It's July 8th 2005, just a few degrees above zero in Rosario, Argentina, and pedestrians are snuggled tightly into scarfs and rubbing their hands as they join the hubbub outside the city's "Centro Cultural Rivadavia," where a long time ago venders used to cry their goods in a still-not-argentinized Spanish, perhaps as some "gauchos" would string their guitars and recite Martín Fierro... 

Strange indeed! Today everyone seems to be speaking English! At least in the bustling square in front of the "Centro," in some of the adjacent bars or...climbing of the building's winding stairs. Has there been another English invasion? Has Queen Elizabeth dropped by for a visit? Tony Blair? No, history has not been wound backwards! It's a Congress, the "11th National Congress of Teachers and Students of English." 

A silver haired middle aged lady with a warm smile and carefully polished English--revealing her 30 year language teaching experience-is warding off the applause for her lecture on "The Blogging Phenomenon: its Impact on Language Learning."

She had asked how many in the audience had knew what a blog was: only two raised their hands. "In the age of Communication," she explained, "the net has become the most practical, cheapest, the fastest source of information and the second most authentic means of communication." Blogs allow students to publish their own ideas, thoughts and words on Internet, by typing directly into the browser using free user-friendly internet-based blogging services, thus creating both a resource for teachers and a record of learning..."

When she finished her presentation a small avalanche of curious teachers and students encircled Rita, the coordinator of the Computer SIG in AprIR (the English Teacher's Association in Rosario), and bombarded her with questions.

"This sounds great!" exclaimed one young teacher, "we can get our students to write about something which interests them and get a reply from someone anywhere in the world!"

Precisely. A powerful tool for teaching and exchanging ideas, not yet well known in Argentina. 

After patiently answering one question after another, Prof. Rita Zeinstejer, an EFL teacher at the Asociacion Rosarina de Cultura Inglesa  in Rosario, sought refuge in the Congress presenter's lounge. But just as she eased into a chair to relax, a likewise silver haired man-welll...actually lacking many strands-approached Rita gingerly with a tape recorder in his hand, a pen playing between his fingers and an inquisitive twitch twittering on his lips.

"Pardon me...are you Rita Zeinstejer?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I wonder if we could chat a bit about your work."

"Certainly."

"I understand you use blogging to teach English. Could you explain?

"I am proud to belong to a community of practice that is called "Webheads in Action," which is made up of a group of teachers from all over the world who get together regularly to talk about different topics connected with Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and ICT, that is, Information and Communication Technology, the use of the computer for language learners. What makes this community exciting is that all members interact, ask and answer questions in a very generous way."

"I see...but how did you get into blogging?"

"I learned about blogging working with this group and owe practically everything I know to them. "

"What about your own blog?"

"Actually, I have several but the one I created for my students has to do with teenage topics. They talk about what they like to do during English classes, their outside activities; now they are talking about what happened in London. They know that they can say what comes to mind and share their ideas with others. That way they learn sociology and language at the same time, applying their language to meaningful situations. A blog is an interactive means to communicate with other bloggers, as threaded discussion is open: students can post their comments in other blogger' sites, they can share links, they can get experts to visit their blogs and leave their comments. This interaction allows for critical thinking, increases students' interest, and fosters ownership and learning by receiving input and insight from others."

"Your other blogs?"

"I have also created a blog for a group of teachers in Rosario doing research on the teaching of English by computer. We meet once a month and have been working on voice messages, an innovative tool that allows the recording, sending and receipt of short vocal messages. This is a new and very promising feature of computer learning."

"Have you noticed much resistance?"

"From teachers, mainly. It's easy to coax students to blog but teachers are much more reluctant."

"Why?"

"Well, on the one hand it is a time consuming activity and on the other teachers are reluctant to spend time on something for which they lack adequate skill."

"What is the biggest advantage of blogging?"

"Woh!"

Rita thought for a minute, while the interviewer allowed his imagination to stretch towards some unknown point.

"Perhaps you could mention the possibility of getting people from all over the world to communicate, to find new friends. What is the purpose of learning English if you can't communicate? Teachers tend to focus their attention on grammar, vocabulary, phonetics and forget that the main use of language is to communicate with others."

"A sort of globalized communication forum."

It seemed time to end the conversation and click into a blog, to explore and find out what the world of blogging is really about. But before the silver haired man clicked off his recorder, Rita Zeinstejer looked up saying:

"You know what? I'm a bit of a black sheep. While others spend their time correcting mistakes, I try to help my students to achieve, to get their messages through." 

It's easy to contact Rita. Just put her name on an internet search engine. Her own page is 

http://www.zeinstejer.com  
Email: rita@zeinstejer.com