A Promising Start

I haven't posted here in a long time, chiefly because not much has changed: I create class blogs every semester, they're mildly convenient for the students, and they're extra work for me. But in February I started a new education blog that may actually achieve something.

It's a collaboration with Ms. Yu Shengnan, an English teacher in Jinan, China. She wanted something that would give her first-year students some additional materials to strengthen their skills in reading, writing, and listening. I put together English Corner, and both of us have been posting items.

I was glad she asked me to find listening materials; I discovered a whole world of ESL podcasts, and they've given me ideas for creating similar audio materials. I'm also going to experiment with short video clips.

The students don't visit as often as we'd like, for a simple reason: They don't have their own computers. So they can log on only when they can get access to one of the computers in their library, or in an Internet cafe. Just a few of them have posted comments, but they're a livelier crowd than my own students.

If you click on the Site Meter icon, you can follow the traffic—almost all the visits are from Jinan, but a few are from farther away (including a former Jinan student now doing graduate work in Sweden). You'll also see that the site is "sticky"—visitors tend to hang around for close to 20 minutes a visit.

The site is far from perfect, but it's an encouraging start in a new direction.

Comments

[panasianbiz]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. As an E.S.L. educator, I was so excited to see this joint multi-cultural effort. What a terrific use of your combined knowledge and skills!