Blogging might help the Mauritian "collez*" students improve their writing skills.
I was looking for a chronicle topic to post on but couldn’t really find an interesting one. Then came the thought that my chronicle topics gravitate around storytelling. The logical follow up was to find a story to tell. But then the idea shifted to when I really started writing stories. Well, we should even start at when I started telling stories: I must have been a real good liar when I was a kiddy. People would nowadays put that under the “creative” or “imaginative” tag.
Storytelling in the Mauritian education.
Those of us having tried the “Alliance Française” lectures in Standard 6 onwards are those who have first encountered the storytelling approach of the canvas we had to write. It was the never-ending “A day at the seaside”, “A day at school”, “A rainy day”… and so on topics. You had this and had to write a 1 to 2 page narrative on the subject. This would then become the standard of writing when we got into “collez”. So all of us have to write interesting up to date narratives in English and French throughout our poor student lives. But here crops the different problems. I’ve often heard that Mauritian kids had problems in writing English or French through the lack of training.
Blogs as crutches.
Training and practice is the big problem in this equation. Blogs are now more popular among teens, young adults and adults. Setting aside the fact that writing on a blog is more or less informal, these can act like real crutches to the “collez” students in need of practice. Even if the tone is informal, encouraging teens to open blogs and to write would, in my humble opinion, improve their abilities to write and think out of the box as they will be writing and talking about things that bear particular interest for them: themselves!
Maintaining a blog would break the boredom of writing on uninteresting topics, would incite them to use a more elaborate vocabulary (to get away from boredom also) and give them the incentive of plainly writing. To get visitor attention, most of them would not indulge into plagiarism and the only perspective of losing comments would drive them crazy. Finally, this would be a side activity that would help these young persons make use of the time they spend on the Internet as well as their brains.
Finally, the Mauritian General Paper exams in English at the end of the HSC are mainly oriented towards general knowledge, culture and the scrutinising of up to date information and news. Maintaining a blog might drive the students to remain up to date with the latest information available to be able to blog on the hot topics. This would therefore be a real help to them at this level in the education system.
Let’s talk about this…
Do you think that encouraging blogging would really help improve this side of our education system? Has blogging helped you in the way you write or the style you use? Do you think that the Mauritian “colleziens” are ready for such an activity (comparing local teen blogging community to actual bloggers)? What would be the pros and cons of such an incentive?
*”collez” in Mauritius is the Creole world for college, differing from the American description of college. College in Mauritius is junior high and high school all mixed in one.
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Unfortunately, not all of them will take the time to maintain a blog. They will prefer harvesting their crops, tagging pictures here and there, leaving useless comments on photos and finally joining groups like “to si to p assize lo 1 chaise la?” LOL!
Dommage, he prefers to tweet more than blog.
There are a few who stand out of the crowd, like our blogging mascotte Saajid
Recently, university students were encouraged to create their own blog in some module at UOM. Nice initiative from the lecturers and some of them did take this seriously.
Let’s hope that somebody comes with a bright idea to encourage this activity among our youngsters
The underlying idea is to get the students to do this responsibly. The problem we have nowadays is that writing is no more seen as a tool, as a good way of expression. Jotting down ideas and exploring them is a way of improving one’s own approach to things. This would be a real help in terms of data analysis or having an opinion on the world around them which might be different from the everlasting “by heart’” learning culture we have here. Ideas can however differ on the subject, §ashfaq & §avish.
@Yashvin
“Blogging mascotte”…lmao
I’m really trying to blog more often. Seriously.
This is a pretty interesting topic given that I’m a teen who actually blogs … LOL. It’s true that blogging does improve your language indirectly. You get complete freedom on your writing style and the subject you are going to write when blogging. And your way of thinking changes drastically, you think more broadly.
Pros of having teens in a blogosphere? You get different views from everyone including teens.
Cons? Haha! Who does not remember the incident when a teen was asking TechCrunch for a MacBook for writing some posts!
BTW, I don’t prefer writing the same way as I do on my blog when writing essays because I can’t use ROFLMAO then LOL.
Thanks for your input Yadhav. As I stated, the informal nature of the text used on a blog is really different from the one you would actually use in essays. You put it right in saying that it helps you open yourself to different subjects.
Another thing I noted in your comment is that having the views of teens is important. Why? Because in Mauritius, even when you’re a teen you’re considered as a kid and this might be where there’s a communication breakdown between the generations.
I think that this idea is genius. I started my blog in 2009 and although I am guilty of not blogging often, having a blog has greatly helped me to learn about different subjects.
.) because I read a lot but I think blogging can greatly improve the linguistic skills of Mauritian college students, particularly after text language has destroyed all their knowledge of grammar and orthography (i.e. iF U WriT3 lik3 dis, Gow to h3LL) . 
My English was already good (Sorry if I sound like I’m bragging
Good point Saajid, the quality of the language used must be of a good level. The blog can have different outcomes: improved language or really bad one because the teen/student might indulge in maintaining bad habits.
A blog in a closed circle would be much better. Most teens are unaware of their rights and are easily influenced on the web. The information someone post on the internet become easily available even a decade afterward.
Giving the teens, the key to hell if i might use this expression is utterly awkward and I am sure the ombudsperson for children Mrs Aumeeruddy would not agree to that. Furthermore, a child is by definition a being who has not attained a level of maturity to decide for himself. Thus, deciding such an important issue like this one, which in the end summarizes to making the child posting his opinions, views, emotions and feelings on a media where the whole world can see and eventually criticize or mock at the child can be a very very devastating thing to allow.
If it is true that some teens like sjdvda or yadhav blog and tweet, the same experience is not sure to achieved by all the bloggers that the system would make if all the SC and HSC students became bloggers .. around 50000 ?
Also, this would open these young minds to sharks (pedophiles) on the net who are always waiting for a good prey.
The child privacy should be protected at all costs. Blogging is definitely a very bad idea to develop the writing skills of the teens. A more thought idea would be challenging the children’s creativity by making them write on a new hot topic each week that they have come across the net. And publish it on a closed platform which would comprise only of the classmates and teacher.
I would like to add in the end that it is not the children creativity that is the question somewhat but the teachers ability to make writing essays interesting, thus I suppose from this different point of view; it is the teachers ability to teach the writing of essays and making it appealing that should be questionned and the teachers might need a small training on the new ways of making things appealing to teens. I am thinking about communication skills, pedagogy and psychology, which only an insignificant number of teachers have a good of knowledge of.
Ashfaq.
You have extremely valid points here Ashfaq.
We’re talking about teenagers and not only children, which might make a difference as they’re expected to be responsible and show some maturity. I however agree on the fact that many are not that astute and mature enough to decide for themselves and direct their thoughts and the information they’re sending over the net in a clear and professional manner. The way I’m seeing things is to help them think and use a real blogging platform and have real ideas than just having Facebook profiles and disseminating the same “devastating” information about themselves to even more people. Let’s not be blind, they’re already doing it and how many of them are already in trouble because of all their lives displayed publicly on Facebook. Here, child/teen privacy is thrown out of the window. It even gets worse on YouTube sometimes.
The closed circle blog IS a good idea. It will allow students to discuss in groups and improve the way they describe their views in their classes.
As you said, the main problem is that creativity should be brought forward by teachers in the classroom. The problem in our education system is that creativity must be developed outside of the school. Why? Once again, as you rightly said, teachers are not trained and do not have the knowledge of how to do these things.
The saddest thing in all this is that this system will not be changing so soon.
It’s a nice thing for the student’s himself. Since all of you have already mentioned the good sides, so let me be the devil and add the way where “specially the part Yashvin mentioned” was used in a bad way.
Sound, like a maggot right?
I will not cite any name, but it was reported to me that a certain tutor at the local university encouraged his students to start a blog and BLOG BLOG BLOG lol. And then the same person was awarding marks on who listened to the idea to blog, and eventually used the articles that the students wrote, on his own personal project.
It happened at UOM recently. Ok that was somehow out of subject. Coming to the topic, I’ll say that blogging helped me to better network with others, and also develop my knowledge of whats happening and so one at a greater level… but weirdly it didnt make my English better…it infact made it worse
But I can find an explanation for this, earlier I was reading lots of books and spend time reading more than writing. My English was perfect. (Dnt wanna brag but I got 1 in SC and A gp ..) But if you tell me now to go for a GP exam, I have the facts but I’ll not get the A again :S
).
Maybe because now I read less, I have not even read a book since the past 3 years, and I am always blogging about news…which is done in a hurry (before the others publish it etc). I do not spell check nor follow the proofreading advice I gave on my other blog lol (Sachin know what I’m taking about
Else I also feel that teens who blog are more intelligent and aware of the latest trend than those who only know how to tag pictures in facebook…and say loudy “Mo ena mo website LOR FACEBOOK” lol (I often hear this at UOM).
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All right, so here we have the opposite view. I wouldn’t have imagined that lecturers would have got as low as to steal students’ work and use it as their own. As I said in my reply to Saajid, you might be one of the examples of blogging gone wrong on the language issue. This is what is happening on Facebook and Twitter right now. Being fast and reacting on the moment makes that the whole grammar thing is thrown out of the window.
Now, with dedication and discipline, I think that this can be improved and as you said, proofreading is necessary. This might also help in showing them that the web is not restricted to Facebook and MSN Messenger, but here again it is another issue.
Blogging definitely improved my English, and writing skills. It made me think on a ‘regular’ basis how to structure my thoughts, lay them in words, in a human-readable format.
J’irai plus loin: maintaining podcasts can also help students in oral English, or even how to express themselves so that others understand. Many Mauritians cannot express themselves clearly … maybe it’s because they do not think much before speaking. A podcast, which will remain online for a while, and listened by some audience paying attention to what you are conveying, will force them to think before talking.
True enough that Mauritians lack the ease necessary express themselves publicly or in an interview. All this comes from the whole concentration on the “written” rather than a whole package on “expression”. Using podcasts can really help in that sense.
Organisation, therefore, (mental?) discipline can also be acquired on this basis.
have to agree to that …
Interesting point.
This Monday, during the l’express-dimanche “briefing” we went into an extensive debate over the fact that technology has driven youngsters to reconsider and reuse written language. Twitter, facebook, emails… sms. We, and evenmoreso youngsters, now have to “write” and read an incredible amount of information to keep in touch with people.
But the greater issue remains. What is this language that we now use? Can the e-french still be called french? Is e-english a sustainable form of english? What about standards? Ou sont les règles grammaticales?
If we think about it without cultural or ethical bias, we have to say that a language is just something that helps people communicate and understand each others. In that sense e-language is wholly an acceptable one. E-french is a viable language. Just as e-english is.
But then we step in the domain of culture. Old houses can be destroyed and reconstructed to antiseismic standards, with better green technology, etc etc etc. But does that mean we should destroy all the old houses and leave just the new ones standing? Thats the wider issue.
Now I know that I wandered off your initial topic. But this question is indeed and interesting one to find answers to…
I really like the angle from which you are seeing the subject! People, especially the youngsters, DO use “writing” as a medium of communication. The whole issue of “E” versions of the languages is very interesting but we’ll always have 2 schools of thought.
The problem is not really on which version should survive but how can we bring people to live with and use both versions within specific contexts. It would be like learning both versions and use each accordingly. Problem today is that the “E” version tends to cross the barrier in real life.
Concerning the way youngsters could be encouraged to blog rather than waste all their spare time on Facebook mafia wars, I think teachers should be the ones promoting this. Our schooling system is in acute need of an overhaul in the way teaching is done. We still have the same medieval way of teaching that was implemented centuries ago. Teenagers these days have access to such an enormous amount of information and are so aware about technology that teachers need to devise new ways to make the most of these advances. Just like in kindergarten, playing and singing are the favourite hobbies of kids and consequently an important tool for education, so is technology for teenagers and perhaps even younger kids.
For me personally, what really makes a blog a great tool in education is the creativity which it can foster. Obviously, this includes quality of language, but the biggest worry for me is the way kids these days write essays based on specific formulae! An essay about whether the UN fulfills its roles? Right, 5 FOR arguments, 5 AGAINST arguments, job done! This is killing creativity! Students always write essays which are clear-cut in terms of pros and cons. The problem is that this is actually rewarded with good grades! Ask them to attempt, say why science and religion can co-exist and they got nothing (ok this is actually a hard topic for that level, but you know what I mean!). Blogging gives you a certain level of freedom, which if exploited properly can really enhance the way you think about things. There are very few rules to hold you back. In the form of comments, the blogger can also get feedback from a variety of sources, thus perpetually refining his knowledge and style of writing.
Sure, there are various deficiencies like trolls, bastardisation of language, improper use of freedom of expression,… But if a certain framework is put in place to limit the potential risks, a lot can be achieved.
Great point Yashi.
Using the young population’s use of technology as a learning tool is what it might all boil down to. Writing essays with 5 for and 5 against arguments is what is asked at school and it does really not improve creativity. This is the sort of dumb thing that must be changed. Moreover teachers train them to become machines.
Anecdote
When I was doing my HSC, I took private GP lessons with a top QEC teacher called N********* in Port-Louis. The guy was a hit teacher and a genius in the sense that nearly all of his students went out with an A in GP (which I did). However, one thing was important to him, you had to have your pros and cons according to how he thought, i.e. if he thought that culture was an offspring of religion you had to write your essay according to this. When I did my Masters degree in Arts and Culture I found out that these two elements had links but not as a family tree.
There can be lots of examples like this. In one year’s lectures with that guy I wrote nearly 200 essays just for this lesson and it was really like training a robot. If blogs existed at that time I would have written them and published them and have them confronted to other people’s views.
Wow, I didn’t know that he was still doing it. Anyway, he is good in what he does as a matter of fact… even if free will and personal thoughts are thrown out of the window.
In my course we happen to have a section of the class who is majoring in journalism and many lecturers have included blogging as an assigment for the journalism students…it really motivate them to write better esp knowing they gonna have an audience…I think its a great educational tool and have read that some teachers abroad are encouraging this practice to their students esp teachers who are teaching foreign language, blogging helps those students to improve their grammar, vocabularies etc…
This is really interesting. Is there a way to see those blogs?
Blogging has helped many non writers to become good writers, so that would be definitely help the young generation to improve their writing skills.
Wow…actually that’s a pretty good idea dude …
yeah ..but you know …people ,i mean Mauritians in general don’t even know what a blog is ….people of my age 17*18 are facebook addict …all they know about web 2.0 is facebook and BING (and …also uhh Imo wikipedia(which by the way isn’t much of a reliable source place)
The young generation may only know about Facebook and BING, it is true for a large public and ok, there’s a lack of knowledge on blogs but one thing that I finally understood on Mauritius is that it is having the same evolution as the eastern countries had in the 90s-00s and that at some point, blogs will be taking more momentum. The 17-18s are not interested in this now but the other generations might just as well impress us.
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