Post-Mortem: 1 Maju Group Blog Project

picture taken from picasaweb.google.com

As many of you would know, I have just finished my practicum at a Malaysian Secondary School.
In this school, I had the opportunity to teach a highly motivated & good proficiency class.
With this class, I have experimented with a writing activity.
This writing activity involves getting the students to work in groups to practice their writing skills on blogs.
I called this experiment: 1 Maju Group Blog Project
I mentioned this in a previous post: My Students Blog Too!

Yesterday, I completed a post-mortem on the experiment.
In this report, I evaluated the advantages and limitations of implementing a group blog writing activity in a Malaysian Secondary School classroom.
The full report can be found at the 1 Maju Group Blog Project Website
I will put up a summary here.

The advantages I observed were:
- Positive Group Work
- Motivating
- Language Enrichment

The disadvantages I observed were:
- Individual Focus Lacking
- Sleeping Partners & Partners Left Out
- Deadlines Not Honoured

I found the group blogs to be an excellent on-going enrichment activity with the advantages mentioned above.
However, I warned that the disadvantages have to be taken into account or the whole activity would lose a lot of its relevance.
At the end, I promised to evaluate the setting of my future school & employ a similar activity.

I would like to acknowledge the willingness of 1 Maju to be volunteered in this experiment.
You have made it a successful one!
I learned a lot about Malaysian student attitudes, Malaysian school infrastructure & the internet in Malaysian classrooms.
Thank you, 1 Maju!