Resources Roundup

Common Craft has published a List of Business Blog Resources which could be of interest to BE teachers.

Jeffrey Hill has also published some links about April Fool jokes produced by companies.

NewPRWiki - Resources.BusinessBlogging

NewPRWiki - Resources.BusinessBlogging

This wiki has links to lots of business blog resources.

Blogging for Business Writing

John Moore writes "I’ve been blogging for just over a year now and besides keeping my marketing mind sharp, blogging has helped me sharpen my writing skills. (Or so I think.)

The years of writing in succinct bullet-points for PowerPoint decks adversely impacted my writing. Blogging, albeit informal in nature, has helped me to improve my writing skills. And as a result of writing more, I’m finding myself using PowerPoint less and less in business situations."

Thanks to Lesley for the link.

Blogs as breaking news, fresh ideas and expert commentary

The following quotation comes from a presentation held at the UCISA Web Liaison Forum, Weetwood Hall Leeds on 22 Nov 2004 by Derek Morrison, Director, Centre for the Development of New Technologies in Learning, University of Bath :

“ In our experience, if there is value in something
that is also easy/friendly to use, people will use it.
… The simplification of blogging tools, such as
those offered by Blogger.com, has allowed anyone
with an opinion and an Internet connection to
become a publisher, journalist, and editor (our
humble definition of a blogger) … Despite all the
noise and random content in blogs, many bloggers
have become sources for breaking news, fresh
ideas, and expert commentary….”
•
Source: Morgan Stanley October 2004: An Update from the Digital World
http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/dw_syndication1004.pdf
•
Auricle article 'Blog syndication as a business model?'
http://www.bath.ac.uk/dacs/cdntl/pMachine/morriblog_more.php?id=339_0_4_0_M

Slings and Arrows - Pete's Blog

Pete MacKichan writes as an unconvinced blogger, but open to persuasion: "As Graham and pointed out, there was some discussion about blogging on the IATEFL BESIG list.

I am a little concerned that there has really been very little critical discussion of blogs and blogging in EFL, and it seems odd that what little discussion has taken place, has taken place elsewhere. It seems to be generally accepted that blogging is a good thing - as I stated in my introduction, this is not something that I have yet accepted, although my participation in this (and last years) group does indicate that I am open to persuasion."

I'm going to do my best to persuade him at my other blog

Business English open blog @ WeBlog.ro

Well, dig a little, and you'll find something...

The Business English open blog @ WeBlog.ro seems to be an example of a BE Teacher using a blog with students. Her'es what is said in the introduction:


"The purpose of Bizeng (case word of Business English) is to facilitate communication betweeen me...and my students...outside the class.

Keep a close eye on my postings to stay current with extra reading, tips on how to do research for your papers and assignments and overall guidelines to best handle Business English class practicalities."

The English Blog: Business English

I've just come across The English Blog, again by Jeffrey Hill, which has Business English as a category. There's not much Business English posts on their at the moment, but it looks promising.

Guided tour to Business Blogging

Again, from Cleve, via Jeffrey Hill, comes this guided tour to business blogging from Coudal Partners, who have this to say in their introduction:

"The speed with which weblogs have been integrated into the daily life of individuals an the web has been amazing to watch. On the other hand, the pace with which companies have adopted this technology has been surprisingly slow. We see the technology of the weblog as one that enables communication and makes publishing and communication, fast and efficient. People have done really splendid things with this simple set of tools. "

"The buzz factor has frequently overshadowed the simplicity of the process. There's one obvious point that businesses need to keep in mind. Weblogs can do as many things as communcators can dream up, except one. They can't write themselves. "

Incidently, Jeffrey Hill's Voiceblog looks definitely worth keeping an eye on, and he links to many business blogs of different categories that could be of interest (adverblogs, CEO blogs, company blogs, etc)

RSS & Business Blogs

Cleve has started blogging about BE and blogs on his personal blog, and has some useful information for those teachers interested in trying out RSS with their clients:

"Since blogging itself has evidently made few inroads in BE teaching, it's not surprising that the BE community has so far paid scant attention to syndication and aggregation technologies as learning resources. It'll be interesting to see how these tools are eventually deployed, as they seem to offer enormous potential to both facilitate learner-centered teaching and to build learning communities."

Where are the Business English Blogs?

Welcome to our new BE blog!

If you've made it here, then doubtless you know that this blog was set up as a response to a recent discussion on the BESIG discussion list.

I thought it would be a good idea to move over here to let people try out blogging first hand, and to start collecting resources, links, ideas, etc for BE teachers who are interested in looking at whether blogs and blogging can be applied to their classes, and Business English teaching in general.

Please feel free to post entries and comments to the blog, ask questions, raise doubts, suggest links, etc.

My next task is to start a section on the side bar collecting links to Business English blogs and other associated sites.