Vance Stevens was invited to address the Qatar Teachers English Network Conference (QTEN) in Doha. The title is “Blogging in online communities of practice: Impact on language learning and teacher professional development”



He wrote:

" Blogging is an Internet phenomenon with significant impact on both language learning and teacher professional development, It is now possible for students AND teachers to create their own web pages in minutes and, with minimal guidance, extend these to more elaborate web sites. This workshop will guide participants in creating and developing their own blog sites, and illustrate and discuss ways that blogs can be configured to create authentic, interactive, communicative, reflective, creative, and motivating learning environments that engage students and provide a means for teachers to further their ongoing professional development. Members of the Webheads community of practice are invited and encouraged to attend from their respective locations and interact with the on-site audience. "




Bee, Teresa, Susanne, Buth, Hala and I volunteered to assist in this presentation. Bob, Candace, Darli, and Ale joined us in Elluminate at 07:00 GMT.

Our producer and moderator in Doha was Florin. They had about 30 participants on-site. With Vance presenting, we were looking forward to the first "fresh baked blogs". You can find some of them at:

http://abuyusif.blogspot.com
http://activstudio2.blogspot.com

Florin reported that they had created 20 blogs. Amazing!

Candace ( San Diego, California ) video taped our presentations in Elluminate. " I didn't do anything fancy,- she said, - I just held up my little video camera in front of the computer screen "

At the end of the session, Bee invited us to visit http://dekita.org . This site was born this morning.