Show & Tell Presentation How to use a multi-author blog site for student-teacher ePortfolios more

Sun, Jun 6, 13:45-14:15 Asia/Tokyo

This will be a show-and-tell presentation about using a multi-author blog site (WordPress) in pre-service English teacher education. We will first discuss the way the site is intended to promote teacher development and then show how it is configured and used. The site was designed to help student-teachers internalize what are known as conceptual tools. In the foreign language education class, student-teachers are exposed to such conceptual tools as task, comprehensible input, pre-reading activity, etc. Through reflecting on their teaching through the lenses of these concepts and writing their reflections in their ePortfolios, student-teachers develop their own unique understandings and ways of using these conceptual tools. The ePortfolios can also inform curriculum development as the instructor can grasp how students perceived concepts learned in the class. After discussing the rationale behind developing the site, we will show some of the technical aspects behind setting up the blog to encourage student-teacher development. More specifically, we will show how students write into their ePortfolios and interact with one another, as well as how tagging is used to link conceptual tools with the students’ ePortfolio content. Lastly, we will invite audience members to match a post with its relevant conceptual tool(s) as well as to comment on ePortfolio posts for which student-teachers have given approval.