Blogs are useful for English language learners or ELLs. When ELLs use a blog it is a great way to enhance their learning experience, futhermore it is definitely valued added. Simply having students publish their work on to a blog is a good way to utilize it. Classmates, friends, family, and the instructor can all view their work and even comment on it.
Taking this blog further, let me quickly discuss computer assisted language learning, or CALL for short. I was recently asked to decide on the best way to evaluate CALL software. For what it's worth, here are my two cents...I consider the role of technology to be most important in this CALL software evaluation. How much technology? or what kind of technology? are questions that must be asked in evaluation. In particular, software must have aspects of artificial intelligence (AI) or it isn't worth the time in my opinion. AI a "combination of video and natural language processing technology" became a focus of CALL software projects in the 1980s (Chapelle,2001,14), I can't imagine language software without it. Programs like Rosetta Stone and Tell Me More are full of AI technology and some of the best examples of what type is available to ELLs. I include a blog link, that shows Rosetta Stone is integrating Web 2.0 technology with present AI technology to create the CALL software of the future. http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=10299. It sounds awesome! Technology is such a great value added component of CALL that it should definitely be considered when evaluating software.
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