•One NEW piece of learning technology was also introduced:• A blog to be used for specific out of class coursework.

Snapshot of the Course

Students•Only 12 students• Due to the high level of attention each student required.

•Incredibly international • 6 nationalities• 7 languages spoken fluently

•Range of ages (20 – 35). The only unifying factors were:• High level and standard of education• Interests in the Middle East.

•Range of technical ability• Most were ‘digital natives’ with a small number whose use of

technology was limited to writing reports or data entry at work.

What IS the Arabic Blog?

First of all…What is a blog?•The BBC defines blogs simply as ‘online journals where stories or subjects can be shared with readers over weeks, months or years’ (1)

•Blogs can be used for any purpose, but its prevalence in language learning has increased steadily over the past decade (2)

What IS the Arabic Blog?

How would students use the blog in their learning?

•This blog would be used by students on a regular basis• Students would be able to write about any topic they wished but

would be required to• Write a varying amount of words each week• Post a varying amount of news stories or culture items each

week• Comment on and/or review the works of other students

•Students could interact with other bloggers and sites that interested them

•The purpose of the blog would eventually be for the students to have created an online portfolio of their work and interests in Arabic• This would then be used in assessment, where they could curate

their entries and submit a final portfolio for grading (making up a large part of their workshop and classroom participation grade)

What IS the Arabic Blog?

How would ‘Qasim’ use the blog in his teaching?

•Qasim would provide regular and prompt online feedback to students in informal ways that could be reinforced with targeted activities or discussions face-to-face

•Qasim would integrate the blog to both classroom and workshop activities• i.e. Discussions, topics and vocabulary seen in the blogs could be

discussed in face-to-face settings• Class presentations, which are video recorded could be uploaded

to spark discussion•Qasim would also serve as an observer curator – viewing all of the work his students are posting while drawing out the most relevant work or repeating issues to address in his workshops

What IS the Arabic Blog?

What did I redesign?•The Arabic blog is not something I am suggested be created for this course – when I was a student with Qasim the blog was already up and running

•But NOT in the way I just outlined• It was a glorified written submission site – students had a specific topic they

had to write about and each week’s topic varied allowing no cohesive student voice or interests to emerge through their writing

• Instead of simply commenting on others’ submissions we were asked to critique and edit each others’ grammar, word choices, spelling etc.

• The blog itself was not assessed, students received credit making up only 5% of the\ir grade simply for posting anything

•There was minimal engagement with the blog as it was not being used as blogs are actually used in real life, and the potential benefits of blogging were never explained to students

•My redesign adds value by adding more freedom for students in what they write and how they interact, and by constructively aligning the activity with other learning components

WHY an Arabic Blog?

If there was low engagement with the activity… why not just give the activity

up?•I believe the low engagement was due to:• Not explaining the benefits of blogging for language learning• Not utilizing the blogging technology in a realistic or usual

manner• Not integrating the blog into other course activities or

assessments

•Blogging for language learning, however, is an incredibly useful tool that allows students to engage in written discussions with people from all over the world on their own time, and is shown to naturally improve grammar and vocabulary retention (2)

•The following slides go into more details of the evidence behind redesigning a blog for language learning

WHY an Arabic Blog?

Relevant Use of Language•George, the other instructor on the course, always emphasized the importance of only teaching language students what they were actually going to use• For example, he only ever spoke to us in spoken Arabic dialects,

and would never attempt to speak in what is 90% of the time written Arabic

•None of the students on this course actually lived in the Middle East, so it would be reasonable to think that most students would have a high level of online interaction with the Arab world after graduation

•This makes practice in an online environment in Arabic highly relevant to students future use of their learning

WHY an Arabic Blog?

Efficient Use of Time•Nelson (3) Notes that while online language teaching is becoming more popular, face-to-face still has many benefits including:• Clarity of sound• The ability to speak about different physical spaces as you move

through them• The introduction of complex interactions between groups of

students while still maintaining supervision of the discussions taking place

•Practicing writing skills largely outside of class may be a better use of time than writing inside lessons – when it would be better to take advantage of the face-to-face speaking opportunity.• It is worth noting that, with written work, Qasim would still be

able to comment as quickly on the blog as in class, and that writing at home does not preclude the discussion of written work in class

WHY an Arabic Blog?

Constructive Alignment•We have already mentioned some examples of how this redesigned blog is better constructively aligned with the course outcomes as a whole:• The blog should be incorporated into classroom discussions and vice versa• The blog makes effective use of speaking time

•However, it is worth stating the learning outcome for the course as a whole:“Acquire a very high standard of spoken and written Arabic which will serve as an important means of communication and as a valuable research tool”.

•Additional ways this constructively aligns with important course components include:• Communication and Research

• The blog before amounted only to a check of grammatical understanding

• It could be, however, an effective communication tool, applying what is learned in a creative and personalized way while researching and writing about topics that are of interest to students•Module 4 (4) mentions how blogging is useful for journaling and discussions

• Assessment•Good practice for the exams which require writing about a specified topic

Final Considerations

What must Qasim take into account if he were to implement this redesign?

•Cost:• There is little to no cost is required for blogging as many platforms are

free

•Access to technology:• University computers and laptops would be freely available to anyone

who did not have their own personal laptops or video equipment

•Skills required:• Blogging is not a natural skill and some considerable guidance is required

in the first few weeks – from functionality to explanation of blogging’s potential

• This can, however, be easily introduced in the face-to-face sessions if Qasim demos the technology in a useful learning activity (i.e. when learning the alphabet each student must post a picture of their assigned letter to the blog)

•Support Available:• The university has a strong IT support centre for staff and students alike

Final Considerations

Motivating and Engaging Students

•Keeping students engaged with blogging requires a mix of hard and soft incentives

•Hard:• Ensuring the blog itself is assessed and that it is weighted

appropriately• Incorporating regular discussion of the blog into activities and

presentations• Introducing some group blog initiatives to enhance collaborative

pressures

•Soft:• Allowing students to write about any topics they wish and to interact

with anyone they wish, creating their own space• For students who are shy, a non-group setting can provide more open

communication (2)• Receiving faster feedback from peers and teachers

Learning Outcomes

Short Term Outcomes

•While learning outcomes were never expressly outlined by Qasim, the following were verbally communicated:

•To use our language creatively, outside of predetermined exercises•To feel comfortable interacting with Arabic in an online environment•To communicate quickly, critically and constructively in written Arabic (i.e. not just letters or answer responses)

•I believe these to be excellent learning outcomes and would only add:• To create a multi media portfolio of entries demonstration proficiency

in basic Arabic

•As this course is only one year long and this but part of a larger curriculum I do not believe long term learning outcomes apply to this activity

Works Cited

1. BBC. About social networks and blogs. (2013, July 6). Web. 12 Sep. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/0/22717886>

2. Sun, Y. "VOICE BLOG: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING." Language, Learning and Technology 13.2 (2009): 88-103.

3. Nelson, J. "Online Vs. In-Person Language Learning: Who Wins?" Online Vs. In-Person Language Learning: Who Wins? Omniglot, n.d. Web. 23 Aug. 2014.<http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/onlinevinpersonlearning.htm>

4. Module 4: Online Learning Activites (n.d.). Retrieved 10 Sep. 2014 from the Learning to Teach Online MOOC: https://class.coursera.org/ltto-001/wiki/module4

5. Module 8: Evaluation Strategies (n.d.). Retrieved 10 Sep. 2014 from the Learning to Teach Online MOOC: https://class.coursera.org/ltto-001/wiki/module8